May is traditionally when Augusta National Golf Club closes for the northern summer, the seasonal club shutting down before the Georgia heat becomes too much to bear. It’s also, not surprisingly, when you can begin to see some of the off-season work club officials have planned for the course beginning to get underway. Same with any upgrades that might be in store for the club’s facilities, the goal to have everything done before the club reopens in October.
To wit, recent photos taken and posted via social media by Eureka Earth shows some interesting activities in the past few weeks.
Arguably the most notable change spotted in the pictures is in a post dated May 28. In the image you can see the section of a clubhouse that formally housed the members’ pro shop torn down.
Exactly what will replace the old structure is unknown. Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley made no reference to any off-season work scheduled for the clubhouse during his pre-tournament press conference at the Masters in April (granted he wasn’t asked about it, either, and the club generally doesn’t volunteer information on such matters).
In addition to the construction on the club’s infrastructure, there are a few posts that document work being done on two holes as well.
Here’s an overhead shows parts of the par-5 15th under construction as well as areas around the green on the par-4 17th:
Similarly, the specifics of what’s going on at either hole aren’t clear.
As more work is potentially done during the coming months, you can bet that Eureka Earth will be all “over” it.
PHOTO: Ben Walton
