Par for the course: why Augusta National paid $350k for a kids’ park
TIt turns out that the most expensive tennis court in the world is not at the All England Club, Roland Garros, or even in Monte Carlo, but in a sloppy patch of parkland behind a fence on West Vineland Road, Augusta. It’s not much to look at. The net is sagging and the asphalt is swollen, but in the corner is a broom with a broken handle if you want to sweep away the pine needles (it’s been a while since anyone has done that). The courthouse sold last month for $350,000, which is more than the value of the houses on either side, and just enough to build a dozen more just like this one.
If you want to understand exactly why it’s worth so much, it’s best to ask Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley. The course is located near the club’s eastern boundary, at Gate 14, on the other side of the 10th hole. Now the club didn’t just get the field for their money. The park in which it is located, which measures 50 paces and is again twice that, also includes four benches, two swings, a plastic roundabout, a barbecue, a rubbish bin and a little blue elephant on a feather, which one can only hope that the City of Rec’s Parks and Parks agreed to participate considering what they make from the sales.
It all added up to an estimated value of about $58,000, or one-sixth of what the club paid for it.
The truth is, you can name your price if Augusta National wants what you have. Many people have made a lot of money living next to the golf course. The club bought the Wendy’s on the street for $3.4 million, the Pep Boys auto shop on the corner for $6.9 million, the small piece of land they bought from the Augusta Country Club is said to have cost $20 million, and the shopping center next door another $26 million. And that’s before you start counting all the houses they bought and razed to make room for their new parking lot.
In 2019, the Wall Street Journal calculated that Augusta National had spent $200 million buying up the surrounding acres over the past two decades, but that would fall far short of the actual figure. Part of the land has been used to reroute the track. For seventy years, 6,900 meters were played, but today this has increased to 7,550 meters. Ridley says he has drawn a red line at 8,000 meters: “I’ve said in the past that I hope we don’t play the Masters at 8,000 meters, but that will probably happen in the not too distant future,” he said . on Wednesday. “We have a little more space, but not much.”
Most of it, though, has been used to extend all that Southern hospitality. Just this year, Ridley announced the opening of the “first phase” of a new hospitality center called Map & Flag, the first one they’ve built on the actual site (the tickets, in case you were wondering, cost $17,000 each). Ridley also revealed that the club will demolish an underground parking complex this winter, and a year later will open what he described as “a state-of-the-art three-level facility designed to meet all the needs of the players, their families and support teams.”
The theory has always been that the club wants to set things up so that its customers and players can attend the Masters without ever setting foot in a part of the city that isn’t owned and run by the green vests. Any way you measure it, Augusta is one of the poorest places in the US. It appears regularly in surveys of the country’s neediest cities. Whether they rent out their homes, let customers park in their yards or transport tables around town, many locals depend on the tournament and resent the feeling that the club is trying to keep them out.
To his credit, Ridley is much better at community outreach than some of his more patrician predecessors seemed to be. “Historically we have been somewhat passive in our support,” Ridley said, before quickly rescuing himself by explaining that he only meant that the club was keeping quiet about all the good work they were doing for fear it would be inappropriate to to claim the honor. They have, he continued, been “more active” since he took over. That means they’ve put their spare change into local development programs, like a nonprofit community center called “the Hub.”
They have also pledged to redevelop the local public course known as “the Patch,” where many old caddies first learned to play. That means Augusta is about to become one of the few places in the area with a Municipal 18 redesigned by legendary architect Tom Fazio. But as for that local tennis court: anyone who wants to play on it should register quickly. Chances are that this time next year it will be three feet under a new driveway and you’ll need a badge or a green jacket to even get close to it.