If Augusta National looks like something is missing this year, it’s

In Augusta country, they like trees. It’s a little fun because Bobby Jones drew inspiration from an old course at St. Andrews, which canceled the massacre on a flat treeless seaside wasteland. But in Augusta National, on the wide, hilly land that once was a nursery, they worship wood.

It was fatal when the Eisenhower Tree, the tall pine tree of No. 17, suffered fatal damage in the 2014 Ice Storm, and was punched into slice range on the tall pine tree of No. 17. The solemn statement of the club chairman Billy Payne in the press release was read in the Quotation in Obit. The tree itself is an organ donor. Its wood is used in the remodeling project of the Club Legendary Wine Cellar.

Payne’s successor, Fred Ridley, also encountered his series of tree problems in a more important way, especially after Hurricane Helen crossed Augusta in late September. Ridley said the club’s priority was to help thousands of Augustans who were brought to Richmond County by the wind-torn Helen. Images drawn with meteorologists and a handful of Augustans from various industries reveal a post-city that never fully recovers, just as downtown Augusta never fully recovered from the 1970s game riot.

Afforestation projects are best measured in the half-century report. Thousands of trees throughout Augusta caused despair. For hot cities like Augusta, there are air quality issues and regular hot warnings – all spring, summer and early autumn, there are many days, high north of 90 degrees in the afternoon – trees sustain life.

January wildfires go to Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles to Augusta. This is not the case with the transfer of the 2025 Genesis Invitational from Riviera to Torrey Pines in the grand scheme of things. Of course, if you were the host of that game, like Tiger Woods, you can’t no Consumed by the destruction of the fire. But Woods rang all the right tones when the fire broke out, like Ridley did after Helene.

These events came to the 1989 Auckland-San Francisco World Series, disturbed by a deadly earthquake. Baseball’s new commissioner Fay Vincent then said: “Our modest little game is not important at the moment.” But the show always goes on. After a 10-day delay, the series continues. A won four points. Ludvig Aberg won the Los Angeles Open in San Diego. By Sunday night, the end of the 90th Master, a tired player will wear a green coat in Butler’s cabin, and no one will talk about the fallen trees and Helen’s anger.

But Augusta’s tree problem will not be raised. Augusta National will be held at the Augusta Municipal Golf Course on the adjacent Augusta Country Club and thousands of acres managed by the Augusta Park and Recreation Department. Over the years, you can see the roof of the Augusta National Club from the midway house outside the seventh green at the Augusta Country Club, about half a mile away. Does it matter? Of course not. But this is one thing.

The Country Club has a gorgeous, playable Old South Stadium (Zoysia Fairway), which is the center of Augusta’s upper class life. ((Very social contact. ) The club lost about 1,000 trees in the storm, and now has a glimpse of young neighbors on the other side of the Thunder Creek. Before the 100-year storm last fall, the end of the driving range at the country club was defined by a wall of walls. Now that wall has holes, you can see some modest homes in Augusta’s historic dune community. Jim Dent grew up on the dunes, as did many of the ancient Augusta Country Club and Augusta National Caddy.

A few miles away, the patch – Augusta Muni – was estimated to lose more trees, possibly up to 2,000. There is little workload for trees there, as the patch (nicknamed the vegetable garden near the vegetable garden) since January 1. The course is underway for a soup and nut renovation project, part of the charity that Augusta’s national leader leads. There are some patch regulars who have conducted a modest city-owned course on this ambitious project, and they are skeptical. They love this course, on all the sloping fairways, green trees become cho’s fashionable. Anyway, Helene made the course change forever. Now, hitting the par behind a tree, first of all Sandy’s cousin, will have fewer chances to make “barky”.

As for the Augusta country, the number of lost trees agreed by Helen’s method is 900. Of course, Augusta is Augusta and will never know a exact number. In the years after Tiger Woods’ 12 wins in the 1997 Masters, the club will emphasize a tree and a tree here in the name of strategy. It has 23 trees in total, something similar. Woods has said for years that it seems more like a thousand. Trees define tee shooting on 2 and 3. From the corridor of trees, 11 and 18 T-shirts appeared. You can fly tees on racks of 12 trees. It has been done before.

Richmond County has homeowners and surrounding counties who want to blame the long wait of Augusta State, enduring the crew who brought the trees to their homes. They believe that Augusta National has purchased all local talent in its efforts to remove and replace the trees that have been cut down, thanks to its deep pockets.

This is a theory, but unlikely to be a real theory. Augusta National has attracted crew members from all over the country with its deep rain funding and national database, preparing courses for members’ competitions and the 90th Master.

In Augusta, it is a sport that talks about what happened behind the “Nation” and the border wall, painted in green and white by cement, metal chain chain fences covered with green tarpaulin and thousands of trees, some hardwood, most of them pine trees, which provide shade, oxygen, oxygen, oxygen and privacy. Augusta’s T-shirt marking is made of notched pecan limbs. Ike’s nemesis tree is a loblly. The huge old tree between the clubhouse and the first t-shirt is a live oak. Magnolia will take you from Washington Road to the long driveway lined from the clubhouse. The trees in Augusta National are sacred.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments via michael.bamberger@golf.com