How you can play Amen Corner without even visiting Augusta
07/04/2024 18:31
Augusta is among golf’s most exclusive clubs, but the course itself is hardly a state secret – and replicas of the more famous holes are quite common.
While the average golfer is unlikely to ever play Augusta, there are several places where you can play holes either inspired by or modeled on holes on the Augusta course.
Amen Corner, the iconic series of holes at Augusta, also happens to be one of the most replicated course sections in golf.
There are, at last count, four public courses with their own three-hole versions of Amen Corner.
Tour 18 Houston (holes 5-7), Tour 18 Dallas (holes 16-18), World Tour Golf Links (holes 4-6 on the Championship nine) and the Renditions Golf Club in Maryland (holes 6-8) allow players to replicate the Augusta experience.
All four clubs built stone bridges to mimic Augusta. Meanwhile, both Renditions and Tour 18 Houston have Masters-like leaderboards to add a greater resemblance to the Augusta layout.
Renditions is a course made up entirely of tribute holes which the club themselves concedes were produced without permission or the endorsement of the famous courses they mimic.
The green fees at Renditions will set you back between $47 and $110 according to the latest available pricing information, but you should bear in mind that the club deploys a dynamic pricing system.
You should also bear in mind that the replication of holes only really extends as far as the bare bones of the course layout with the remarkable setting of Augusta nearly impossible to replicate given the presence of some very old trees and other horticultural masterpieces.
Other clubs, such as the exclusive Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club in Ocala, Florida, dislike the name “replica” completely and are eager to put some distance between themselves and the practice of trying to duplicate holes.
“We don’t consider ourselves as having replica holes,” Golden Ocala General Manager Joe Donnelly told Golf Pass.
“We have tribute or hole(s) patterned after Augusta holes. As I am sure you know, the actual holes in Augusta are spectacular and impossible to replicate.”
Other Augusta holes that the rank and file can play
The Castle Course at Northern Bay Resort in Arkdale in the Wisconsin Dells is the only ‘replica’ course in the Midwest.
Castle Course has seven replica holes, six of which are in regular rotation on the PGA Tour schedule, including copies of Augusta National’s par-3 16th (the 194-yard third hole) and par-5 13th (the 510-yard 11th).
The Brickshire Golf Club in Providence Fork, Virginia, tees off with a 393-yard par-4 “emulating” Augusta National’s 350-yard third hole, dubbed “Flowering Peach.” This Curtis Strange/Tom Clark course includes holes from Pinehurst, St. Andrews Links, and Riviera Country Club, replicated with varied degrees of success.
Golf Manitou, a one-of-a-kind imitation course in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, with 14 par 3s and four short par 4s that copy renowned holes from across the world is a venue that floats the prospect of an Augusta hole.
The par-3 16th hole is said to be modelled after Augusta, however, some have noted that the resemblance isn’t terribly close to the pin.
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