Turns of history led up to National's greatness

For 79 springs, the Masters Tournament has been celebrated on the same piece of land in Augusta.

It's a miracle the course and tournament ever existed at all.

So many things had to go wrong for the Masters to be so right.

The foundation on which Augusta National Golf Club and its annual tournament were built required a confluence of events, from as trivial as a lost match and minor snub to as momentous as the Civil War, the Great Depression and a destructive hurricane.

All of these pieces added up to the greatest golf tournament the world has ever known.

Some argue the story of the Masters goes all the way back to the Civil War, when Gen. Sherman bypassed Augusta and its Confederate powderworks to march from Atlanta to Savannah to resupply, sparing the city his destructive wrath.

Had the Union not been preserved, Augusta and nearby Aiken certainly would never have become the winter havens for affluent Northerners around the turn of the century. The Bobby Jones story would have lost its context, and men such as club co-founder Clifford Roberts would never have discovered the land on which their "inland wonder" could be created.

All of that is just historical tapestry. It was an act of God that left this land lying here waiting for Jones to build his dream course.

IN 1925, Commodore Perry Stoltz announced plans for a grand 15-story hotel and golf resort to be built on the old Fruitlands Nursery property. The foundation for his Augusta Fleetwood Hotel had already been poured -- near where the putting green now sits-- by September 1926 when the most destructive hurricane the United States had ever seen wiped out Miami and with it Perry's fortune. His plans for Augusta were scrapped.

That left the property and its antebellum home available in 1931 for Jones and Roberts to purchase for their grand endeavor. But even that was but a prelude of more failed plans on the road to success.

The architect who so beautifully incorporated the design with the land was discovered only because Jones lost his opening match at the 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach. Jones spent his unexpected free time playing nearby Cypress Point and Pasatiempo, an experience that convinced him Alister MacKenzie was the right man to build his course.

Even after all that, the iconic things we've come to know about the Masters had to survive the best-laid plans of Roberts himself.

The iconic clubhouse -- the first poured concrete structure in the South -- was set to be razed and replaced with a grand mansion.

The idyllic seclusion of the course would have been altered if Roberts' plans to subdivide the perimeter for residential homes had gone through. Only two were ever built by the Harrison family behind the first green, and both were leveled by Roberts before his death in 1977.

Roberts' ambitious plans to build two golf courses (one for ladies), squash and tennis courts and bridle paths had to be pared down when he couldn't attract the proposed 1,800 members even at the enticing price: a $350 initiation fee, plus dues of $60 a year and $15 extra for wives and children. In the three years before the first Masters was played, only 76 members were on board.

THE CLUB WAS SO broke by 1933 -- "the Augusta National is embarrassed" Roberts wrote in a letter to creditors -- that it couldn't even pay Augusta Grocery Co. for its toilet paper.

Yet Roberts and Jones persevered and built the course in the middle of the Depression. Their biggest hope was to attract the first U.S. Open or U.S. Amateur to be played in the South. When the USGA rejected their overtures, Roberts decided to create their own tournament to help showcase the club and raise essential funds.

In a letter to Alfred Bourne, the heir to the Singer Sewing fortune, Roberts said the club didn't need the U.S. Open because "the tournament we are planning will do a great deal more for our club, especially since it would be a regular annual event."

Thus in 1934 the Masters was born. It survived bankruptcy after the second installment and continued after World War II because the club still needed the gate receipts.

IT'S HARD TO FATHOM it not existing. It's even harder to imagine what major championship golf today would be like if the Masters never existed.

All the other majors are older, but none has been more innovative and influential than the Masters (save perhaps the British Open, based on the simple fact that it gave the world golf). Since the first Masters, it has been the model for every golf tournament in the world.

Every ... single ... one.

So many of the things we take for granted as defining features of modern golf were created here:

First 72-hole tournament to be stretched out over four consecutive days.

First to provide on-course comforts such as concessions and bathrooms for fans.

First to provide bleachers.

First to provide on-site parking for everyone.

First to rope off the galleries.

First to supply updated on-course scoreboards.

First to employ the over-under scoring system.

First to offer free pairing sheets and course maps.

First to be broadcast on national radio. (It wasn't the first on TV, but it quickly set the standard.)

You couldn't run a tournament today without doing any of those basic things. They all have the Masters to thank.

Often copied, never duplicated. After 75 tournaments, still no other event does any of these things as well.

So whether you're lucky enough to step on the grounds this week or you're sitting in your living room watching the broadcast in 3-D, appreciate just how amazing it is that this happy anachronism has been bestowed upon us for three-quarters of a century.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 orscott.michaux@augustachronicle.com