Augusta National Research Articles

A Black Golfer’s Career Comes Full Circle: The Resiliency of Lee Elder

ABSTRACT: On April 8, 2021, legendary golfer Lee Elder stepped onto the first tee as an honorary starter at the historic Augusta National Golf Club—a club where 45 years prior he became the first Black golfer to integrate the Masters Tournament. As a participant at the 1975 Masters, Elder was the recipient of death threats and was forced to keep security close by for precautionary measures. In 2021, after a storied career, Elder returned to Augusta and was received in a more welcoming fashion. This article explores the career of Elder, including the golfer’s challenging upbringing, transition to the PGA, and participation in the 1975 Masters. Emphasis will be given to Augusta’s rationale to anoint Elder as an honorary starter. The article will also integrate the concept of resiliency to suggest that Elder’s success and ability to play golf through the most trying of racial circumstances is a testament to the golfer’s resiliency.

A Black Golfer’s Career Comes Full Circle: The Resiliency of Lee Elder

ABSTRACT: On April 8, 2021, legendary golfer Lee Elder stepped onto the first tee as an honorary starter at the historic Augusta National Golf Club—a club where 45 years prior he became the first Black golfer to integrate the Masters Tournament. As a participant at the 1975 Masters, Elder was the recipient of death threats and was forced to keep security close by for precautionary measures. In 2021, after a storied career, Elder returned to Augusta and was received in a more welcoming fashion. This article explores the career of Elder, including the golfer’s challenging upbringing, transition to the PGA, and participation in the 1975 Masters. Emphasis will be given to Augusta’s rationale to anoint Elder as an honorary starter. The article will also integrate the concept of resiliency to suggest that Elder’s success and ability to play golf through the most trying of racial circumstances is a testament to the golfer’s resiliency.

오거스타 내셔널 골프클럽을 통해 본 성차별의 역사와 자유주의 페미니즘 해석

오거스타 내셔널 골프클럽을 통해 본 성차별의 역사와 자유주의 페미니즘 해석

A computational approach for predicting plant canopy induced wind effects on the trajectory of golf shots

Large-eddy simulation of atmospheric flow is combined with golf ball trajectory modeling that incorporates local plant canopy information to predict the trajectory of a golf shot at any hole on a golf course in a variety of wind conditions. The model is applied to examine golf shots on hole 12 of the Augusta National Golf Club, which is particularly well known for its wind-induced difficulty. The results indicate that the tree canopies around this hole play a significant role in golf ball trajectories and also induce a strong directional sensitivity on the landing spot of the ball for this hole.

Do Professional Golf Tour Caddies Improve Player Scoring?

In this article, we compare daily scoring from the 1980s in periods when professional golfers were required to use local caddies at the Western Open professional golf tournament at Butler National and at the Masters professional golf tournament at Augusta National with daily scoring in adjoining periods when golfers could use their tour caddies in these tournaments. We have found daily scoring to be approximately one stroke lower in the tour caddy periods after controlling for player quality, weather, tournament round, and course changes.

Interview With Julie Ward, Former Deputy Managing Editor, Sports, for USA Today

Julie Ward was deputy managing editor at USA Today for nearly 2 decades, from 1989 to 2007. She joined USA Today as a general-assignment reporter in 1984 and also was an assignment editor for the NBA, golf, tennis, motor sports, boxing, colleges, and high schools. USA Today is the top-circulation daily newspaper in the United States. Ward led the USA Today team that won the 2002 Associated Press Sports Editors award for a story that revealed the 302 members of Augusta National Golf Club, which had been embroiled in controversy because of its policy to exclude women from membership. In 2007, Ward also won the Mary Garber Pioneer Award from the Association for Women in Sports Media. In December, she accepted a severance offer (buyout) and retired from working at the paper. Before joining USA Today, she was a reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the Belleville (IL) News-Democrat, where she covered women’s sports and was a columnist.

Prejudice, Patriarchy, and the PGA: Defensive Discourse Surrounding the Shoal Creek and Augusta National Controversies

This study examines the discourse associated with the membership policies at Shoal Creek and Augusta National Golf Clubs. Get-away havens for wealthy White males, these clubs became contested terrains when each was scheduled to host a major golf event: the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek and the 2003 Masters Tournament at Augusta National. At the time of the events in this study, Shoal Creek had a Whites-only membership policy and Augusta National a male-only policy, which it maintains today. Controversy ensued when the chairs of each club made disparaging comments to the press about these excluded groups. Two parallel areas were considered in our comparative analysis: how the commercial sponsors responded to the controversies, and how the club chairs and their supporters used the rhetorical strategy of apologia to defend themselves and restore the public image of golf. Our analysis reveals the differences in how the cultural constructs of race and gender were negotiated in each case.

Horsehide, pigskin, oval tracks and apple pie: essays on sports and American culture

This work brings together 16 of the best presentations on sport from the conferences of the Popular Culture Association. Topics include baseball (the 1941 World Series, the career of Stan Musial, Italian Americans in the game, and Japanese players), golf (Tiger Woods, the culture wars over women at Augusta National), football (integration at UCLA, the controversy over the Indian mascot at Florida State, the creation of the New Orleans Saints), auto racing (the revival of dirt tracks, racing's roots in Virginia, NASCAR in Eastern Iowa, and the NASCAR fan), and sports and men (marketing in hockey, social class and fishing, and Muhammad Ali's last stand). Together the essays demonstrate that sports are deeply woven into the fabric of American culture - a tapestry of society with all its heroism and triumph, failures and flaws.

Lightning at "The Master's": An Evaluation of April Thunderstorms in and Near the Augusta National Golf Club

April lightning production in Richmond County, Georgia, from 1995 to 2003 is considered with regard to the associated risk to golfers and spectators at the Master's Golf Tournament and courses throughout the county. An examination of the April lightning climatology of Georgia, focusing on Richmond County, reveals a minimum in lightning activity during the time of the tournament (the first full week of April). A discriminant analysis of Richmond County lightning production utilizes several meteorological variables in order to discern between three categories of April lightning days: little or no lightning activity, minimal lightning activity, and high lightning activity. The analysis distinguishes relatively well between the categories with only 13.5% of the events misclassified. A composite regional analysis of the three lightning categories illustrates the environmental differences between these events. Although the little or no lightning and high lightning categories are somewhat similar environmentally, the intensity of features separates these events and allows for interpretation. The statistical and synoptic analyses together emphasize the importance of low-level instability and frontal proximity and intensity in enhancing lightning production in thunderstorms during April in and surrounding Richmond County. A multitude of meteorological conditions can lead to thunderstorm development. Localized studies of these environments, especially during times of major outdoor sporting events, are needed to help mitigate the risk associated with lightning.

Taking A Slice At Sexism: The Controversy Over the Exclusionary Membership Practices of the Augusta National Golf Club

Taking A Slice At Sexism: The Controversy Over the Exclusionary Membership Practices of the Augusta National Golf Club

Acts, Omissions, and ConstitutionalismThe Partial Constitution.Cass R. Sunstein

The so-called state action doctrine is a central theme of contemporary American constitutionalism. Based on the nor shall any State language in the Fourteenth Amendment, and applicable also to the national government, the state action doctrine holds that the constraints of the Constitution, especially those of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, apply to governmental but not nongovernmental acts. Discriminatory practices, restrictions on individual freedoms, and procedural irregularities are beyond constitutional purview when committed by private clubs, corporations, and universities, yet the same practices would be unconstitutional were they to be committed by the instrumentalities of the state. The state action doctrine explains why, as a matter of constitutional law, the University of Chicago but not the University of Michigan could dismiss its students and faculty without affording them notice or hearings; why General Motors but not the Detroit school system could fire its employees for publicly criticizing the board of directors; and why the Augusta National Golf Club but not a municipal golf course in Atlanta could limit access to Caucasians. And although the impact of the state action doctrine has been somewhat ameliorated by civil rights laws rendering private discriminatory conduct unlawful by statute even when it is not unconstitutional, the state action doctrine remains a central theme of American constitutionalism. The state action doctrine is more than just a legal principle, however. It also embodies a key tenet of most strands of contemporary liberal thought, the distinction between the public and the private. The state action doctrine instantiates the supposition that governmen-

Allemong et al. v. Augusta National Bank et al. November 23, 1904. [48 S. E. 897.] Contracts. Independent Covenants. Construction

Allemong et al. v. Augusta National Bank et al. November 23, 1904. [48 S. E. 897.] Contracts. Independent Covenants. Construction