DR ALISTER MACKENZIE ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’

Let us imagine, for a moment, flicking the clock back to July 1931 and a meeting between two ‘friends’ at an old nursery in the countryside barely two miles from the Savannah River separating Georgia from South Carolina.

I say friends because these two are likely to have chatted a number of times over the previous few years and this meeting, perhaps more business than pleasure, was one between two people who were now quite relaxed in each other’s company.

You can picture it clearly, the legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones all smiles and warm handshakes, welcoming Dr Alister MacKenzie to a place that was to become a lasting legacy to both men. Jones may well have known deep down what his Augusta National might become, but MacKenzie probably wasn’t aware of the significance as he turned into the drive.

“WHAT DEFINED AUGUSTA WASN’T WATER OR SAND BUT THE CONTOURS OF THE LAND AND THE ROUTING.”

For a start it had been tricky to find, tucked away on Augusta’s north-west suburbs. Two small pillars with not much around them marked a drive so overgrown that it was like entering a car wash without any water. This was Fruitland Nurseries as was, but it had laid dormant for the best part of 10 years.

The 365-acre plot had originally been laid out as an indigo plantation in 1854, but three years on Belgian nobleman Louis Matheiu Edouard Berckmans grew exotic fruit trees and flowering shrubs there for export around the country.

The first