AUGUSTA, Georgia — On a mid-May Friday night as the clock strikes 9, The Patch in Augusta, Georgia, is literally and figuratively lit.
A deep bass from the sound system creates the vibe as The Loop, the Tiger Woods-designed par 3 course, is illuminated by towering light standards and packed with groups that will continue teeing off until the last one at 10 p.m.. The adjacent 44-tee box driving range — 20 of them featuring Trackman and covered by a roof — is bustling. A putting green, with severe slopes and numbered holes, is filled with energetic youngsters, Augusta National golf shop employees enjoying a season-ending gathering, and retirees.
As darkness fully descends on this facility formally known as the Augusta Municipal Course, a diverse trio of local golfers complete the casual one-hour trip around the Tiger Woods-designed, nine-hole Loop. The broad grins worn on each of their faces speaks to the fun they have just had.
“Augusta needed something like this,” one of the men utters to just about anybody in proximity.
It’s 9 o’clock on a Friday and @golfthepatch is rocking in Augusta. The Loop lit up (last tee time 10 pm), range rolling (last balls sold 845) and putting green packed. @TheNCSpirtsNet pic.twitter.com/Kh79n7cOOL
— Ward Clayton (@WardClayton) May 16, 2026
It’s been roughly a month since the highly anticipated reopening of The Patch. And if the first thirtysomething days are any indication, then this project can be deemed a success. The path to this point has been years in the making.
In April 2023, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley announced the club and its Masters Tournament Charities Inc., would partner with Woods, Augusta Technical College and The First Tee of Augusta to reinvent the nearly century-old municipal course. Noted course architects Tom Fazio and Beau Welling were brought in to revitalize the design.
Augusta Municipal Course was nicknamed The Patch for its former cabbage garden beside the original makeshift clubhouse, but probably more so because of its rough conditioning. It became a quirky muni that found a place in the hearts of junior golfers, seniors and those who were not afforded access to more polished golf landscapes.
Located 5 miles south of Augusta National, the course has long been the comfort food of golf in this northeastern Georgia community more well known for high-end dining and exclusive golf. The project has Augusta National’s stamp, but also indicates the continuing rise of the sport’s publicly accessible popularity nationwide, especially in Georgia where the National Golf Foundation indicates 41% of the courses are private, among the highest rate in the nation.
Green fees draw a comparison to the low cost of concessions during the Masters. Rates for walking range from $20 to $95, with the lower rates offered to Augustans and bordering counties. And, of course, The Patch has its own beer, called “The Patch Pale Ale,” a $5 brew made in partnership with the local Savannah River Brewing Company and served only on site, sort of like the “Crow’s Nest” beer sold during the Masters. The Patch is also leaning into its heritage. As a cool branding application, a new Patch logo — with a cabbage patch set on a golf tee — has become a must-have based on golf shop foot traffic.
The weekend of May 15-17 was a celebration of this course and its rich tradition.
On Friday night, the Western Golf Association’s Caddie Hall of Fame was in town to induct Nathaniel “Iron Man” Avery, who died in 1985. Arnold Palmer’s caddie for his four Masters Tournament victories now sits alongside Augusta National caddie mates Freddie Bennett (the club’s caddie manager), Willie Peterson, Carl Jackson, Willie “Pappy” Stokes and Jim Dent in the Hall — the most of any one caddie corps anywhere. All these men called The Patch home, playing golf, cards and relaxing not far from their homes. Dent went on to play the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, and a road bearing his name flanks The Loop.
“Although you’re gone, your influence will be felt for years to come,” said Will Avery, Iron Man’s great nephew who played basketball at Duke University and in the NBA, in accepting the award. “I hope that his spirit will inspire generations of caddies and golfers alike.”
The Loop is named in honor of that caddie corps. A room in the current clubhouse, which was called the Card Room in the previous clubhouse, pays tribute to this group with photos, a visual timeline since the course’s opening in 1928 and an old scorecard. The timeline also notes the May 1964 occasion when prominent Augusta civil rights attorney and future judge John Ruffin Jr., and friends became the first Black people to play The Patch.
The next morning, Augusta’s Lucy Laney Museum, which hosted the previous night’s WGA induction ceremony, held its annual May golf fundraiser at The Patch. The museum honors Laney, a Black teacher who was an educational organizer for Black children in the late 1800s.
This year’s gathering filled up its 128-player field in just a couple of weeks. The participants were mostly Black and from the surrounding community with familiarity of the course’s heritage. The course they encountered is notable for its great changes in elevation — similar to Augusta National — from 150 feet up upon entry near the intersection of Wrightsboro and Damascus roads down into the heart of the course and then back up to the other side of the property where Daniel Field, a private airport, stands. It took construction crews only 357 days to go from moving the first dirt, removing trees and destructing the old clubhouse to building a new clubhouse, adding complementary infrastructure and sodding the course with bermudagrass. Most conservative estimates by various sources indicate it took more than $50 million to make this transition happen on a rapid timeline.
The current course is a bit longer (6,700 yards from the tips) and doesn’t have as many trees, due to Hurricane Helene, which devastated the Augusta area and took down most of the property’s trees in fall 2024. Some of the old holes of The Patch are discernable, with 11 of those having a tie-in. The new 18th hole plays over a pond that was the uphill par-4 third hole on the old track. The new rendition features a green complex that resembles Augusta National’s 18th, with a two-tiered putting surface and two bunkers. The design features are rather simple, but the conditioning of the course and the ease in getting around without substantial rough will win the day.
What these next months will indicate is if the culture of the old place, which is deeply appreciated, will continue. Visitors have trekked from Canada, the Midwest and from as close by as Anderson, South Carolina, for an Augusta National-like 18-hole round and Loop finale. A father and his two young sons from Lincolnton, Georgia, played The Loop on Friday afternoon and planned to return at a later date to play under the lights. Longtime devoted groups from the old course, with nicknames such as the Dew Sweepers, Irish Mafia and Harrisburgers, have been assured they can get their block of bi-weekly tee times on a tee sheet that is always full.
“What has made The Patch special for all these years was the culture,” Andre Lacey II, the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Augusta’s Paine College, the oldest grandson of Dent and a PGA professional at The Patch from 2015-22, said in February. “The super-rich would come out there to play and would mix with those who were poor, and everybody had a good time. It was like that every day. The culture continuing is something we’re looking forward to more than the price to play.”
Also as part of the revitalization, a TGR Learning Lab will be built just three miles away by April 2028. The TGR Learning Lab is part of Tiger Woods’ nonprofit TGR Foundation and provides free access to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education and opportunities for young people.
The course’s new leadership includes Joseph Reese, the director of golf and a former Marine Corps captain, who was raised in nearby Columbus, Ga. The fact he is a Black man at a course with a long history of Black involvement and a home county that has 56 percent Black residents’ makeup is important.
As this project settles into a routine during the humid summer months and toward football season, golf stakeholders will continue to monitor if this model can translate into other communities and their underutilized municipal courses. The words “affordable” and “inviting” — two words Ridley mentioned three years ago — will continue to take precedence.
“If we are successful working on this project, I really do think it's a model for other communities,” Ridley said, “and we are very interested in taking this on the road, as we say. But right now our focus is right here in Augusta.”
