Flashback Photos: First Masters tees off, 1934

Golf

The old Fruitland nursery, an Augusta fixture since 1853, was one of the South's most vibrant nurseries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The original AJC photo caption for this picture states that the old nursery grounds were where the "perfect golf course will be laid out."

Jones and businessman Clifford Roberts, along with golf course architect Alister Mackenzie, turned the abandoned Fruitlands nursery in Augusta into the lovely Augusta National golf course. Shown here is the Number 2 hole at the then-newly designed Augusta National. The photo was taken in the 1930s.

Bobby Jones, center, drives during the 1934 Masters on March 24. When Jones founded the Masters in 1934, it was a quaint little tournament in a quaint little state. Golf was hardly at the forefront of Georgia's sporting passions, taking a backseat to minor-league baseball and college football. Jones would hardly recognize the place now.

Original 1930s caption: "A section of the famous golf course to be laid out at 'Fruitlands' at Augusta, Ga., under the supervision of Bobby Jones."

Original photo caption: "Bobby Jones putting on the 13th green of the famous Augusta course, where he will compete in the open golf tournament to be held April 2 to 5. The field will include the world's greatest players."

Gene Sarazen tees off at Augusta National in Augusta, Ga., in this April 3, 1936, file photo.

Seven of the eight previous winners of the Augusta Masters golf tournament line up April 3, 1947, on the opening day of the 11th annual Masters, which attracted 57 of the nation's top golfers. They are, left to right: Horton Smith, winner in 1934 and a repeater in 1936; Byron Nelson, winner in 1937 and 1942; Henry Picard, 1938; Jimmy Demaret, 1940; Craig Wood, 1941; Gene Sarazen, 1935; and Herman Keiser, 1946.

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The annual invitational golf tournament which would become the Masters (officially so named in 1939) began March 22, 1934, in Augusta, Georgia. And our Atlanta Journal and Constitution photographers were there to record the event. Here, tournament founder and golfing legend Bobby Jones is shown playing in the first tournament in 1934.

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