OPEN GNN RADIO MINI PLAYERAugusta National is always in immaculate shape -- its best possible shape -- for the Masters Tournament each year. Sometimes the flowering plants don't want to cooperate, but the grass? The grass is amazing. Patrons -- the ones that have taken their shoes off against the rules just to feel it on their bare feet -- say the turf feels like the best carpet.
The grounds crew at Augusta National goes to great lengths to keep the home of the Masters looking pristine, and they have a specific way of presenting the golf course for contestants and patrons alike. They run quick greens, able to draw out moisture with the club's SubAir system. They keep the edges of bunkers looking perfect. They fill in divots every night so the teeing grounds and fairways look pristine.
For the average fan watching on TV, it's frankly hard to distinguish different grass lengths from tee to green.
Augusta National fairways are cut at three-eighths of an inch (0.375"), while the tee boxes are cut at five-sixteenths of an inch (one-sixteenth of an inch shorter). The second cut -- which is as close to rough as the club has -- is an inch longer than the fairway grass.
The putting surfaces have grass cut to an eighth of an inch! The collars (otherwise called fringe) are at one-quarter of an inch. The green surrounds are five-sixteenths of an inch, like the tee boxes.
Of course, conditions could require slight tweaks to that planned length. But we do know Augusta National mows the fairway grass in toward the tee boxes to prevent astonishing rollout on drives and force players to hit slightly longer approach shots into the greens.
The whole thing is an incredible presentation, one made so precise after so many previous Masters.
