Changes Made To Augusta National Before The 2025 Masters
03/27/2025 12:09 PM
Augusta National will apparently look a little different when the Masters kicks off two weeks from today.
Over the years, the hallowed golf course has made tweaks to its layout, including a massive change to the par-5 13th hole two years ago. Last year, Hurricane Helene ripped through the area, causing extensive damage. As a result, that also led to some changes to the landscape.
Rory McIlroy took a scouting trip to Augusta on the way to this weekend's Texas Children's Houston Open to get acquainted with the new look.
"I use those trips just to refamiliarize myself with the place, clubs off tees, looking to see if they changed any greens," McIlroy said, via OutKick. "There's four greens that are new this year that they've redone. You just sort of, you have a look at those and see if there's any new hole positions they give you, stuff like that.
"Apart from that, honestly for me, it's nice to play a practice round without people around and it sort of takes the pressure off the start of the week for me. There's a lot of obligations, there's big commitments whether it be from media or the Par-3 tournament on Wednesday."
Back in January, Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, said the course lost a number of trees as a result of Helene's wreckage. One fell on the green at the par-3 16th, which of course led to renovations.
McIlroy confirmed as much to reporters, but said the 16th green is pretty much as it always has been.
"Yeah, the loss of a few trees is definitely noticeable, but in terms of like they've had to redo that green, but it's exactly the same as it was," McIlroy said. "Apart from maybe a few less shadows on the green late in the day because of a couple of trees that were lost, it's pretty much the same."
The 2025 Masters is set for April 10-13.
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