The new union of Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta Technical College and the city of Augusta will take time.
The golf club’s goal of improving Augusta Municipal Golf Course, which headlined Chairman Fred Ridley’s annual update Tuesday, calls for Augusta Tech to take over the 1928 golf course by 2025.
Augusta Tech President Dr. Jermaine Whirl, who joined the state unit last year, said the endeavor developed from earlier efforts by the Warrior Alliance to train and employ U.S. military veterans.
“They started doing some work out there and they had some original goals to you know, kind of flip ‘the Patch,’” Whirl said. “At the college, we have been working on this probably seven or eight months behind closed doors.”
Decades of public use in the shadow of the world golf capital garnered the affectionate nickname for the city golf course.
The unique partnership currently has no specified dollar amount, such as the $1 million donated to the college by Jim Hudson Automotive Group last year for an automotive technology training center.
Whirl said that’s likely to change. “I just brought the idea to the team. I said, ‘Look we’re doing some work at the Patch. It’s a strong Augusta asset and would you all be interested in working with us to make it a better place,’ and they basically said let’s run this up the chain and they did,” he said.
Plans are undetermined for a merger, which is set to combine nearby First Tee of Augusta, a six-hole youth golf program, with 18-hole Augusta Municipal. Whirl said organizers looked for opportunities.
“How do we do it in a coordinated way, so that all the players that are adjacent to the property can all benefit, and how do we create pathways, from a K-12 perspective?” he said.
“The more we started talking about that, from an education perspective and the different tournaments and events that we can bring here to Augusta and the local economy, from there everybody pretty much got on board.”
Joining forces with First Tee, which has extensive financial support from the golf community, has long been discussed, although current plans are undetermined.
“I think there are efficiencies to be gained by combining forces, ways which would be more economical, more sustainable,” he said. “I think there are ways we can collaborate to make both spaces better off, both for the students that go there as well as the patrons that play at the Patch,” Whirl said.
For decades Augusta’s only integrated golf course and the stomping ground of former Augusta National Golf Club caddies, staff members were uncertain this week about how the partnership would impact them.
Whirl said the community has through 2024 to weigh in, while making the facilities ADA-compliant is a given.
“Community members can voice their ideas and what they would like from the clubhouse, what they would like to see from the grounds,” he said. “Again, this Augusta’s golf course. We’re not changing the name of it, we’re not changing the brand of it, we’re not coming in there to undo any of its history. We’re really there to just make it a better place to play golf.”
Ridley in an announcement Wednesday said the club plans to support a “multiphase partnership” between the city, the college and First Tee to “strengthen public golf in the community and foster even greater opportunities to play the game and work in the sport.”
“While in its early stages, this partnership can help produce the next generation of golf’s workforce and make the game more accessible and inviting to youth and residents throughout the community,” he said.
