Through my eyes
Most of you are cognizant of the ridiculous situation that happened with our friends across the river in Augusta regarding their Golf and Gardens project. What started out as a tremendous attempt to honor the home town of the Masters, (the world's greatest tournament) turned out to be a disaster. Money was spent on beautiful landscaping, flower gardens and even statues of some of the great champions -- Arnold, Jack, Ray Floyd, just to name a few --all well done and a wonderful tribute to player and the tournament. This project was intended to lure not only Masters week visitors, but provide a place for year round tourists who just might make a stopover in the wintertime on their way to Florida to visit the city where the only one of the four major golf tournaments that does not change courses is played. There are a zillion golfers in the United States and most of them will never be able to acquire tickets to the Masters itself, but when driving south on I-95 or east on I-20, they would most likely love to visit Augusta, because that name is on their lips at their clubs all year long. Yes, they would love to stop off, but they do not, because there is nothing to see. I don't imagine that 2x4 sign hanging in front of the National that reads "members only" is very intriguing after one's wife has taken a picture in front of the sign and she says, "We took this detour for this?"
The Golf and Gardens project was to be at least an alternative to looking at the hedges along Washington Road for offseason, non-ticket holders who can only say, "Wow, behind that 90-foot fence is where the Masters is held! Let's stop off at the I-Hop. At least we can tell our friends back in Ohio that we had breakfast right across the street from the Augusta National!"
So, what happened to the Golf and Gardens? Does it matter what the excuses are that caused it to become a grown-over field of weeds and briars with the aforementioned statues of the champions sitting in a warehouse somewhere! If it was a well-thought-out project, its demise would never have happened. You, of course, know that it was in the news recently because a citizen of Augusta, a Mr. Esposito, just could not stand it any longer and organized an army of mowers and weed pullers to attack the place and at least knock down the jungle growing there.
Who knows what happens to projects that go awry in Augusta. I am not going to try to name them all here, because I do not have enough space. But allow me to point out, this would not happen in North Augusta. If the Masters was played here, I have the greatest confidence that Mayor Lark Jones and city council would realize that even though there could be no tie-in with the National itself, because of their exclusiveness, (and I understand and applaud that) I know that they would realize they were sitting on one of the greatest marketing tools a city could have! Our Golf Gardens would not be overcome with weeds and the statues of the champions would not be in a warehouse somewhere!
We would have one complaint though -- we would complain about the traffic from visitors streaming across the Savannah and that we could not get a seat in all the new restaurants that would suddenly spring up! Plus, one could never get a tee time at the River Club!
