First look: Tiger Woods-designed Augusta course comes into focus

Tiger Woods was not at the Masters this year, but he was there in spirit, his love of Augusta National made extra formal through an announcement with chairman Fred Ridley. 

Augusta National is in the process of redesigning and renovating Augusta Municipal Golf Course — better known as The Patch — and Woods was tapped as the lead designer of a short course to be built on the grounds of the nearby First Tee, which shares a border with Augusta Muni. 

The course is to be called The Loop at The Patch, and the months since that announcement have offered us plenty of peeks at the grounds, even a clever logo, but never a look at the routing. Until now. 

The Patch’s Instagram account has clearly been taken over by the content team at Augusta National, which brings an obvious sense of quality to all they do. On that account has been snippets of Woods’ time on site, of the high-quality turf being brought to the course, even some white sand bunkers that look a lot like those at Augusta National. 

But the layout of the short course Woods was expected to design was always blurred out in renderings of the property, until Thursday. 

Running along Damascus Road and cornered up against a runway of the local airport, The Loop at the Patch will be nine one-shotters. Between the course and the airport will be a street named Jim Dent Way — an ode to the pro golfer and Augusta native who passed away in May, one of the best Black golfers ever who fashioned his game at The Patch.

“The Patch means a lot to me because it was the first time the city of Augusta had enough pride to put my name on a road,” Dent said in 2020. “It means a lot to me to see my name someplace where someone thought a lot of you.”

The road will lead to a brand new clubhouse that will sit between the short course and the big course. Nearby will be a 25,000-square foot putting course, a putting green and a short game area for the local First Tee. 

The most recent Instagram post is filled with video of workers sprigging the greens, all part of the process for getting the course ready for opening in 2026. For a better view of the clubhouse and course construction, local photographer Katie Goodale snapped a number of pictures for the Augusta Chronicle, which you can find here.