People and Pop Culture
Closing Shot: Masterful Mooooove
When World War II shut down the Masters for three years, the course put its fairways to use to feed cattle that in turn would feed troops.
Cows graze in front of the clubhouse of Augusta National. They created some new hazards along the way, but kept the grass at manageable levels. getty images
At a time when golf typically would be celebrating its newest Masters champion, it’s a prime opportunity to remember one other time when a worldwide crisis put the event on hold … and even put cows on the course.
World War II shut down the Masters from 1943 to 1945. During that time, cows were brought to the fairways of Augusta National as a way to keep the grass at manageable levels, and to help feed troops stationed nearby at Fort Gordon and the Augusta Arsenal.
No bovines will roam the lush Augusta National fairways this year as the tournament is now rescheduled to be played from Nov. 12-15. But not playing the tournament in April is nonetheless jarring for generations of golf fans who look to the Masters and Augusta National’s blooming azaleas and flowering dogwoods as rites of spring.
“We only know Augusta as the greenest and bluest piece of property in the world,” said former longtime golf writer Jim McCabe, who has made 20 consecutive trips to the Masters. “To think of the Masters in any other terms is illogical.”
McCabe, who now works for the PGA Tour after spending decades covering golf for The Boston Globe and for Golf Week, remembers a conversation regarding the Masters he had with famed golf writer Herbert Warren Wind not long before Wind’s death in 2005.
“He asked me: ‘Jim, is it still beautiful?’ That was his only question,” McCabe said. “That is what Augusta is and to think of it in any other terms is crazy.”
Also crazy is the notion of cows having the run of Augusta National as they did during WWII. Turkeys were raised on the course as well.
“You never see a blade of grass out of place and to envision that they brought in animals to keep the land going is unthinkable,” McCabe said.
Come November, McCabe may trek to the Masters if fans and media are allowed, but it will be odd to travel up Magnolia Lane not in the springtime but instead in the fall.
“What I miss the most is the camaraderie,” he said. “There is something about showing up in April. I’ve always loved the history of the Masters. It was put there to accommodate the baseball writers traveling north. I loved knowing that the writers of the world would stop in and celebrate spring before baseball. I’ll miss that time of the year.”
