This is a water color sketch of the Golden Bell, #12 at Augusta – one of the most beautiful, short and yet challenging holes in golf! Can anyone say 1996, Greg Norman? Still makes me queasy… Or Arnold Palmer’s embedded ball in 1958… Or how about Fred Couples’ miracle in 1992? Couples’ ball had to have several angels pressing it hard into the glassy slope to prevent it from being taken by the Golden Bell’s most fearsome guardian, Rae’s Creek.
There is just something special about painting the 12th hole for me; every time I lay color to an empty canvas to try to capture the emotion, design, and beauty that the great Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie first saw when they visited the old, abandoned Fruitland Nurseries property in Augusta Georgia - I always recall my first visit to the course that Bobby built. The way my senses were overwhelmed, a new world seemed to open up before me – It was as if I was met by a Smokin` Joe Frazier left hook to the body! The best art does that to you!
I hope that when you look at this, or any of my art work, that you can feel, even for a moment, a sense of the magic that I felt during my first visit to the Augusta National. If you look close enough you might just feel a slight breeze from the wind swirling above those magnificent Georgia pines…
