AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National Golf Club has a slew of impressive and memorable holes. But none tops the part of the property down and around Rae’s Creek known as Amen Corner.
Most people think of Amen Corner as the 11th, 12th and 13th holes. It’s actually the approach shot to the 11th green, all of the par-3 12th and the tee shot on 13. However you view it, Amen Corner is the heart and soul of Augusta National, the place where many Masters have been won and lost.
The “fateful corner” was named by Sports Illustrated writer Herbert Warren Wind, who in 1958 was trying to find a phrase to help describe the miraculous way Arnold Palmer played that part of the course en route to his first of four green jackets. Palmer benefited from a highly favorable embedded ball ruling behind the 12th green.
Where did Wind get the name? From a 1933 jazz record titled “Shouting in That Amen Corner” by Mildred Bailey and The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra.
But where did that name come from? According the Oxford dictionary, the seats near the preacher in some Protestant churches occupied by people who led responses from the congregation were known as Amen Corner. But according to at least one story, the center of bible making in the early 1900s was in lower Manhattan in New York City. The area became a popular spot for sidewalk preachers, and the shouts of “Amen” heard there led the area to become known as “Amen Corner.”
Whatever the long ago origins of the name, the words “Amen Corner” have long become synonymous with golf’s most iconic three-hole stretch above all else.
WEDNESDAY’S TV AND STREAMING SCHEDULE (all times CDT)
8 a.m. — Masters on the Range CBS Sports Network, Masters.com
11 a.m. — Par 3 Contest Masters.com, ESPN+
2 p.m. — Par 3 Contest ESPN
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