Long before anyone in Augusta spoke of "The National," there was a club on the near side of Rae's Creek with sand where its greens should have been. It opened in 1897 as Bon Air Golf Club, nine holes with sand browns, more than thirty years older than the neighbor whose name now fills the town every April. Around Augusta people still say "The Country Club" and "The National" in the same breath, as though the two were cousins. They share members and a zip code. Their reputations could hardly be more different, and that difference is part of what makes this place worth loving. By the turn of the century the club had grown to eighteen holes and renamed itself the Country Club of Augusta. Golf in the area kept growing, helped along by visits from two presidents, Warren Harding and William Taft. In 1909 the club president, William Harrison, and the club professional, David Ogilvie, added another eighteen holes for the members alone. That became the Hill course. The original layout took the name Lake course, and in the 1920s the Lake was a Seth Raynor design from 1926, lying north of what is now the eighteenth hole. For a while the club had thirty-six holes, carried by strong winter demand. In 1927 Donald Ross came to the Hill. He turned the sand putting surfaces to grass, rerouted the front nine, and rebunkered the entire course. Then came the Great Depression, and the demand that had filled two courses began to fade. In 1937 the club sold the land under the Lake course. The Hill survived, and it went on to become an important home for women's golf, hosting the Titleholders Championship for thirty years. In 2000 Brian Silva was brought in to restore it, working from original Ross plans and rebuilding greens, bunkers, and tees. His work is artful, and it put the old course back on the map. The ground itself is the pleasure here. The landscape varies and the routing feels familiar in the good way, the kind of course a person could happily play every day. Then there is the creek. The approach into the eighth and the tee shot on the ninth both carry Rae's Creek before it slips onto Augusta National's property. For anyone who has watched golf from a couch in April, it is a small, private thrill to hit over the real thing, upstream, where the water is still yours. Not every walk is so graceful. Moving from the ninth green to the tenth tee, players take an awkward route back around a road. The neighbor has left its mark, too. In 2017 Augusta National bought a few acres from the northernmost part of the club to lengthen its famous thirteenth hole, and the negotiations were not simple. A club older than its neighbor can still be asked to make room. Just off the putting green and the range stands the Wallace House, a historic building that once served as the Masters broadcast headquarters. Crews went on the air from here and said they were "live from Augusta," not "live from Augusta National," a small distinction that belonged to this club alone. None of it is fussy. The mood is laid-back, and the signature drink is the Velvet Hammer, effectively a milkshake with alcohol in it. This club will always stand a little in the shadow across the creek. It was here first, though, and it still knows how to enjoy itself.