Time to correct a popular misconception once and for all. The Berckmans Road “shift,” which is due to begin shortly after this year’s Masters Tournament, is not being unfairly pushed to the front of any public projects priority list. It is actually a project that has been delayed for decades.

Former Richmond County and Augusta City Commissioner Jerry Brigham confirmed that to me in a conversation recently.

“Austin… I pulled that project (widening and improving Berckmans Road) off of an approved Special Local Option Sales Tax list many, many years ago. Not because it wasn’t needed, but simply because it was too expensive.”

So, those of you saying the project is getting some type of hyped up priority due to the high profile of its bordering neighbor, the Augusta National Golf Club, you are and always have been wrong.

The project has been resurrected, and updated for the better, for several very important reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the ANGC’s unfettered private acquisition of virtually all the right-of-way property along Berckmans Road has changed the financial dynamic. Now, the city can execute a land swap that will see club-owned land to the west of the current public thoroughfare traded straight up for the “replacement” route, which will also carry the name Berckmans Road.

The total project will cost about $17 million, and that does not include much-needed work on the Rae’s Creek Bridge at Berckmans and Ingleside Drive. It is important to note that while the bridge work needed to be done, it would have been incredibly impractical and more expensive to do the bridge and road work at different times.

But allow me to set aside the mundane, if not well intentioned, conversations about the propriety and need of the project, and go straight to what this move is going to mean for the Augusta National, and the city it calls home.

The shift will allow the club to expand its main campus without having to deal with a public roadway splitting the property down the middle. Quite frankly, the planned expansions and new construction would not, and could not, be possible with the current borders in place. Berckmans Road is the line that has kept meaningful expansion at bay; that and a few antiquated attitudes that have been naturally retired through the passing years.

The fence is going to move. More free patron parking will likely be secured as the club pushes their property purchases westward toward I-20, but that is not the construction that will make headlines.

Informed sources both inside and outside the ANGC tell me that among many construction projects both specifically planned and unofficially rumored is a large complex that will forever change the way the public appreciates and perceives the annual tournament.

While no one on staff at the club will officially confirm or deny this, I have been told in no uncertain terms that discussions and plans are being considered at the highest levels of ANGC leadership that could see a permanent museum and patrons complex constructed at the new edge of the club’s property, possibly near the intersection of Washington Road and the new Berckmans Road.

This is a facility that would be open year round, and operate under the total control and ownership of the ANGC.

I have been told that there has been a desire in the recent past to consider such a bold move, but limited real estate access was something that hindered the process. It was deemed impractical and undesirable to contemplate such a project, and any other major construction projects, outside of those housing limited clerical support, to property “across the street” (meaning a public road or thoroughfare) from the main campus.

When you consider the incredible impact that the ANGC has had on our area, the 4,000 employees that work the tournament each and every year, and the 250 full-time club employees that are part of our community each and every day, it amazes me that anyone among our hometown neighbors doubts the power of what this club does for us, and what it has the potential to do for us, once given the chance to grow its physical boundaries.

With millions of dollars already donated back to the community through the years through their numerous charitable contributions, imagine the impact and financial benefits of a 52 weeks-a-year attraction celebrating The Masters Tournament, and all of the club’s efforts to grow the game, domestically and internationally.

Such innovation was once thought impossible, but as we have seen in recent moves made both inside and outside the confines of the historic club, as long as it is true to the spirit of the tournament and the amazing and unequaled atmosphere, nothing is off the table with the men and women currently wearing the green jackets at Augusta National.