For five decades, Augusta National Golf Club has filled its 44 bunkers with the brilliant white grains produced near the three-stoplight town of Spruce Pine, a four-hour drive to the north. The dramatic contrast of those immaculate bunkers, the bleached-white teeth of the course, and the verdant grass is a hallmark of the Masters golf tournament. (Andrew Redington / Getty Images)Tiger Woods, the tournament’s defending champion, recently had three truckloads of Spruce Pine sand delivered to his Florida home. Spruce Pine quartz is molded into crucibles that are ideal containers for preserving the purity of molten silicon, which is formed into single-crystal silicon and ultimately chips. Roberts decided he wanted Spruce Pine sand at Augusta and said he would need enough to fill 13 boxcars.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 11, 2020 13:03 UTC