Lou Stagner and his daughter have spent countless hours inside over the past few months and it had nothing to do with social distancing or the coronavirus.
Since December, Stagner, a golf strategy and analytics expert for DECADE Golf, and his 9-year-old daughter, Abby, have been building a replica of the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club with Legos at their home in New Jersey.
Although neither Lou nor Abby have been to Augusta National, the father-daughter duo wanted to recreate the iconic foliage and architecture of the 12th hole in Augusta, Georgia.
After 20,000 individual pieces, over 60 hours of planning and building and some help from Abby’s mom, Amy, the replica is complete.
“Our basement has been overtaken by Lego!” Lou wrote in a message to Golfweek.
Initially, the goal in building the replica was selling the finished product, but as Lou and Abby kept building, they decided instead of keeping the money, they should donate the funds to charity. Ideally, Abby, whose favorite golfer is Bubba Watson, would like to find a charity that benefits the homeless.
The Stagners have reached out to a few players and individuals in golf to seek a partner to auction off the item and launch the sale during Masters week, but plans have shifted.
“We are still searching for a partner and unfortunately the coronavirus has somewhat put a damper on the original plan,” Lou wrote.
Augusta National postponed the 2020 Masters Tournament Friday in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak that has brought events around the globe to a halt.
Even though golf fans won’t have the privilege of looking at Augusta National in person and on television in April, the Stagners’ replica is a fitting and breathtaking replacement.
Take a look through a few photos below.
