Did you know that the sand at the Masters has a story behind it? Part of what makes Augusta National so stunningly beautiful is its pure, white sandy bunkers, except they’re not the kind of sand you might be used to.

I mean, when I think of sand, I think of rocks that are ground and compressed into little granules. But that's not the case for the 44 bunkers at Augusta National. They source some of the finest granules in the world from a little town called Spruce Pine in North Carolina. 

This isn’t just your classic beach sand —it’s actually a byproduct of a quartz mine. You know, quartz, that stuff that’s used to make semiconductors, which are used to make pretty much every single electronic device known to man. And the byproduct of the quartz mining leaves these little tiny crystal granules, which are used for the sand traps at Augusta National. 

So if you’ve ever wondered why the course is so stunningly beautiful and why those traps almost shimmer when shown on television, it’s because of those tiny crystals.