Fore! Free golf weekend

The Masters is just a month away as the world’s best will vie for golf’s first major at Augusta National Golf Club April 5-8.

Get into the swing of the classic sport by visiting the ’s “The Art of Golf,” which explores the royal and ancient game as depicted by landscape and portrait artists, photographers and Pop artists through the ages.

Comprising approximately 90 works from artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Charles Lees, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, “The Art of Golf” examines the game’s origins, its foundation in Scotland and its growth in America in the 20th century.

“The strength of this exhibition lies in its seamless blend of art with a sporting narrative, attracting the broadest possible audience, golfers and art enthusiasts alike.” - said Michael Clarke, director of the Scottish National Gallery, in a press release.

The first-ever exhibition devoted to the game by a major American art museum opened last month and runs through June 24. If you haven't made a visit, this weekend might be a good time.

is offering free admission to participating museums, zoos and other cultural sites, including the High, through its "Museums on Us" program the first weekend of each month.

According to the bank's website, more than 140 sites across the country are offering free admissions on certain days to their debit and credit cardholders. See here for more info. 

Of course, there’s still time to see the " exhibition that continues through April 29. The display -- on loan from the The Museum of Modern Art in New York City -- features more than 100 works from 14 modern artists including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Warhol.

The High is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. As usual, the museaum will be closed on Monday.

“The Art of Golf” continues the High’s multi-year partnership with National Galleries of Scotland and will also feature a large format introductory video that features golf legends Sir Michael Bonallack and Jack Nicklaus, a man who has six of those Masters green jackets.

The exhibition will also feature a special section on legendary American hero and Atlanta native Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones, Jr. (1902–1971), who popularized golf on the international stage. The exhibition will include the largest collection of Jones portraits ever assembled and notable photographs that illustrate his importance to the game and the bond he created between the United States and Scotland, where he came to love and admire the Old Course at St Andrews.

More about the exhibition:

The exhibition will begin with a display devoted to the depiction of kolf, a cousin of the modern game, as depicted in early Dutch landscape and genre paintings of the 17th century. This section will include Rembrandt’s famous etching “The Ringball Player” (1654) and winter landscapes by Hendrick and Barent Avercamp, which depict kolf being played on the frozen canals of Holland. Following in the display will be Scottish artworks of the 18th century, including the earliest known depiction of golf being played in Scotland (ca. 1740). Also included will be a series of iconic Scottish golfing portraits from the National Galleries of Scotland, including a stunning full-length portrait of the tartan-clad Sir James and Sir Alexander MacDonald (ca. 1749) by William Mosman and an incisive portrayal of William Inglis, Captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (ca. 1790), by Sir Henry Raeburn, the HIGH MUSEUM OF ART/The Art of Golf

preeminent portraitist of the Scottish Enlightenment. Among many objects that will be lent from the collection of the world-renowned Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews, Scotland, is the charming portrait of “Old Tom Morris” by Sir George Reid. Morris was one of the great early players, winning four British Opens in the 1860s and also earning fame as a clubmaker and course designer.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is known as greatest golfing painting in the world: Charles Lees’s “The Golfers,” which portrays in detail a match played on the Old Course at St Andrews in 1847. Jointly owned by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, this masterpiece has never before traveled to the United States, though reproductions of it hang in golf clubhouses around the world. Displayed alongside the painting will be several preparatory sketches, all portraits of individuals who can be identified in the painting, and an early photograph by Hill and Adamson to which Lees referred as he composed his painting. Also included in this section will be golfiana (antique balls, clubs and clothing) to illustrate the very different equipment used in the earliest days of the sport.

Moving into the early 20th century, the exhibition will present a series of elegant golfing scenes by Sir John Lavery, which capture the chic glamour and appeal of the game in the Roaring Twenties. This section will also feature Art Deco railway posters advertising Scotland’s premier courses to an expanding audience in Britain, and a series of photographs by Harold Edgerton, developer of strobe photography, that features the great Bobby Jones, Jr., hitting a golf ball. Other artists featured in this section include Childe Hassam, James McNeill Whistler, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol (an iconic screenprint of golfing superstar Jack Nicklaus, 1977, part of Warhol’s “Athlete Series”).

 “The Art of Golf” will close with a series of aerial photographs by Patricia and Angus Macdonald, newly commissioned by the National Galleries of Scotland, which capture the beauty of iconic Scottish golf courses and explores the effects that human activity has had on the land.