A unique tradition at the Masters is plopping your green folding chair down early in the morning for prime viewing later in the day. If you slide your business card into the back of it, no one else will sit there.
If you don’t find the right 15 yards of fairway on the par-5 No. 15, you are stuck attempting to hold a hot hook around an encroaching grove of trees to a green perched above two lakes. And those are supposed to be the easy holes—the ones I’ve always chalked up as automatic birdies from my couch or with a PS3 controller in my hands. Pine Valley? Carnoustie? PGA
West? TPC Sawgrass? Spyglass Hill? Olympic Club? Augusta is the toughest course I’ve ever seen. To play Augusta like Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth have is a level of expertise that frankly is unfathomable.
D
The Traditions Really Are Unlike Any Other on’t eat the apple. Don’t bring your cell phone. Play by their rules, and this
fantasy world is yours. Augusta feels like golf ’s Garden of Eden. You trade in your cell phone for
the chance to travel back in time to a place that can’t possibly be real. What began as Fruitland Nurseries
now sprouts into a utopic Secret Gar- den, full of exotic Pink Dogwood and Flowering Crab Apple and Carolina Cherry and Golden Bell and Firethorn. Once you enter Gate 6, you are
completely transported from the busy corner of Washington and Berkmans roads to an enthralling golf land far, far away. You won’t see squirrels or bugs. I
heard birds, but never spotted one as I hiked through the soft pine straw between holes, losing myself at this peaceful place where time slows down—you’re not allowed to run— but the day is never long enough. It’s an incredible environment the Masters has nurtured—etiquette and manners passed down for 80 years by Georgia families and patrons. Slip your business card into the
back of your green folding chair, and you have reserved that seat for the rest of the day. Want to put your chair
behind the 18th green at 8 a.m. and come back for the final putt? That seat will still be empty when you return. The details are downright Disney-
like—volunteers even hold signs at the back of concession and bathroom lines posting the expected wait times. (You feel like you have a Fastpass to the bathroom thanks to seven-full time at- tendants ushering you through the line, calling out empty urinals and cleaning the toilet every time a stall is used.) The Masters could easily get away
with Super Bowl-esque gouging— scalpers make more than a grand a day reselling tickets online—but the lucky few with access to four-day tourna- ment badges buy theirs for just $325. Souvenirs and apparel in the over- whelming golf shop remain admirably affordable, while lunch prices are McDonalds-like. I splurged for a $3 BBQ sandwich, while Pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches—Masters institutions—go for just $1.50. It all adds up to a priceless experi- ence unrivaled anywhere in sports.
WINTER 2016 /
NCGA.ORG / 27
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