What is the greatest sporting event in the world to attend?
If you are a golfer, it must be the Masters. Why? It’s about the course, the tradition, the visual beauty and the stories of the past champions and the near misses from some of the best players in history, as they strived to win the legendary green jacket.
A ticket to the Masters is also one of the hardest in sport to purchase, as there are limited numbers and many have been on the ticket ballot for more than 30 years.
Travelling to the Masters and walking the grounds of Augusta National was a dream come true for me.
As the president of the New Zealand Professional Golfers’ Association, I was fortunate to receive a pass to attend the tournament this year. Beyond having access to walk the course all week and to attend a pre-tournament event in the clubhouse on the Wednesday evening, I was also invited to be present for the green jacket ceremony on the Sunday evening.
From sweating in 28degC, humid conditions, to feeling very cold and wet at only 4degC the following day, just being at the tournament was magical. I really did have a tear in my eye as I stood behind the 10th green in the late afternoon sun on Wednesday afternoon on my first day when there was no-one around.
I remembered the special moments that I had watched on television over the last 40-plus years. However, nothing prepared me for the visual beauty, the greenness of the freshly cut grass or the scent of the pine trees.
Amen Corner is simply gorgeous and a great amphitheatre from which to watch golf.
The 16th hole was my favourite place to watch the play, and I was there when Ryan Fox nearly made his hole-in-one. I walked all the holes, and believe me: there are a lot of ups and downs. Overall, it’s a long walk.
I also walked nine holes with Ryan on the Friday morning when he wasn’t feeling well. What a rollercoaster. I caught up with quite a few Kiwis doing the same thing and we were all wowed as Ryan made some great pars.
Being able to drive down Magnolia Lane (a few friends came along for the ride) and getting dropped off at the clubhouse was another "wow" moment for me.
I would rate my Augusta experience as 25 out of 10, and even if you are not a golfer, watching the tournament is some of the best sports TV every year.
My 10 key takeaways:
1 Augusta is probably the steepest golf course in professional golf and it is big workout when you walk the course. Walking up the 18th fairway is a bit like walking up Stuart St past the Fortune Theatre. This is why I doubt Tiger Woods will ever play another Masters tournament.
2 The greens are half the size you think they are and twice as undulating and faster than they look on television.
3 The merchandise stores are very busy places with about $US70 million ($NZ114.1 million) in sales for the week —
$US10 million a day, $US1 million an hour, $US16,000 a minute and $US277 every second! I believe every patron visits the golf shops and not one person sticks to their budget.
4 The Masters must be the best place to buy a beer, and everyone has to try their famous pimento cheese sandwiches which are only $US1.50 each. The beers are $US5, Coke is $US2, and you get to keep the huge plastic cup. A sausage and egg muffin breakfast sandwich and a large coffee will cost you $5. Don’t bother carrying any cash as everything is card only.
5 Everything is green! The food wrappers, the rubbish bags, the beer cups, the sand for the divots and heck, even the pea gravel they dumped all over the muddy areas, so when you see the visuals on television, everything looks perfect and green.
6 Seat runners are the first people to head out on the golf course every morning. These individuals each carry eight to 10 fold-up chairs for patrons and place them where they are requested. When these chairs are not in use by the patron that paid for their placement, any patron can enjoy the viewing spot until the ‘‘owner’’ returns to claim their seat.
7 The Masters has a very experienced team involved with the course. Just 24 hours after the trees came down, you saw no evidence of any tree damage (I was nearby when it happened). Spectator areas affected by the rain were quickly treated with sand and grit so there was no negative impact on the viewing experience at all. Every green had "wand" people (experienced greenkeepers brandishing long rubber wand sweepers) who ensured that greens were pristine for the next group of players coming through. So, if a player splashed sand out on to the green while playing a bunker shot, it was brushed away by the wand people. The course was always perfect.
8 The tournament is well-organised and everything flows very well as much of the infrastructure is permanent. One important thing to remember when you arrive at the tournament is where you parked your car! It is a huge car park, and when we would arrive at the golf course in the morning, it was still semi-dark, so at the end of the day locating your vehicle could be a challenge.
9 The Masters is a phone-free and camera-free area. It is old school in that you have to plan when and where you are going to meet people without texts and mobile contact. Sitting in the grandstands, you start chatting with your neighbours. You meet people from all over the world and, yes, even a few fellow Kiwis. Security is quite extensive and I saw many people returning to check in their phones, air buds, cameras and range finders. Tickets were closely checked and folks taken away for interviews if there was any question about from where or from whom they had accessed their tickets.
10 Masters patrons did not discriminate between PGA Tour and LIV golfers. All golfers were cheered equally.
