A Day at The Masters

LoonMagz took on Augusta National on Monday

Augusta National is a place all golf fans dream of going. They dream of Magnolia Lane, of the Azalea’s, of all the history and memories that have been made in one historic place. Not many get to actually experience the beauty that is Augusta National Golf Club. If you do, you are most likely a lottery ticket winner or live nearby the course and your family has been going for years and years. LoonMagz fits into the first part of that category. A lucky practice round lottery winner that got to go experience the greatest event in golf. The Masters.

Woke up at a smooth 6 am Monday morning to the sound of my father’s horrendous alarm clock. To be honest I had only slept about 4 real hours as we stayed up late watching Beverly Hills Cop (shoutout Eddie Murphy) and I really wasn’t able to fall asleep given the day we were about to have. We both got up and got ready, grabbed an awful coffee from a crappy local hotel in Augusta and got on our merry way. The drive to the course was easy, the whole parking situation was well calculated and before we knew it we were walking into the gates of Augusta National Golf Club along with hundreds of other people just staring at the beauty before us. 

It wasn’t long after getting through security that we caught a glimpse of one of the famous buildings at Augusta. All of the white historic buildings scattered around the main entrance are cool enough that plenty of people pose for pictures by them (hand up I’m one of them). After this we made it to the main concession area as well as the gift shop. The gift shop was already turning into a well mannered stampede so we stayed away. Our sights set on a coffee, a warm breakfast sandwich, and Amen Corner. One thing that needs to be pointed out about Augusta is that there is a massive open fairway in the middle. Not a fairway that leads to a hole but flat out just wide open space right smack dab in the middle. It’s wild to see. We were strolling through it on our way to 11 and were dumbfounded as to what the point of it was. Anyways, onto Amen Corner.

Number 11 is a beauty of a hole and we took it all in. Walking down it along with the caddies of some of the top players including Cameron Smith. The best part of the hole is when it comes down to the water around the green and you can see the bridges to and from number 12 green in the background, The true backbone of Amen Corner. I will also take this time to review the coffee and breakfast sandwich. Coffee was good, an easy 7.7, the breakfast sandwich was on a hamburger bun and it was incredible, 8.6. Moving on… We stopped and took in the beauty of 12 picturing the shots being hit onto the large green and the players making the walk across the bridge. After Amen Corner we watched across 15 fairway, which by the way has to be one of the toughest approach shots on the course. That green is not large. At all. On top of the fact that it has water in the front and short grass all around it. I was shaking standing there without a club in my hand. 

From here we moved to hole 2 and got to see Colin Morikawa along with Austin? Greaser. Greaser has some serious swag and was rocking lots of tar heel blue. Didn’t know who he was but he could be a force this week. The approach shots into 2 green were awesome and we also got to see Shane Lowry, Rory, Seamus Power and Padraig Harrinton on holes 2 and 3. Watching Rory hit the driver is truly por*agraph*ic material. I couldn’t handle it. After this we had a necessary sweet tea, beer, and Pimento cheese sandwich break at the grandstand behind number four. Beer was great, sweet tea wailed, pimento cheese very average I prefer the Masters club sandwich. Anyways, the fourth was a good hole to watch with a nice par 3 tee shot and some southern fellas behind us that wouldn’t stop talkin bout where they grandpappy went to college. In all reality everyone we met was very nice and I hold nothing against them for having a southern drawl.

After number 4 we caught Max Homa on 16 and also saw Bones and Tiger Woods’ caddy Joe Lacava scouting out the hole. Which was awesome. More to come later on that. It was around this time we headed back towards the club house, checked out the putting green and spent a solid full paycheck at the gift shop. Afterwards we wandered around for a while catching Cam Smith and Leish tee off, with many other golfers set to come later. A little longer passed taking in the beauty of the holes. The 18th tee shot is one of the more intimidating things I have seen in my lifetime. We eventually wandered back to 16 and caught sight of Hideki and two other guys skipping the ball across the water with the whole crowd going absolutely wild. We also saw Greaser again whose caddy even skipped one across! It was electric, everyone going absolutely nuts in the stand and it was only a Monday practice round. 

In all seriousness walking around this course was incredible. The fairways are immaculate and there is so much elevation change that is not shown on TV. Most greens are elevated and tough to hit and pictures still do not do the place justice. Alright now to the most important part of my Masters experience, seeing Tiger Woods.

While we were hanging around number 15 we heard murmurs that Tiger was on the practice range. Naturally we strolled over there to see what all the fuss was about, finding a MASSIVE crowd around the range. Luckily it was right after this that we heard he was actually going to play the front 9. We caught a glimpse of him heading towards the first tee and made a quick decision. We decided to go all the way to #7 tee to wait it out and watch him hit a tee shot from right in front of us. My dad and I went and got a couple beers and proceeded to sit right by the 7 tee box with about 40 other people that had already made the decision. While waiting we got to see some okay golfers as well, Cam Smith and Leish again, Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Tom Hoge (Fargo), Tony Finau, Jon Rahm, and Patrick Reed. All of these guys walked by and teed off probably within 4 yards of us. It was genuinely an insane experience, I also took note of their attitudes which will affect picks in the upcoming picks blog.

About an hour and a half later the crowd around us had grown to a solid few hundred people and we could see Tiger on the 6th green. While we were waiting Kirk Cousins walked past us and once he was on the other side of the tee box my dad was like “I think that was Kirk Cousins”. So I did not get to speak to Kirk but did witness him at Augusta. Now the crowd was getting absurd, there were so many fucking people following Tiger the 7th tee box could barely handle it. Tiger strolled up with everyone shouting “Let’s go Tiger” and some shouts also at Freddie Couples and JT. Tiger was housing a sandwich, looked like a ham and cheese. JT hit first, couldn’t tell you where he hit it honestly, not a clue, I had my eyes glued to Tiger. Tiger hit next, he stepped up, took a nice practice swing. Got set up and hit a beautiful butter cut, one of the nicest drives I’ve ever seen. The crowd went ballistic shouting for Tiger. Then Freddie hit and I did take the time to watch arguably the smoothest swing of all time. Finally, Tiger walked about 4 feet away from my dad and I and as he walked past a guy standing by us caught a picture of the two of us with Tiger in the background. It’s an incredible picture that I won’t be putting on here. 

All in all my day at The Masters was unforgettable. From Amen Corner to the balls skipping on 16. All the way to Tiger and Jordan Spieth’s incredibly gross pre shot routine. It was one of the best days of my life so far and made me just that much more excited for the golf to come. Thank you for reading. Go Tiger.