Chevy is a Master… 16

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend Wednesday’s practice round at the 2016 Masters tournament.

I had always wanted to attend but didn’t want to have to mortgage my home to buy tickets. Anyhow, I drove over to my friend John’s house, his dad got the tickets for us and John was tasked to take his brother Ben’s inlaws with him. I got to go because Ben couldn’t go. Thanks Ben!!! John only lives a couple miles from Augusta National and his wife drove us all over there and dropped us off in the Fresh Market parking lot which is right across the street from the main entrance.

 

It was a cool morning, about 55 degrees, but the sun was out and it eventually would get up to about 72. What a gorgeous day to play golf! Or watch it. We got in there around 8 AM and it was already pretty packed.

 Our first objective was to go to the gift shop and blow a half a years salary. It was a good idea to get in there early because later in the day the line to get in was at least a quarter mile long.
I bought a shirt and a couple hats, a towel and a few other trinkets. $231.76 I guess I got off cheap. I could have spent another $500 bucks for a couple more shirts and a pull over, but I used discretion.

Off to the course we went. The first thing I did was go watch Web Simpson on the practice green. He was doing some sort of drill and i never saw him miss a putt from 8-10 feet. Too bad the only flat green on the whole course is the practice green. Eventually Sergio walked onto the green and he wasn’t so regimented in his approach. A few putts from 40 feet. A few from 25… never made a single one that I saw. But everyone was done shopping so off to the course. Now the really cool thing about Augusta National is the grass. It’s perfect. Almost hard to believe it’s really real grass. No other golf course I’ve ever been to has anything close to this.

I think they have tiny little green people who replace every blade of grass that gets broken, dug up or what ever. It’s pristine. If you’re never been there you really can’t appreciate the slope of the greens and the undulation of the course. It looks a lot easier to play on TV than in real life. I thought Tobacco Road was bad. Hitting greens here is not the only thing you have to be sure to do. You have to be on the right part of the green.
The course on a whole is just beautiful. It’s also immense. Not the playing area per say but the whole place.  We made our way over to 16 where they were skipping the balls across the water after they teed off. That was fun to watch. Most tried twice if their first shot didn’t make it.

I would have stayed there a bit longer if I had my way but we made our way over to 12 and sat in the stands to watch a few people tee off from there. I think we sat there for a half an hour. Had a bite to eat, egg salad sandwich for me and a lemonade $3.00 total. How cool. You can eat there for less than you can at McDonalds!  We walked a good part of the course, saw most all of the holes, saw a few players play a bit. They would drop a few balls in the bunkers, test putts from various parts of the greens. I personally think that 11 is the hardest fucking golf hole ever made. With a left front pin position, bogey would be a good score.

 

It was just after noon so we decided to head over to the par 3 challenge. It’s a whole different little course. I would LOVE to give it a go!

We sat behind the 8th tee and watched them for a couple of hours. That was a lot of fun too. Sitting on that perfect grass, on a nice spring day. Hearing the roars when someone would hit a hole in one. We left just a little too soon or we would have seen the Spieth, Fowler, Thomas group. But all in all what a great day. If I could go again, I’d go on Wednesday and get a better seat for the par 3 challenge and stay until the last group went through.