For someone who has been most fortunate to attend the Masters for 23-years, and enjoyed the honour of playing Augusta National twice, including breaking 100 on both occasions, here’s a few observations that I hope may whet your appetite a little ahead of this coming week’s 90th hosting of The Masters.

THE 1934 MAIDEN MASTERS HAD TO BORROW FUNERAL CHAIRS FOR SEATING ….

The first “Augusta National Invitation Tournament”, as the Masters was originally known, began on March 22, 1934, and was won by Horton Smith, who took the first prize of $1,500.

Due to then financial restrictions, the club could not afford to pay the winnings, so 17 Augusta National members personally chipped in instead.

Chairman Clifford Roberts had borrowed chairs for spectators to use from two local funeral homes, and the printed program included advertisements given for free to the club’s creditors.

Tournament passes cost $2.00. The tournament was played with current holes 10 through 18 played as the first nine, and 1 through 9 as the second nine, then reversed permanently to its present layout for the 1935 tournament.

After the first tournament, around 20 new members joined ANGC, giving the club a much-needed financial lifeline.

NO DIFFERENT TO ANY OTHER USA MAIN STREET EXCEPT FOR …

2604 Washington Rd, Augusta, GA 30904, USA is the address of Augusta National GC.

Unlike the great majority of golf clubs in the US, it is located right on a main road and if not for a sign saying: “Augusta National GC – Members Only”, you’d miss it.

However, you only need to walk a wedge-shot distance down Washington Road from Augusta National and someone could blindfold you, and then in taking off the blindfold you would not have a clue what town you were in.

It’s just your typical US country street lined with shops/restaurants/bars and so on.

If you’re visiting Augusta outside of Masters week, the best sights are to be enjoyed in the old part of the town, laid out alongside the Savannah River that seperates Augusta in the state of Georgia with the state of South Carolina.

 

JUST TWO MASTERS NOT FULLY STAGED IN APRIL –

We know the Masters is always held in April and while there has been the odd occasion when it commenced in March, it would still finish in April.

Though in the history of the Masters there has been just two occasions when the Masters has not been held fully in the month of April.

The first being, and as mentioned above, was the first hosting of the Masters in late March 1934 while only the second non-April hosting of the Masters was 86 years later after the COVID pandemic pushed the 2020 Masters back to November.

Though the move did not deter Dustin Johnson.

AZALEAS ON ICE –

A new Masters drink?  No, but there’s been this long-time rumour that there’s a reason why the Augusta azaleas always bloom in April and the answer is ice beds. Ice beds?

No, before you start saying ice would kill off the plants or the ice surely would melt, the rumour seemed factual given Augusta has its own ice-making facility.

No, it’s all a fallacy as the only ice on the property is used in finding its way into cocktails and not flower beds.

NO BIRDS, NO INSECTS, NOT EVEN A STRAY DOG –

Ever wondered when you’re sitting back watching the Masters why there’s no birdlife, yet you can hear birds chirping away.

Whatever Augusta does, you won’t see birds flying about Augusta National nor will you see squirrels scooting up trees or the players being bothered by insects As for chirping birds?

It’s known CBS blended bird sounds into their golf coverage until they got caught out by Cornell Lab of Ornithology director John Fitzpatrick who happened to love his golf though the bird sounds.

Though the sounds Fitzpatrick was identifying during the CBS coverage at the 2000 PGA Championship were not common to the host region at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky and nor were the bird sounds he was hearing from watching  coverage of the Masters.

WOULD YOU PAY $US 20,000 FOR A CUP OF AUGUSTA NATIONAL SAND ? – 

An Augusta patron didn’t think anyone would mind if he snuck under the ropes to souvenir a plastic cup full of sand.

Ohio native Clayton Baker was on a mission to collect grass, dirt, sand or whatever from some from a number of top US sporting venues.

It was 2012 and Baker was walking back up the 10^th hole after Bubba Watson won his first of two Masters.  Well Augusta security staff were waiting with handcuffs to arrest Baker.  The now banned patron had flown by a private jet from Ohio to Augusta and while the pilot waited, Baker was hold-up in goal.

He was later released and then a few weeks later a judge dismissed the charge though it cost Baker almost $20,000 in legal expenses.

AUGUSTA NATIONAL BUNKER SAND IS TECHNICALLY NOT  ‘SAND’ 

The sand that Clayton Baker tried to souvenir technically is not sand.

The Augusta bunkers are filled with granulated quartz (known as “Spruce Pine sand” and SP55) which is produced as a by-product during work at feldspar mines in the Spruce Pine Mining District in and around Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

No, if only Baker knew that as it may have save him near on $US 20,000.

IF IT’S NOT BROKEN, THEN THERE’S NOT NEED FOR CHANGE –

We know famed Augusta National course designer Alister MacKenzie sadly passed away some three months before Augusta played host to the inaugural 1934 Masters.

Well, since then there have been no fewer than 10 other trained architects and seven consultants who have made documented contributions to the ever-evolving design of Augusta National.

The only thing that has not changed in 90-years is the routing of the holes.  The first remains the first, the 10^th the 10^th and the 18^th still the final hole.

CADDY NUMBERING –

The numbers appearing on the white overalls of the Masters caddies simply represent the order in which the players register.

However, No. 1 is always reserved for the defending champion and this year, Harry Diamond caddy to Grand Slam winning Rory McIlroy.

As well, unlike the past the caddie outfit nowadays are made of a lighter material (65 percent polyester/35 percent cotton) along with being wrinkle-resistant and a brighter white.

And speaking of Augusta caddies, Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts sadly is reputed to have said, “As long as I’m alive, golfers will be white, and caddies will be black”.

Since 1983—six years after Roberts’s death in 1977—players have been allowed the option of bringing their own caddie to the tournament.

AUGUSTA NATIONAL SKI SLOPES –

If snow covered Augusta National, and what often happens during an Augusta winter, then the 10^th hole and tee adjacent 18^th green are steep enough to be immediate ski runs.

The steepness of both holes doesn’t really show this in the annual TV coverage. And in talking steepness, the official distance from the highest point to   the lowest spot at Augusta National is 175-feet.

MEDIA CENTRE AKIN TO A GOVERNOR’S MANSION –

There’s satisfaction for the accredited media attending The Masters that the tournament remains being the only major championship to remain at the same venue.

A few years ago, a new ‘governor’s mansion’  multi-story structure was built for the media, albeit some distance from the championship course, located at the top left-hand corner of the practice range.

After parking your car just metres away from the centre’s entrance, you’re greeted by a porch featuring rocking chairs and hanging baskets.  Inside the media centre there’s a superb a-la-carte restaurant that most-often requires a booking at the height of lunch, a grab-and-go food facility and, of course, a bar that opens late in the day to keep the media ‘watered’.

What is extra special within the media centre is that there are so many Masters exhibits on display, and more akin to a museum than a working media centre.

And speaking of the Augusta accredited media as the Masters proudly remembers those long-time media members who may have passed away in the ensuing 12 months.  They do this by keeping their seat vacant and usually place the person’s cap on a small stand on the table where he or she would have been seated.

 

FORE PLEASE.  MEDIA NOW DRIVING 

The accredited Masters media also get to go into a ‘ballot’ each year to play Augusta National the day after The Masters.

If you’re lucky enough to amoung 40 or so to get your name drawn then you’ll receive an invitation, just like players, but you strickly cannot bring your wife/husband/friend or anybody other than yourself.

You play off a forward tee but it’s the same course, same Sunday pin placements and everything the same, except there are no patrons.

Caddies are available and like all four days of the tournament proper, there can be no use of mobile phones.

If you’re fortunate enough to have your name drawn in the ballot then you must wait seven-years before being eligible to go back into the ballot. ‘

I’ve been most priviledged to play Augusta National twice – 1998 and 2006.

I delighted in managing to also break 100 on both occasions with a highlight a great par save in 1998 at ‘Golden Bell’ – par-3 12th.

ACROSS THE ROAD, PLEASE 

It’s common at all big golf tournaments, including the majors, for the factory equipment representatives to be on-site in assisting players with the various golfing needs.

Not so at Augusta National as the 18-wheelers carrying the best golf equipment a player can have access to must park across Washington Road in a car park opposite the Augusta home to the Scottish Rite of Free Masonry.

And not all equipment staff are allowed inside the Augusta National front gates, with only a designated few Masters afforded passes. 

SADLY, THE OTHER GREEN JACKET CEREMONY IS NO LONGER …

A somewhat sad note to end this article as a long-running second green jacket ceremony also held the week of the Masters is no more.

Yes, no more of the annual ‘must attend’ Hooters Miss Green Jacket Swimsuit Contest.

The Augusta Hooters, a longtime Washington Road institution, is nothing but a pile of rubble having been completely demolished last November after the business closed permanently in late July.

Its demise follows the demolition of much of the Washington Square shopping centre also affected two-time major champion John Daly who has been holding court out front of Hooters for the last 28 years, meeting and greeting so many friends and also signing anything anyone buys and taking pictures with fans

Daly contested the Masters from 1992 to 2006, finishing a best of T3rd in 1993.

He’s now teamed with Topgolf Augusta, turning it into his own 19th hole on Thursday and Friday of Masters week from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Topgolf Augusta is about 5 miles from Augusta National, near the South Carolina border.