The Masters Truly Is A Tradition Unlike Any Other
The Masters and Augusta National are special.
This is a story you’ve read and heard hundreds of times. This is a story about The Masters and Augusta National and how incredibly unique and special the first full week in April is.
The Masters isn’t just one of the four major championships. The Masters is the major championship.
Augusta National isn’t just another historic golf course. Augusta National is the golf course.
Jim Nantz’s famous five words ‘a tradition unlike any other’ may be the most accurate description of any place and event in the history of sports.
Augusta, GA is a very odd place. It’s nothing close to a glamorous town, but it surrounds the most beautiful place on the planet, and for one week the city turns into a theme park.
Sure the city has its very, very rich areas but it also has its unbelievably poor areas as well. It’s a ‘regular’ city in the United States except for one thing, an unbelievable plot of 53-acres named Augusta National.
When you enter the gates of the course however you immediately forget where you are. You forget about what happened yesterday. You forget about the fact you just spent $400 for an awful room at a horrible hotel. You forget that you have a seven-hour drive home to make later that night.
It’s a spiritual place. You feel the history, the magic, and the drama in the air and you can’t help but forget literally everything else going on in the real world.
After going through security you begin the trek to the course. The first part of the course the golf gods grace you with is the most incredible driving range there has ever been built. It’s gigantic yet not a blade of grass is out of place. The driving range alone is nicer than most courses people get to play in their lifetime. You watch players hit shots or work on their short game and think of what you would give to just hit one putt.
Next up you get funneled into the biggest, let’s say common area, on the property. You’ve got a gigantic shop on one side with a gigantic concession stand on the other underneath a glorious tree.
Books could be written on the merchandise and food at Augusta alone. You can stand in line anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to get into the shop, but Augusta has been doing this for so long they literally have it down to a science on moving people in and out of these spots.
As far as food goes, it’s all great and it’s all cheap and it’s all The Masters.
Everything has The Masters’ logo on it. From an egg salad sandwich, to peanut butter crackers to an ice cream sandwich, it’s branded with a Masters logo. Even the beer is Masters beer. You aren’t getting to pick from a wide range of options. You have a light beer, a regular beer, and imported beer. Imported beers are special because they come in green cups while the others come in just a clear one. It makes drinking beer even more fun because the more you drink the more plastic cups you get to bring home and throw in the cabinet.
You can grab a beer, chips and a sandwich for around $10 which is mind-blowing when you think about it. You’ll drink and eat more than you ever have at any other sporting event in your life and you’ll love every second of it.
Once you pass the famous scoreboard lined with flags of various countries, you’ve made it. You’re standing on the course and your body nearly goes numb.
I’ve been lucky enough to go to a few practice rounds at The Masters and anyone that has ever gone will tell you that they’ll never forget that moment they first stepped foot on the course.
For that split second, you almost forget that you’re there to watch golf. You look around and realize that this 53-acres was created for this exact golf course. You can’t design a golf course like that, only Bobby Jones and Alister McKenzie can.
The practice rounds are obviously very different from Thursday-Sunday. The crowds are gigantic still, but you don’t see as much golf. This gives you the chance to walk the course and enjoy every step of the way.
You get to see the open space in person between №1 and №9, you get to stand right behind №11 tee and get nervous just looking at the fairway. You see the elevation change on the Par 3 sixth. You stand with your jaw dropped for at least five minutes in Amen Corner. You see the absolutely bizarre undulations in these greens that look faster than glass.
Then you make your way to №16 and watch guys skip tee shots across the pond as the crowd urges them to do so. Hell, just the paths weaving through the azaleas to cut through to other holes make you feel like you’re on a movie set.
These are just a handful of things you’ll never forget; there are so many unforgettable things within this 7,500 yards of golf course it’s unbelievable. The grass, the trees, the ‘hidden’ spots, the food; it’s all bizarrely fantastic.
This week really is a tradition unlike any other. It’s special that The Masters is special to anyone and everyone. It’s special that there isn’t one bad word said about the 18 holes that make up this golf course, that, everyone can agree on, which is something that doesn’t happen in today’s world.
Enjoy this week. Enjoy streaming every shot hiding from your boss on Thursday and Friday and then enjoy watching the full replay on ESPN later that night as if you didn’t already watch every shot. Enjoy hearing the tournament’s them song and waking up from your Sunday afternoon nap to Jim Nantz, Verne Lundquist and David Feherty narrating a moving picture of art.
It’s Masters week.
