The Masters Discussion
- Thread starter B.A.R.
- Start date
KJ
Bump. Set. Shuma!
8 UNITS
gps_3
Head of Alabama Department of Decision-Making
Just now saw this. She did pretty well. It was a long day and pretty warm/sunny. I left her in our seats right after the Scheffler/Morikawa group made the turn and I followed them through Amen Corner, then went back to our seats on 18 green I'll break down our trip here:
Saturday afternoon drove over (about 5.5 hours), picked up our badges. Checked into the Best Western Plus off of Washington Rd. Not a great hotel, but good enough for our purposes.
Had reservations at a restaurant called Cork and Flame, and it was excellent. A little $$$, but made the wife happy and we really enjoyed it
Got up around 6:30 on Sunday, and left for the course shortly after 7. Even with heavy traffic, it was easy to get to the free parking area that is next to course. Walked in with no problems and headed to the 18th green to put our chairs down. We had about 1.5 hours before the first tee time, so we grabbed a coffee and a biscuit and walked the back 9 while it was mostly empty. After a tour of the course we watched Tiger warm up on the range a bit, then bit the bullet and got in line for the gift shop. Like everything there, it ran about as smoothly as you can hope for, but it took us about 1.5 hours from the time we got in line until the time we checked our stuff. One thing I don't remember from practice rounds, and maybe they changed it, they don't start selling beer until 11 am. After the shop, we went and found Tiger on 7 green, and kind of loosely followed him from then. One of the best places to hang out is the tee box on 6. It's a cool shot, and we saw JT Poston almost ace it. From there you can walk down the hill to 16, where we sat in the stands until Tiger came through. Right around the time the last several groups were going off, we posted up by 3 green and then headed over to 2 to watch the last 3 groups come down that awesome hole. Watched a few tee shots on 8 from there, and then made our way back up the hill and sat behind 9 green, which I found to be really great. Watching those putts and how much break they had to play was really interesting. And we saw Scottie almost hole out from eagle from down the line. Then like I said, I followed them through Amen Corner, and once Scottie hit the green on 12 it was pretty much a formality and I spent the last hour on 18 green.
All in all, it's an incredible experience for any golf fan. My wife enjoyed it too, but not being a golf person, she had a harder time being out there for 11 hours. According to my watch, I walked a little over 12 miles. There's not a whole lot of shade when it's like it was Sunday, so it can drain you pretty quick. Beer sales were only from 11-5, so unless you want to miss a lot of golf, it's not real easy to get wasted. Everything there is run about as efficiently as possible, which makes the experience even better. If I had to do it again, I think I'd spend more time sitting at a hole or two so I could see more players. It's hard to figure out where to go, especially if you want to see the course too, so I didn't feel like I saw as much golf as I would have liked. And unless you get to a spot early and stake your claim, it's hard to see much, especially in the popular areas like Amen Corner. It's cool to hear the roars, but it also makes you feel like you are missing out. One thing I found to be kind of cool is when they change the leaderboards. You don't have your phone and there aren't video/digital boards, so you have to wait for them to change the big white ones we've all seen. It takes about 20 seconds for the workers to post the new score, so there's a cool little anticipation where everyone is watching and then reacting. It was mostly groans when they would post that Homa, Morikawa and Aberg weren't going to push Scheffler any.
Getting out was just as easy as getting in. Again, about as efficient as you could ever hope. We stayed the night in Augusta, and just grabbed some pizza and went back to the hotel because we were beat. All in all, and excellent trip. My wife said that if I get tickets again, she's ok with me taking a buddy lol. I highly recommend doing it if you can, even if you have to buy tickets on the secondary market. It's worth it. And I think paying the premium to stay in town was worth it too
gps_3
Head of Alabama Department of Decision-Making
We paid 5-6x what the same room costs this weekend. The times I've gone to the Derby, I've stayed in Bowling Green for that reason
gps_3
Head of Alabama Department of Decision-Making
It very well could have been because it was Sunday. I previously went to the Wednesday practice round in 2013 and 2014, and I'm pretty sure we got a beer as soon as we walked in. Not sure if it's the Sunday thing, a tournament round thing, or if it's changed in the 10 years between my visits
gps_3
Head of Alabama Department of Decision-Making
My intention was not to drink a lot, seeing as how I was with the missus, but I think it definitely helps keep the crowd under control. There were a lot of college aged kids there with special access badges. I'm guessing kids and guests of members and other bigwigs that want to watch the final round on TV, so I figured there were enough shitheads out there that were there for the party more than the golf. I did see one guy get removed for ducking under a rope instead of waiting for his turn at the crosswalk on 15. They don't tolerate any shenanigans haha. But otherwise, a very polite fan experience
Similar threads
