Tracey McManus with the bad news for area drug stores after last night's thunderstorm knocked out power at the local factory where they make the gastro-unfriendly grub.
Around lunchtime, only the concession stand near the patron corridor had any of the coveted sandwiches on their menu.
"We were in disbelief when we walked in and heard there were no sandwiches," said Reed Clevenger of Cary, N.C., who came to the tournament with a friend and both men's sons.
"We told (our sons) even if you don't like it, you have to try the pimento cheese at least once."
Luckily the group got to taste the peppery cheese when they found the lone concession stand selling the sandwiches.
"They'll probably be eating egg salad, pimento, clubs and everything else before we leave here," Clevenger said. "You can eat 20 sandwiches a day and spend just $20. The price is right."
As power was restored Tuesday, vendors expected enough pimento cheese to go around for the rest of the week.
The 1986 Masters was all about Jack Nicklaus and his heroic charge against an all-star leaderboard, and in recalling the event the CBS team has gotten its due for the brilliant commentating that day. Except Tom Weiskopf.
I've always felt that Weiskopf, sitting in Butler Cabin with Brent Musberger as a commentator, brought the necessary perspective of a former Nicklaus rival along with a wonderful sense of timing and wisdom to the broadcast. I recently spoke to him over the phone about that day. Weiskopf had just returned from China on golf course design business, but was more than happy to talk about the 1986 Masters.
GS: When was the last time you saw the entire telecast?
TW: I never have seen it. (Laughs). I’ve seen segments of it. I saw some of the highlight show the other night on Golf Channel.
GS: You were sitting in Butler Cabin with Brent Musberger. That has to be a tough place to weigh in from because you are sometimes on camera and you are not on the course with action right in front of you.
TW: I would say it is. Because, on the course you are more in tune with the play because you’ve watched a lot of players play in front of you and so you are more into what the course is playing like. You can also get up and relax when they go to commercial or whatever, so you’re in a much more concentrated atmosphere that is still relaxed. When you are in Butler Cabin, you have two monitors in front of you but there are a lot of people moving around all the time. They’re bringing in a lot of information to Brent Musberger, who is not really a golfer. As Frank Chirkinian said to me, your job is to babysit Brent Musberger. That was the definition of my duties. He was there because they’re justifying an enormous salary to an individual who could care less, in all honesty, about the game of golf. He didn’t know the difference between a chip and a pitch.
GS: Really?
TW: I had to explain that to him. A pitch is when a ball travels further in the air than the ground. A chip is when it goes further on the ground than the air. He called Ben Crenshaw, Bob Crenshaw. The worst was a real windy day one year and Tom Watson was in contention, he starts out by saying, “well gee whiz this will really affect Tom Watson with these high winds today, what are his chances?” And I simply said, which was easy to say, well, I guess winning five British Opens doesn’t give him a lot of knowledge or experience in this type of situation Brent. I said it sarcastically and on the air, but it was a very frustrating time for me to be down there because I’m trying to concentrate and it just wasn’t a relaxed atmosphere.
GS: How did it work when you wanted to chime in?
TW: You had two buttons. You had the cough button and then you had another one that you could hit that would go to Chirkinian and then he would come back to you. It wouldn’t go to anyone else, it’d just go to Frank and he’d come on and say, “what in the hell do you want?” Usually it was for times when someone could make a comment that could help the telecast, say if you were down at 13 and noticed the wind was changing. But I was always afraid to hit the button!
GS: So Sunday Jack is making his charge and there is the exchange we all remember, when he’s getting ready to hit his shot, backs off and Jim Nantz sets you up perfectly.
TW: Jack had played that hole so well and with that pin placement it was accessible and he was the type of player where, with his background and playing against him, I knew that had to be situation that he had to take advantage of. That was the tournament for him in my mind for him with three holes remaining because I thought that was probably the easiest of the three remaining holes to birdie and because he had played it so well in the past.
He’s such a versatile shotmaker and he was never really given credit for that, especially under pressure when he had to. And that was an accessible hole location. Jack was a very percentage type of player that rarely gambled, but when he did take a chance, he seemed like he always hit the right shot in that situation and got the reward. He just knew how to play a shot and a hole under those conditions whether it was the first round or the last round, better than anyone else. That’s why he won 18 majors.
Anyway, my mind was moving fast, but I didn’t push a button and instigate that. The comment was a little bit tongue in cheek, a little bit of a sarcastic comment that really defined me. I don't even remember the exact words I said, but basically I said if I thought like that guy, I would have won this tournament. Anyone could have said that. But it just popped in my head. Well you know he’s trying to make up his mind what type of shot he’s going to play. He wasn’t set. He never hit a shot unless he was prepared to play it. He backed off a lot. He just took an enormous amount of time in his preparation. He never got ahead of himself. He probably played a high soft cut I imagine. He’s playing it against the slope of the bank that will bring the ball down to the hole. And he just looked at it for a moment and then just bent down to pick up his tee because he knew how good it was going to be.
Here’s a clip of the moment. My favorite thing about Weiskopf’s commentary is how he takes it right up to the moment Nicklaus hits the shot. Normally, it’s an annoyance to hear an announcer chattering at Augusta when the silence there is so powerful, but here Weiskopf just heightens the drama that much more by setting it up right to the moment Jack pulls the trigger.
GS: So now he comes to 17 at -8 while Seve is making a mess of 15.
TW: On 17 he was a little bit fortunate on the drive but he gave himself the best angle. He’s playing up the left side, a guy who never drove the ball like a Ben Hogan type of driver that had three fairways in mind: the left side the middle and the right. He’s going to play up the left side now and when he does that you know he’s got the confidence, he’s got control of the golf tournament in his hands. It gave him a perfect angle from the left side. Which is gone, by the way with the trees they’ve planted. But a perfect angle and he played a perfect shot to the left of the hole and then he makes an unbelievable putt.
GS: Now a moment that rarely gets talked about in all the fuss over Verne Lundquist’s call is the exchange you and Verne had watching the replay.
TW: I don’t remember even being involved in 17!
I play the tape for Weiskopf. Here it is, starting with the original putt and eventually, the exchange where he reacts to the replay and Lundquist's question:
TW: I don’t remember that at all!
GS: Do you know what it is you say quietly after we see the putt goes in? I abhor you? I adore you? I implore you?
TW: (Laughs) I don’t. I'm pretty sure it wasn't "adore you!"
He had a tendency when wouldn’t putt well to lift his head. We talked about that when we played occasionally. And you know when the putt goes in, I think everyone in the world, maybe for the first time in Jack Nicklaus’ life, wanted him to win that golf tournament. Everybody! Even people who weren’t Nicklaus fans had to root for him. It’s just one of the great moments in sports. Here’s a guy 46 years of age and five or six years since he’d won his last major and it just defined him. I remember one time I was sitting in the back of the room one year when he was giving his interview to the press and they asked if he ever remembered missing a putt to lose a major tournament and he paused not very long and said, "Not to my recollection." It’s just like if he had to hit a good wedge shot, but you wouldn’t bet against him if he had to do it.
He just could pull all of that stuff together. That’s how strong of an individual he was.
GS: Do you miss announcing there?
TW: Well, that’s the thing that’s so exciting about being involved in a major championship telecast. They’re so exciting and they’re part of history and usually some very unusual things happen. But I don’t know the young guys well enough. I could pick it up pretty quick, but Nicklaus was 46 and I was 43, so I was still current with everybody that was out there.
GS: What do you make of the telecasts today?
TW: I love to listen to these telecasts and there are some guys that don’t get their just due who do some fantastic work. Golf is still the most difficult sport to announce simply because there are so many things happening all at the same time in so many places. And these producers always want to get the live shot so that then you get the spontaneity. They don’t like to show something taped. But I still don’t think they cover it correctly.
GS: How so?
TW: I’m a big NFL fan and the thing about the NFL is the fact that these pre-game shows, there’s so much time given to the players. They really humanize these players as to their abilities and their talents and they really make you aware of the game. I wish golf did a little more of that. I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Golf Channel “State of the Game” show. I think if they did more of that, especially if they did that before each round at the majors, and summarized what you might see today, it’s just too many shots all the time. There’s not a lot of analytical stuff.
GS: What about all of the instruction analysis?
TW: Forget the golf swing. That’s nonsense. Good God, if the camera is not in the perfect position, it’s tough for a good analyst to analyze the swing if the angle isn’t right. And of course you always know the result before you start the analyzing, so it’s easy to come up with a bunch of nonsense. But I don’t see how that helps the average guy. Here’s the trouble: they never give the analysts enough time to set up the shot. To really talk about it. Fewer words are always better. That’s what made Summerall. If you had that extra 5 to 10 seconds it would help so much.
It was those extra few seconds that gave Weiskopf a chance to weigh in and only add to the greatest tournament and most riveting telecast the game has ever seen.
Plenty of great reads from an eventful Masters Monday, and while many writers were traveling, it appears the club shocked some (and left little room for kneejerk analysis) with its announcement of a new ticket selling policy.
The yearly application process for existing series badge holders will also move to the Internet. More details will be announced later this year. With the new system comes an increase in cost. Ticket prices for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday practice rounds will cost $50 each, up from $36 for Monday and Tuesday and $41 for Wednesday. Tournament round tickets are $75 each; currently, a series badge good for all four days costs $200.
Still the greatest bargain in all of sports.
Players
Kevin Garside on Lee Westwood and Ross Fisher suffering a scare when a cockpit fire broke out in the private jet shuttling them from Houston, causing an emergency landing. He includes photos from Westwood's tweets.
“We were a couple of minutes out of the airport,” Westwood said. “It was a bit scary. It never looks good when you can smell smoke and you turn round and see the pilots have put the masks on.
He does not need to leave town April 10 with a fifth green jacket to quiet the doubters, but if he does not have a competitive performance, such as a top-10 finish, the questions will become even more plentiful and certainly more pointed.
Elling: It's inexplicable, really. I was just eyeballing today's freshly minted world rankings. Europeans have five of the top six spots. Mickelson is the lone Yank in the six-pack. You have to figure it's going to happen soon. Luke Donald, anyone?
Huggan: It does. Because for those 11 years they have had to beat both Tiger and Phil on a course that suits -- or suited -- both of them. Plus, never underestimate the home-court advantage Uncle Sam's nephews get in three of the four majors every year.
Elling: I agree only to a point on the last part. Yeah, the fans were pulling against Seve in 1986, but they get behind the foreign players, too. Although I am not sure Westwood would agree after the ride he took last year alongside Phil. With all that Phil had going on in his life personally, he was a massive sentimental favorite.
"At the minute I am going through a normalising period, trying to adjust to everything that goes with being a top player in the world, from the media to fan interaction," he says. "My priorities are back to playing golf and setting my targets. I'm determined not to be one of those guys who wins one major and then disappears. I want to win more and the Masters would be a good place to start."
It is not a revelation that winning tournaments is directly linked to how you putt, but this is particularly so with the treacherous nature of Augusta’s greens. If you get a 30-foot putt slightly wrong the chances are you are going to be 15 feet away from the hole for your next. Therefore leaving yourself on the right side of the pin cannot be overvalued.
Which raises a further question, of how you get your ball to stop on the correct, or uphill, side of the pin? The same gentleman who impressed Woods so much last year has changed the make-up of his bag to be able to stop his ball on the “right side” of the pin. This year KJ will carry hybrid clubs as high up the bag as six-iron. This is a common feature for lady golfers, but most unusual for competing male golfers.
KJ thinks it could give him the edge. The hybrid will fly the same distance as the iron but should stop more quickly due to its higher trajectory.
I don't have many superstitions, but I don't buy stuff before the event. I mean, you can play badly or something happens, you get sick -- now you have all this stuff that reminds you of missing the cut or withdrawing. Not that I've won that much -- I've won only three times -- but after I win, I just go order a bunch of stuff and give it all away to my friends.
Jim McCabe files notes on an array of fun topics but leads with Rickie Fowler having been asked to turn his hat around by Augusta National member Ron Townsend, complying on the second request.
I also think Woodland might surprise in his first Masters showing. The Transitions Championship winner hits it long and putts it well -- perfect combinations at Augusta -- but he still has a learning curve after giving up college basketball just eight years ago.
Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Laird also hits it a long way, so he could contend for a while. Jason Day is another rookie who may play well this week, but he has another piece of history going against him besides his first-year status: No Australian has ever won the Masters.
Richard Gillis reports that Butch Harmon has ruled out a win for Rory McIlroy and isn't too keen on Lee Westwood's chance because he lacks imagination around the greens.
“To win at Augusta you have to have enormous creativity and imagination.
“When you look at who has been successful historically, (Jack)Nicklaus won six and (Arnold) Palmer won four times, both were great putters.
“You come forward to the modern era and players like (Seve) Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal who won two each, Tiger has won four and Phil has won three. These players all have truly great short games.”
"I can quote exactly what Phil said to me," Bones said. "It was one of those moments."
They quickly went through the scenarios. Bones wanted to make sure the stance would be OK; that Mickelson pulled enough club; with K.J. Choi making 5 up ahead, he reminded Lefty that he led the tournament by one stroke.
"So I said, 'Phil, do you still want to go here?'" Bones recalled.
"He said, 'Listen, if I'm going to win this tournament today, at some point I'm going to have to hit a really good shot under a lot of pressure. I'm going to do it right now.'"
Mackay said, "You get out of the way at that point."
Chris Gay profiles Kathryn Murphy, who was Clifford Roberts' executive secretary for almost four decades. It's not often you get to read Brad Faxon and Gene Sarazen mentioned in the same sentence. It also means Ms. Murphy worked for a long time!
It wasn't uncommon for Murphy to fill ticket requests for Masters participants. Some golfers, such as Ben Crenshaw, Fred Couples, Brad Faxon and Gene Sarazen, were nicer than others.
"Ben Hogan was the best. He'd never ask for tickets," she said. "Some of them you just couldn't accommodate. Some of them you had to say no to."
Murphy never was able to watch much tournament action herself. She kept up with the Masters on a TV in her office.
Though the tournament lasts just one week a year, Murphy remained busy the rest of the time the club was open. For 38 years, she enjoyed it all.
"It was very interesting," she said. "There was always something going on. It was never boring."
Ben Crenshaw, who is playing in his 40th Masters, played as an amateur in 1972 and 1973.
"These are different times and I can't answer for them (the current pros who didn't play as amateurs), but I can just tell this: My two amateur years were incredible because I got to stay on the grounds," Crenshaw said.
He stayed in the Crow's Nest his first year, along with most of the other amateurs that year.
"I think we had eight," Crenshaw remembered. "We amateurs were a team. I had just started traveling to some national amateur tournaments. We just couldn't believe we were here in the first place.
"The second year, I stayed on top of the old tournament headquarters over by the golf shop with Vinny Giles," Crenshaw said. "We ate every meal here at the club. It was special. I loved it."
Seeing the Greens of Charlotte, Ron and Ron Jr., talented writers both, in the press room typing shoulder to shoulder. Absent friends who were there every spring with me, such as British photographer Phil Sheldon. Wishing my Dad, lover of azaleas and, in his last years, golf, would have gotten to see the place just once.
Scraping frost off the rental-car's windshield and wearing gloves and a ski cap in 2007. The awful smell of whatever-that-was the year it rained so much.
Sitting once not too far from Herbert Warren Wind in the observation stand at the 12th hole in one of his last trips to the Masters, thinking about all the golf he had seen and how much he cared about his craft.
Meanwhile, I already have my Jenkins question planned for Sunday. Still want to see if he's a BCS guy after his Horned Frogs didn't get a chance to play for the top spot. Though by Sunday, hopefully there will be a lot more to talk about than TCU football.
Hate to start the week off on such a dark note but here goes...
I've read this CBS press release about their tournament coverage five times and still no mention of...Bobby Clampett.
What will Masters online be without his book plugs and other assorted ramblings about his favorite topic, himself?
PHIL MICKELSON LOOKS FOR FOURTH GREEN JACKET AS HE DEFENDS 2010 MASTERS® VICTORY
CBS SPORTS BROADCASTS MASTERS® FOR 56th CONSECUTIVE YEAR
Masters® Is Longest-Running Sporting Event Broadcast on One Network
The Masters®, the most renowned tournament in golf, will be broadcast on CBS for the 56th consecutive year from the majestic setting of Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. This year marks the 75th Masters Tournament, one of the most highly-anticipated sporting events of the year. Last year, Phil Mickelson won his third Green Jacket with a three-shot victory over Lee Westwood, becoming only the eighth player to win three Masters titles.
CBS Sports will bring viewers all the color, artistry and drama inherent to the world's most prestigious golf tournament and first major of the year with live third-round coverage of the Masters on Saturday, April 9 (3:30-7:00 PM, ET). Final-round 18-hole coverage is scheduled for Sunday, April 10 (2:00-7:00 PM, ET). Highlights of early-round play will be presented by CBS Sports on Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 (11:35-11:50 PM, ET; both nights).
For the 26th consecutive year Jim Nantz will cover the Masters for CBS (his 24th year as host). He also handles coverage of the Highlight Shows, originating from Butler Cabin on the grounds of Augusta National. Three-time Masters champion Sir Nick Faldo joins Nantz in the 18th hole tower as lead analyst. Peter Oosterhuis will describe the action at the 17th hole; Verne Lundquist, the 16th hole; David Feherty, the 15th hole and Highlight Shows; Bill Macatee, the 14th hole; Peter Kostis, the 13th hole; and Ian Baker-Finch will tell the story at the 11th and 12th holes. Ian Eagle and Matt Gogel return to call the live streaming video action for Amen Corner , along with Jerry Foltz and Billy Ray Brown for 15 & 16 and Andrew Catalon and Billy Kratzert for Featured Group.
Here's the plan for GeoffShackelford.com 2011 Masters Coverage coming to you live from...Santa Monica:
- Wednesday, my Daily Racing Form inspired breakdown of the top names heading into the tournament.
- Wednesday Par-3 Contest and Pre-Tournament Speculation Live Chat: We'll start this one a bit before ESPN signs on for the annual PGA Tour Day Care Open Par-3 Contest and since this will mostly be about the kids (that's about all ESPN shows in its promo). We'll spend some time bickering about who is going to win and then calling it a day after an hour or so. This will also be a fine opportunity to make sure the Cover It Live software is working for Sunday.
- Starting Tuesday morning and running through Monday, the much adored, carpel-tunnel inducing "Daily Clippings" of Masters must-reads of the morning. Typically posted by 3 am ET.
- Q&A with Tom Weiskopf about the 1986 Masters telecast. (Now, I just have to transcribe it and upload a few clips to YouTube, but I'm feeling like I can pull it off).
- Open comment threads Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
- Sunday, Final Round Live Chat. We'll get through this one together courtesy of Cover It Live. Get your laptop or ipad (I think it'll work) ready and starting 15 minutes before CBS comes on the air this will be the place to air your grievances, complain so your significant others don't have to hear it and when it's all over, cheer on the 2011 Masters champion.
- And of course, non-stop coverage in between all of the above. Hope you'll come back and come often.
The poll closed at midnight Sunday and Daniel Utley won the 1986 Masters Memory contest in a tight vote, but I'll be sending all the finalists something for their time and great stories, including the promised goodies (Golf World subscription, special DVD) for 2nd and 3rd ("Matt" and "Mark") while Daniel gets both along with a copy of John Boyette's 1986 Masters book.
Thanks to everyone for posting your memories and feelings about the '86 Masters, and if you hear a great "Where was I story?" please don't hesitate to encourage people to post.
Bob Harig with a real jaw dropper: a limited number of practice round and tournament badges will be offered through an application process online.
Golf fans will be allowed to submit their applications to both the tournament and for practice rounds via Masters.com. The club is moving all of its ticketing online, including ticket services for annual patrons.
"Moving the entire application process to our official tournament website is a safe and convenient way for those wishing to apply for daily practice round tickets," said Payne. "We are also pleased to provide a limited number of tickets for the individual tournament round days, which, up until now, have only been allocated to our series badge holders."
Daily tournament ticket applications must be submitted by June 30, with practice round applications allowed until July 30. Each allocation will have its own random selection process, with applicants notified by email within several weeks of the application deadline.
With Mackay, it started when he was a kid watching the caddies who got to share the space inside the ropes with his idols.
"I was a (Tom) Watson guy," he said. "This was 1980, and he was a great player, and the way he carried himself. So I thought (Watson's caddie) Bruce Edwards had the coolest job in the world, and that's what got me thinking about caddying."
Edwards was one of the first men who redefined the role of the professional tour caddie, but it was another old-school caddie who impressed Mackay.
"I'd go to tournaments and watch Bill Rogers, because he was this skinny Texan and I was skinny," Mackay said. "He had this caddie named Big Money Griff (John Griffin). At one point his caddie said, 'There's that kid again.' And he spoke to me and was nice to me, and that was really cool. That was another chapter with me falling in love with caddying, even though I'd never done it a day in my life."
While he played for Columbus (Ga.) College, Mackay worked at Green Island Country Club and befriended resident tour pro Larry Mize. Mackay often shagged range balls for the 1987 Masters champion.
A week before Mackay was supposed to start his career at Synovus Bank, Mize had broken up with his caddie after the 1989 season. Mackay begged for the chance to pick up the bag.
"I was really reluctant," Mize said, "because I said, 'You've got a good job here, Jim, and I don't know if you really want to do this caddie thing. Stay here and do that. But he was adamant about coming out and he talked me into it."
The opportunity changed Mackay's life.
"He gave me the greatest break I could ever have," Mackay said. "I knew nothing about caddying and had no idea what I was getting into or what it entailed. And it certainly entailed far, far more than I thought."
Mike Walker checks in with Chuck Esposito, sportsbook director at the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas who says the American public--the same ones that saw Cats in droves--is "still-bullish" on Tiger and offers some surprising frank commentary on why the oddsmakers aren't budging. He also offers the latest odds on other top picks:
Golf World noted that a book by Melanie Hauser featuring Carl Jackson and Ben Crenshaw's lives intersecting at Augusta was in the works and reading Carl Jackson's surprisingly frank memories for an SI/golf.com guest piece, I can't wait to read it. Besides not believing that Big Cliff decided on his own to join the Big Augusta In The Sky, he shares a story about a former club security guard who sounds like a deranged, humorless Buford T. Justice. Thanks to reader Rob for the link.
There is a fence dividing Augusta National from Augusta Country Club. We would walk about a mile from our neighborhood, crawl under the fence at the 13th tee at Rae’s Creek from the 10th tee of Augusta Country Club. That day the boys had caught 30 or 40 fish and were keeping them fresh on a line, even though earlier, Rogers Bennett, Augusta National’s nurseryman, had spotted the boys -- and Bud’s .410 shotgun, which he brought along in case of snakes -- and told them to get off the course. One of the boys did leave, taking the shotgun with him.
Shortly after 3 p.m. the boys saw Charlie Young, the club’s white security guard, standing on the Nelson Bridge, near the 13th tee. Young, who had a gun shop at his house, was carrying a homemade 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun with a barrel that was less than 17 inches long. When the boys started running toward the 11th at Augusta Country Club, Young fired one shot and hit three of the five boys, including Bud, who was struck in the right knee. Young later told the club’s general manager, Philip Wahl, that his gun accidentally discharged as he was trying to load it, but he never told the boys to get off the course until after he had fired.
I wasn’t surprised that it happened. Charlie Young had a bad attitude. He thought he was John Wayne.
It was then that Nicklaus knew his odds of winning had moved from possible to highly probable. The photographs show the change on his face as his last birdie putt of a remarkable final round approached the hole. With soft light from the setting sun streaming onto his face as it broke into a wide grin, Nicklaus bent his knees into a powerful, athletic crouch and raised the putter in his left hand aloft, like a scepter or Excalibur, as he stalked the putt.
This is the recollection Tiger Woods, who was 10 at the time, has said is his most vivid, “the way Jack was walking the putt into the hole.” It is what Nick Price remembers best from ’86, what he saw from the 15th fairway as he and the man who had been the leader, Greg Norman, were walking toward their tee shots.
“We saw the putter go up and we knew it was going in,” Price said. “And it was the loudest roar I have ever heard on a golf course right then and there. Incredible atmosphere and just, I don’t know how to say it, even when I won my majors, it didn’t feel anything like that, that atmosphere.”
"I was really coming into my own as a junior player, an amateur player in South Africa. That year, I won the South African Amateur as a 16-year-old, so I thought I knew what I was doing. So that was played in March.
"In April, I watched Jack win the Masters. It was basically a miracle happening in front of our eyes and it was really exciting to watch with my dad. It just gave me even more of an inspiration to play the game, knowing that a 46-year-old won. It was quite amazing.
"It was late. I had to ask my mom for permission to stay up."
In a bold move to cut down on the use of cell phones and Tweeting of video from club premises, Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne announced that Masters contestants Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell have lost their spots in this year's tournament following unapproved digital transmissions sent from the club earlier this week.
"To be consistent with the strict no-cell phone policies adhered to by our members and guests, we felt this was the only course of action," Payne said in a prepared statement. "The line was crossed when images of our member locker room were Tweeted and of course, subsequently re-Tweeted by their followers. However, we look forward to welcoming back Ian and Graeme next year, assuming Ian qualifies."
The duo, playing with former Players Champion Henrik Stenson on Tuesday, posted a variety of videos depicting the drive up Magnolia Lane, the member locker area and the view from an upstairs porch where Sub-Air units could be heard running in the background. While the course did appear to be extremely green, the sky a bright blue and the bunkers a vibrant white, Payne received calls from members whose grandchildren saw the unwarranted Tweets, wondered if a violation had taken place, and subsequently flooded the Augusta National switchboard.
"If not for the swift action of our members' grandchildren, it could have been a lot worse," said Payne. "When we confiscated Poulter's iPhone we found images of the golf course. I said to him, "you know, the course has rights too." But apparently this was unbeknownst to Mr. Poulter and the committee felt it had no other choice but to rescind his invitation."
McDowell was also cited by the Augusta Sherriff for driving while using a cellular device, a $200 fine on city streets, but a $5000 fine when committed on Magnolia Lane.
Payne ended his statement by wishing all players, patrons and media a happy April Fool's Day.
Geoff Ogilvy's column in this week's Golf World features some fun insights, but I'm really glad he's touting the underrated second hole, quite possibly the neatest green on the course and mercifully, still shining strategically because the lay-up area hasn't been clogged with trees or rough.
The course is so good because, so often, it allows us to choose how we want to play. My favorite hole is the 13th, but one of the most interesting is the par-5 second. Almost every player in the field has a different theory on where they ideally want to leave the second shot. Some people will lay up way right for the left-side hole location, way left for the right-side spot. But others will always take the former route, no matter where the hole location is. From there you have a backstop when the pin is on the right. Other guys like to lay up in the gap between the bunkers. From there you can use the slopes on the green to get the ball close.
So everyone stands at the top of the hill visualizing slightly different third shots. Everyone has a place where they are more comfortable. And there is no right or wrong. There is just personal preference. To me, that's the mark of a truly great hole.
I'm clearly not alone in feeling that way. The people at Augusta National know how cool that second green is. It's the one putting surface that has been replicated almost exactly on the new range. It's about 60 yards off the practice tee and is so much fun to hit to.
"This is more of an aesthetics thing, but my ultimate fantasy would be to get the course as close -- in modern distances -- to what MacKenzie and Jones came up with. It was just wild and wacky and there was some really cool stuff like the original ninth green, which was like a big horseshoe. The original bunkers were a little bit jagged and rugged, like the one down on 10. They kind of had that 'MacKenzie shape' to them, a bit like the Cypress Point look. I don't think there is anybody who would argue that Augusta doesn't look good now, but that would be interesting exercise -- to take all the original pictures, dating back to first tournament in 1934, and try to recreate that golf course. I think it would look amazing."
Geoff Shackelford
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning Drive, is co-host of The Ringer's ShackHouse is the author of eleven books.
