Masters Memories, Special Citations

They won't win the top prize (please vote here), but each of these memories struck a chord as well.

Most Creative '86 Viewing Effort - David

It was a typical April night in the UK, which meant cold and pouring with rain, so I had to shelter under my golf umbrella. I got some inquisitive glances from passersby, but being Brits they didn't say anything, assuming I was just another English eccentric. I was however accosted by a Police officer on patrol, who was somewhat suspicious of my behaviour until I explained was what going on - and he turned out to be a golf fan so we watched together for a while before he suddenly realised he was supposed to be working and moved on.

When Sevvy dunked his second on 15 I was so shocked I dropped my umbrella and got soaked. I couldn't bear to watch the rest, and praying that Norman would win, went home to wake up to disappointment next day.

Poignant And Bittersweet - F.X. Flinn

In the middle of the 1988 winter, her cancer returned and took her from us in two quick weeks. I kept playing that spring, because I like it and it only reminded me of her as vital as she could be. In April, at my annual Rotisserie League auction, my pal Doug, importantly aware of my fragile relationship with the game, handed me a gift -- a VHS of the 1986 Masters official film -- and told me to watch it before the Masters started the following weekend.

So on the Tues or Wednesday of Masters week in 1988 I popped in the tape and experienced the whole thing fresh, as if it were happening, not as a recollection of an event already experienced. It's not too much to say that my interest in the professional game was cemented that night, and my self-identification as 'golfer' was confirmed.

Bittersweet and Hilariously Honest - Mulligan

I met my ex that week in Hawaii. Downhill from there.

Everyone makes bad decisions in golf and life and I missed the final round broadcast. Reminded of that regret every time I see the replays.

If only I had seen Jack do it live...

Best Perspective By An Australian - Visman

So when Jack birdied 9, 10 and 11 I was beside myself. My father was watching with me and he said I could get to school late that day, he would drive me, so we could watch.

The eagle on 15, the powerful words of Weiskopf before the tee shot on 16, the "I guess the bear has come out of hibernation" from Nantz. On and on. Culminating in Jacks words in the Butler cabin "You know all I keep reading is you don’t win the Masters at age 46, and by gosh...I think they're wrong" Indeed they were.

Best Post, Mother-In-Law Division - The Other JPB

I was in the kitchen of my (future) first wife's parents' house. Her mother was a chain smoker who lived for all the big sporting events, but most of all Wimbledon and the Masters. She loved blondes, and at the time confessed to being openly "horny" for Bjorn Borg and Jack Nicklaus. She was whoopin' and hollerin all afternoon as Jack made his charge. I was only tangentially interested in golf at the time, but I was having so much fun watching this woman that I stayed for every shot.

Well At Least You Got To Hear The Final Round - Del the Funk

I was driving up the highway to a new town to start my first job out of college. Had a little radio that got TV reception. I would wedge it into the sunroof and tool along listening. Got to be crunch time and the reception started getting fuzzy. I found a good reception spot and pulled over and listened to the final hour on the side of I-95! No picture, just audio, it was thrilling!!

Best Image Of A Gathering Crowd, Barracks Division - Smitty

I was in my barracks room at Lackland AFB, Texas, and when I went at this time to go to the dayroom for a Coke, I realized that the entire barracks was watching the same thing I was. The scene was as unexpected as were my thoughts concerning Jack's chances at the beginning of the last 9 holes.

Best Revelation, Butler Cabin Perspective - cws

Moments later, a CBS technician, clipboard in hand and earphones around his neck, came bursting in the room pleading for quiet. You see, the living room we were in was in the Butler Cabin, on the floor above the room where Jack would soon slip on his sixth Green Jacket. My parents were the guests of friends who were staying in the Butler Cabin that weekend. Apparently, the lights were flickering downstairs and the ceiling was shaking as Jack walked to the tee at 16.

As you might imagine, that was not the only trip the CBS tech made upstairs to plead for some decorum. Only moments later after a near hole in one on 16 and again with the historic birdie on 17, he bounded upstairs, to less avail with each trip. The room was delirious and after Tom Kite and Greg Norman failed to catch Jack, everyone in the room rushed out the back door and lined the second floor porch and staircase to await Jack’s arrival for the Green Jacket ceremony. Moments later, escorted by a couple of Pinkertons, Jack rounded the corner, waived to the raucous crowd and slipped inside. Jack was finally able to do what the CBS tech had failed to do that afternoon….for the first in the last couple of hours, everyone in the room watched in silence as Jack slipped on the Green jacket one more time in the room below us.

Best Bonding Moment - Buffalo Mark

For the remainder of the afternoon my father and I were transfixed to the TV. We both let out a roar when Nicklaus almost holed his tee shot at 16. He said before Seve dunked his shot at 15 that this shot would decide Seve’s fate: on the green he would win, in the water he would lose. And he was right. When it was over we both had smiles on our faces that could not be removed even if my mom kept laughing at us for taking a golf tournament so seriously.

As I look back on the day now I remember the moments related to my dad more than anything else. In 1986 I was 18 and he was 43. Today I am 43 and he is 68. With the passage of time some things change, my dad and I are much closer today, and some stay the same, we still enjoy the same 9 hole course and share the memory of the day Jack beat the best and brought us a little bit closer together.

Most Courageous Admission, Owning A Response Putter - Spiegs

Just to add a final footnote to the story, in March of 1986, I needed a new putter and we often spent spring break with my Grandparents in Lake Havasu, Arizona. That particular year, we flew in and out of Las Vegas. On the way home, we stopped at Las Vegas Golf & Tennis and I came across the MacGregor Response putter and bought it. Needless to say, I got my share of grief until after Jack used the same to win.

Best Confident Early Departure - JR

I watched Nicklaus hit his tee shot and then I raced up the hill by Eisenhower tree to try to get a position on the 17th green. At this point, the gallery was 4 or 5 people deep. When Nicklaus got to the 17th green, I could hardly see him. My brother gave up and stood back from the crowd, but I wedged myself into the gallery and raised up to watched the most memorable putt in golf. At that moment, I was captured(2 heads above the guy in the red pants….black hair, no hat) in the gallery behind the Nicklaus's infamous "raising of the putter". I am reminded of that moment every time I visit a memorabilia shop or a club house grill. I left immediately after the 17th hole, because I had to catch a flight out of Atlanta to my home in Dallas. As far as I was concerned, Nicklaus had already won. Today, I make the journey to Augusta every April and I always make a point to visit the 17th green just for a moment to relive one of the greatest days in golf history! I was truly blessed by the golf gods on that special day!