Thoughts after a trip to Augusta Country

Thoughts after a trip to Augusta Country

A friend of mine (also a former student) sent me a text message late last week “How is your religious pilgrimage?”

He was joking, but he wasn’t out of reach. It was a fantastic experience for this golfer to watch Masters on TV for decades.

The happy fusion of the two events led me to the Augusta National: 1) I retired from school teaching, which freed up my week and 2) I decided to attend the annual annual Golf Writers Association Conference and Awards Dinner. Thanks a lot to GWAA and August National for providing additional tickets to the practice match.

On the ground, I took a lot of photos, but unfortunately nothing can tell you any photos. The three-page agreement that comes with my tickets indicates that I can’t publish them. I think blogs are qualified to be published. However, if you see me out, once I transfer them from my camera to my G-photo account, I’d love to show you them on my phone.

That said, I will try to convey my impression from the perspective of the first-time participant:

The course is a star

For all the talents of the Augusta nationals and the excitement after Sunday’s nine, the golf course is indeed a star. Augusta National is a wonderful stage for the actor to perform briefly before the curtains are closed before opening again the following year.

However, the stage still exists.

There are some speeches on TV today about Gene Sarazen’s “Shot’s Traveling the World” on the 15th. The leak from 232 yards was ninety years ago. 16 hole positions were also discussed. In 1975, fifty years ago, Nicklaus buried a 40-foot site. Sandy Lyle and Phil Mickelson took the same place where putts were taken to win.

Despite the open championship, the U.S. Open and PGA Championship will return from time to time to major competition classes, while the Augusta Nationals will be year after year. Even though the course itself is constantly evolving, one can still see the champion bones of the past.

Augusta country is a hill

Friends who have been to Augusta (and those who have played) before say that TV does not accurately convey the height changes in the course. I was looking forward to the hilly terrain, even then, surprised.

Almost every hole has what I think is one to three clubs elevation changes. My Garmin watch recorded nearly 800 feet in “Total Rise”.

The 10-point drop looks a lot like the “rabbit slope” of a ski mountain, jumping down a hundred feet over a length of 495 yards. The eighth green is seventy feet above the T-shirt. Eighteen is fifty feet above sea level.

One description I read says that walking the Augusta State is equivalent to climbing 40 stairs in two directions.

Even that doesn’t convey the feeling accurately. I walk three to four rounds of golf a week, adding two to three miles on non-golf days, but still think it’s a tough hike. I spent so much time up and down that my calves were complaining the next day.

On the way, I covered nearly seven miles (my family lessons, Washtenaw, usually about five miles, with a total rise of 400 feet). My path in Augusta National will get shorter and shorter, but I can’t go from T-shirt to Green on the twelfth time, or go back to the T-shirt box on the 13th. I’m trying to get as close to the rope line as possible (do it during a day of less crowded practice).

I was trying to think of courses I had played in Michigan, where the holes had similar height variations, and the two I thought of were the University of Michigan courses and Black Lake University (yes, I’ve walked through Black Lake several times).

The university course coincides with the design of Alister Mackenzie like Augusta National. It’s much shorter (6,765 yards vs. 7,555 yards), but it’s still hilly.

The Black Lake is of course very different, but the elevation change has similar effects on the walker’s legs (or at least this walker). I think I’ll go back to stroll through the Black Lake and university courses this summer to see the “all-round rise” there.

The bunker is very steep

I was also surprised at how steep the sides of many bunkers are. Again, the footage on TV flattened things and didn’t actually convey the dangers on the beach.

The second cut is friendly

Unlike the USGA setting, the ball on the fairway in the “second cut” is still likely to be in good shape. I saw the practice game offline balls sitting very well. The real threat is not the best angle – especially when the tree

However, a less dense second cut also rolls the ball further into the treeline. Thicker grass slows the ball down

Some random hole ideas for my notes

• The main scoreboard is located at the bottom of the steep hills.
• There is a huge valley ahead of the Tee Box that may never play a role for pros. I’ll bump into the face and have a second.
• The second shot was steeper than I thought.
• The routing flow is good. You can’t say this from the TV when the camera jumps from the hole into the hole. In several places, players have to go from green to the tee instead of moving forward. I suspect that is the result of having to add code counts.
• Six are downhill. Remind me of the classic Northern Michigan downhill 3.
• Nine’s dog legs look sharper than they look on TV.
• Ten tee shots just dropped. It looks a lot like a ski slope from above: the fairway is straightforward and then disappears from sight.
• Take a little walk from ten to eleven. Again, this may be due to the course extension. It also occupies tunnels, such as shooting to landing areas.
• From the twelfth green to the first few hundred yards of 13, from the twelfth green and the first few hundred yards is a large fairway that stands out from customers. A golf writer friend said I should go to the back door t-shirt when I was 13, but I didn’t see any way to do this without being resolved by the gang and being banned from stepping onto the property again.
• Fourteen-year-old green has a large amount of mounds in front of it. Again, TV is unfair.
• Augusta’s T-shirt has a lot of blind mirrors. Fourteen reminded me of this.
• There was no crowd, and the eighteen tees didn’t look that intimidating.
• There is an interesting hole in the mountain, and there are eighteen beginnings. On the left, slightly forward is the seventeenth green. In it, it’s the eighth tee. The fourteenth green is behind, to the right. The fifteenth serving area also lags behind the right side. Go forward and to the left, the mountain is the tenth fairway.

We need nap drone flights in Augusta Country

I really want to see a nap in the hole in Augusta Country flying on Earth drone. Drones flying about six feet on Earth will give Congus a better perspective.

The course is very beautiful

One thing that TV is really right is that Augusta National is a very beautiful course. Not only flowering plants, perfect pine straw areas and neatly manicured trees. That’s extra.

To me it’s pretty is the holes of these trees, the curves of the ground and the way the bunkers are flickered.

I once read the theory of an evolutionary psychologist that the reason we love golf clubs is that they mimic the transitional fields from forest to grasslands that early human prosperity. If so, the Augustan Nationals have mastered the art (forgiveness pun). All the time, I’ve wanted to lie in the shadows of some of these trees and spend a day watching the rustling wind.

Disney World Adult

I spoke to Augusta National Volunteer (Employee?) and said the property was “Disney World for Adults”.

In a sense, she is not wrong, just like Disney World, the property has a well-structured and highly organized sense of perfection. Everything about the people of Augusta’s country seemed to be intentional. TV encountered this, too.

How to measure and intentionally? After the practice game, all but some of them played in three strokes and I saw ground crews raking around the trees and replacing the pine trees.

Like Disney World, all the processes of Augusta National seem to be honed. The product line to enter the souvenir shop seems to be long, but the action is smooth and effective. The rotating style and badge checks are just as fast. The flow of people flows from one location to another.

Food operations on the course are equally effective. Likewise, it seems that a long snake line has moved conveniently. My only disappointment was that the peach ice cream sandwich was sold out.

There are signs on the route I lead to that route, police direct traffic. The parking in the free lot between the north and the south gates was explored by the waiter (although they parked my car so much that he couldn’t put his tailgate on it. I had to make a little backup after the waiter left so he could get his stuff).

Another thing that reminds me of Disney World is that food, beverages and custody operations are hidden in largely invisible places. The food appeared and the garbage was removed without hesitation. If you told me that August Nationals had an underground tunnel that passed the post-physics science, I would believe it.

The staff were also not eye-catching. I talked to a cross guard and he said they were taught to be aware of where the camera was pointing and stay invisible. He tells a story that a man waving the camera twenty years ago and never came back.

Granted, I was there during a day of a densely populated practice, but everything I saw led me to believe it would work well in the final round of Sunday.

Yes, the price is actually the same as you see on social media. I had a friend asking me and I confirmed.

Egg salad and pimento cheese sandwiches are $1.50 each. Pork BBQ is $3. The beer is $6.

These events are very low compared to other sports events, including other golf events.

Pizza cheese and egg sandwich are good

I love pizza sandwiches and even my own pizza recipe. The Masters pimento cheese is very good. I ate two.

The pimen elephant cheese sauce is “thinner” than the others I’ve ever eaten. It has a little bit of onion hint, a little bit of thorns, from multiple onions, and some other kicks I can’t recognize.

However, I’m not a fan of egg salad. I actively don’t like eggs. But, in the name of science, I tried one. Actually, this is good because I don’t hate it. If you like egg salad, I think you really like it.

The policy of no cell phone is great

Augusta Nationals are very serious about their mobile phone-free policy. They even have a small house that just evicts the gates and collects phone calls from people who forget to leave them in their cars.

Without the attention of cell phones and other electronic devices, customers of Augusta National were forced to be present. That’s a good thing. We should all always strive to be more existences.

However, I did find that I want my phone – don’t check it, but adjust the hearing aids. I’ve adjacent them to the general environment, which is good in most cases. But, at the annual meeting of golf writers, I want to change them to lecture halls.

Visit Augusta is well worth a visit

If you are a professional golf fan and can travel, I think it’s worth visiting Augusta Country. The course looks very different from what you see on TV and will give you a different view during the competition.

Now you can find a way to play it.

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