On-Site Monday at The Masters

I was thinking about a lot of things on the way up to Augusta from Jacksonville Beach earlier today. It was about a five hour trip and time alone in the car is good for the soul. I made some calls catching up with friends and siblings but mostly was in that special zone where your thoughts seem more real and meaningful then ever.

Two seconds after I said good bye to my sister Chris I noticed a lack of power in my ’92 Infiniti convertible. Oh shit forgot to get gas. Classic cars don’t buzz you, don’t light up they just let you figure it out for yourself that you are an idiot and are out of gas.

Luckily for me I coasted to an exit ramp and literally rolled to a pump at the Exxon station at the bottom of the hill. Seriously it is my lucky day. I already knew that because I was going to the Masters.

If you have never been like Gary Player says for the World Golf Hall of Fame you have to come. If you have been well you know you want to come back. I have been here twice before on a Monday and a Wednesday both practice rounds. The Wednesday par-3 tournament was cool.

This year I am here for the entire week. I literally have a job that I would be willing to pay them to let me do what they are paying me to do. Please don’t tell anyone though.

I went through a rainstorm shortly after crossing the Georgia border. Then the sun came out and even though it’s cool temperature wise it is a beautiful day. After checking into the hotel I decide to put on my windbreaker and put the top down for the ride to Augusta National.

You know the traffic will be as slow as a snail on Washington Boulevard and it was. The ticket sellers were reselling today’s practice round tickets. The price started at 30 bucks but quickly dropped to 20 as traffic moved along a little.

Not bad for about three hours inside the gates of the most perfect golf course in the world. I wish my buddy came down from New York but he was reluctant to do so without a ticket. No guts no glory I guess.

I was thinking about Arnold Palmer on the way up. I remember hearing him say something about how others dreamt of business while all he could think about is the beauty that he sees in the flight of a golf ball.

He followed his dream and I have been doing the same thing following the PGA TOUR for a little over one year now. Some ask how I can afford to do something like this. I ask myself how I can afford not to. Life is too short.

Palmer made a comment at Bay Hill this year that I liked too. “I can remember playing from Los Angeles on the Winter Tour all the way around the Southwestern, Eastern, Midwestern (Florida) coast and back up to Augusta, and one of the things that always got my attention was the fact that when we played the Winter Tour we always looked forward to getting to Augusta.” I was looking forward to getting to Augusta too.

I did not get to drive down Magnolia Lane. In fact I asked a policeman if I could walk down to the gate from the Founders Circle where everybody talks pictures by the Masters logo flowers. No was his reply. Even for a story I am working on, no.

When you come to Augusta National you don’t mind all the rules and regulations. They have to be the most organized people in the world. It’s the same for everyone and everyone is in a trance being here on these sacred grounds so it’s part of the experience. Their gallery roping and staking is by far the most precise on the PGA TOUR. It’s taken to the next degree with areas for sitting and standing only.

Not that the Masters is run by the PGA TOUR. They do their own thing, same as USGA for the U.S. Open, same as the R&A for the British Open, same as the PGA for the PGA Championship. And well quite frankly the same as the PGA TOUR at THE PLAYERS. We have great leadership in golf. If only the countries of the world could get along as well.

When you step out onto Augusta National no matter where you start the first impression is wow followed by the second that this is really an open park like setting. I emerged from the right side of the first fairway and well you can see for what seems like a mile. Just openness with a lot of people moving around in somewhat defined patterns all the way to the distant horizon of pine trees.

Some would disagree on the first impression. Instead of the park like feature they notice the color- how vividly green everything is. And I do mean everything. Inside this building the carpet is Masters green. The color I didn’t get in the golf study that I didn’t get either. Even the buildings and the wrappings for the food is green.

I look to my right and see on the Information Board that Tiger Woods just teed off the 10^th hole. Right there you know the Masters is no ordinary golf tournament. Tiger Woods playing a practice round in the afternoon? Doesn’t he always go out at dawn?

I decide to head to a distant corner of the property, a famous corner called Amen Corner to catch up with the world’s foremost golfer. I cross the par-4 first fairway near the tee, then the par-4 ninth fairway near the green and then the par-5 eighth fairway near the tee. It’s open its beautiful, it’s really has a lot more slopes then you can see on television. Not only the greens but the fairways too.

I decide to circumnavigate the par-4 seventh green. This is one of the best viewing places on the course. From the knoll behind the green you can see golfers tee off on No. 8, hit into the par-5 second hole, hit tee shots on No.3, hit into No. 17 green and play No. 7 right in front of you.

I continue on and walk around the 17^thgreen. Luke Donald who is back from that wrist injury at the U.S. Open last summer and young stud Camillo Villegas who won the last two playoff events last year are practicing bunker shots from the front right bunker. Rumor has it there is an elephant buried in the middle of this green. With contours like that there definitely could be an elephant buried there.

Now I am walking down between the 17^th and 15^th fairways. As I cross the 15^th fairway I can start to see the color behind the 13^th green, the trailing edge of Amen Corner. On the 14^thfairway I see Adam Scott and Greg Norman. Greg Norman wow what a performance at last year’s British Open. His T-3 finish at Royal Birkdale earned his invitation here. Maybe who knows? Jack in ’86, Crenshaw in ’95, Greg in ’08?

I cross the 14^th fairway and now can see the full beauty of the par-5 dog-leg-left 13^thhole. Basically at the turn in the fairway start the flowering bushes on the far side that build to a crescendo around the green contrasted by the stark whiteness of the sand in the greenside bunkers. Truly the vision that means spring has come to America.

I peer out through the pine trees and see a beautiful tee shot being drawn right to left around the corner. Tiger Woods and another player are leaving the 13^thtee. Oops as they get closer I realize neither one is Tiger Woods. They are Chad Campbell (not the one I mistook for Tiger) and Ruiji Imada (not even close). Hey I am almost 50 and the old eyes aren’t what they use to be.

Campbell lays up but Imada goes for the green and gets it on what is now an almost cold afternoon. There’s a lot of hugging going on in the gallery and people looking for shelter form the wind and the cold.

Now I see the real Tiger and caddy Stevie Williams leaving the 12^th green and heading for the 13^th tee. That are is the only secluded area on the golf course where patrons can not go where the golfers go.

Then the throng of Tiger’s gallery overtakes us. They keep coming. I try to take cover behind a pine tree but am still pinned down. No swimming upstream here. I am getting cold so I rest for a moment and let the swarm pass. I am heading backwards up No's. 11 and 10 to call it a day.

Tiger lays up by the way.

I come up around the greens at No's. 18 and 9. I am once again taken aback by the park like setting of Augusta National. I head up towards the clubhouse to take a position beneath the majestic 150-year old live oak tree that towers the clubhouse like a good friend puts their arm around your shoulder to say we go together. It is the meeting place with the view of the Masters.

It’s a beautiful day to be alive!

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]