We were on a shuttle at 6am, to get to the Masters and queue to put your chair in a good spot.  Bleary eyed exisiting on the adrenalin from the excitement of being at the masters on the final day, we were buzzing.  Even the thought of hanging around for 2 hours did not dampen our spirits.  There was a fog, the whole place was misty and very atmospheric, we had to wait for the members chairs to be laid out and then they let the masses through, I have to say it was all very civilised, you are not allowed to run and I never knew how hard fast walking without running was.  We raced, I grabbed Caths hand and pulled her through the crowd, her little legs were like little duracells going on and on.  We got to the 18th, and got a great position we were so excited and so happy we wanted to jump up and down but you probably can’t do that at Augusta.

Our chairs are down, we take a seat and try and spread out so Ross and Cockers could put their chairs down and it all worked out very well.  We had the bright pink shirts on so it was hard to lose each other, which was a great thing without having the back up of mobile phones. 

This is how misty it was

All the chairs around the 18th green

It was now 8am and the first tee off was at 10am, so we walked the course to 17 which was amazing to see the landing spots of the drives and how accurate they have to be, how deep the fairway bunkers are and when they are playing the 200yard shots onto the green how talented these guys are.  Again, the undulations and elevation from tee to green is ridiculous, our calves (probably not Ross’s) were really tight from the uphill walking and the down hill walking.  Those caddies must be very fit to lug those heavy bags around.

Here is a layout of the course which I think shows how open some of it is. 

It is interesting to understand the pin placement and green design and realise how much homework you have to do to score well.  The green design and pin placement are done in a way that only a perfect shot is rewards.  It has to be hit to a zone and struck well to be rewarded, anything hit long or short is severely punished by either rolling off the green or rolling to a position where it is a miracle to get down in two.

We sat in a stand at No. 5 where we could see the drives and had a great view of the green, it was great to see the groups and how different shots were rewarded or punished.  We would watch the same putt over and over again and the same mistakes made. We saw lots of birdies from the same position and lots of bogies from other positions.

Here are some pictures of number 5, it is an uphill drive which you need to keep right of centre (and lots of people pushed it too far right and hit it centre and it went into the fairway bunkers) then you have a medium approach to a severely undulating green. See photos below.

After half the field had gone through we then went to Amen corner and stumbled upon the last hole of Amen corner which is the 13th that goes over Rae’s creek. We sat besides the 14th tee which gives you great view of the second shots on the 13th which is a par 5 that most players go for the green in 2 risking the carry overs Rae’s creek. It was amazing viewing because we saw people lay up and trust their wedges and still make birdie, some went for it and made Eagles, some went for it and went over the green and had to play awkward downhill chips that broke 10 metre (no exaggeration) and some went in the creek, some played from the creek.  What a great experience.

Here are some photos of the hole, there are 1600 azaleas on this hole and it is probably the hole that you all associate with the masters.  We were like pigs in shit. 

After we had seen most of the field go through we went to 18 and had fun finding our chairs, we eventually found them thanks to Cath! We had a super view and the atmosphere is electric.  They have a huge scoreboard on 18 and every time the score gets updated there is a Ooooo or Ahhhhhh. I cannot find the words to adequately describe the experience, I had very high expectations and they were exceeded, all I can say is put this on your bucket list.

This photo below shows Rory walking to the 18th, I think it gives a good perspective in the false front of the green. 

And the winner is……

 Off to Palm Springs now

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Categories: The Masters Trip

Shaz Thompson

Mad about golf, enthusiastic about life, totally in love with my husband and just having fun.