2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

I was finally able to download all the pictures I took on Wednesday: there were over 400. It was so much fun thinking back on all the places where we stood and took pictures and drank in all the incredible moments of those two days. My plan today is to watch the Masters until the green jacket goes on the winner and then work on the posts of my experiences on Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday were pretty cool too if you add up all the people I spoke with at the airport to and from Atlanta. There were a lot of us first timers there sharing anticipation, excitement and experiences. As for now, I’m putting on my Jack socks, eating a mix of chips and drinking from the tumbler. Blue Moon from a Masters cup will happen later.
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Good for you Eric. One of my bucket list items. Had the opportunity to go 2 years ago and couldn't...
 
I finally found some time to download the pics on to the computer and to write a few posts about the pretty cool time I had in Augusta. I'll do a few posts to section off the pictures a bit.
Here's a few notes about the place we stayed in. We found an Airbnb a few miles from the course and booked it in January. It wasn't the greatest of areas but the place was nice and clean. Outside security cameras were visible and there were a few different people that stayed in this place while we were there. The rooms had different locks of course and we rarely saw anyone else. We paid $560 for the two nights which compared to the insane hotel prices, we had a bargain. If anyone goes next year, let me know if you need the name of the owner. Tuesday was spent partially at Hooters in town which was a pretty good scene and then at a local brewery/bar where we saw the Atomic Gold setup. That guy is very cool and he produces some great ball markers. Highly recommend his work.
We woke up at about 6:15am on Wednesday to get to the course, park and be at the gate when it opened at 8:00am. Traffic was a little busy at 7:00am but the local police had cars moving quickly into the parking areas. I believe there were only two main areas to enter the parking lots and we were able to go in the first gate. We parked up front because we had a handicapped pass. My friend, Marc, lost his leg in a jeep accident when he was 12 and he's had a prosthetic leg just above the knee since then. This saved him quite a bit of extra mileage by being closer to the gate. I have to pause for a minute to give major props to Marc. This was a bucket list trip for him too but he was a freaking champ with how much he was able to get around on the course. We took a lot of breaks with the chairs we bought but besides being an awesome dude and best friend, he never complains about his leg, ever. He has every reason too but never does. He's been that way since I've known him. He did tell me when we first met as bartenders that an alligator bit his leg off. I knew right away he was full of sh*t and had my sense of humor!!

The walk up to the gate was very clean, winding and full of color with the flowers and perfect landscaping. If you've been to Disney World, it had the same vibe. No bugs, no trash, very orderly and full of meticulous planning of details. They had several people before you got there reminding you about no cell phones and if you had them, you had to check them in before you got to security. There were a few bomb/sniffing dogs out on the path before you got to the security area. There were at least a few fully decked out policemen in the main security area with machine guns at their side. Non-threatening but it let you know they take this event seriously. You had to go through a metal detector and a wand body check and then you showed your ticket and we were in. The line moved quickly. They have tons of employees working so if you needed assistance for anything, there was someone always a few seconds away to help or direct you to a location. When you moved down the path towards the course, this is where you started seeing the magic and beauty of what surrounded us.
 
Pics are not loading correctly so to be continued..


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2W_KUl-bew

Tell your friend Mark to look up an Irish comedian , Dave Allen. He lost a finger as a young boy and never told the same story how he had lost it. When he died at 68, his 30 year old son still did not know how he had lost it. Above is one of the versions!

Had a great day on Thursday, watching from the sixth tee while Tiger and Rory went through, and enjoyed seeing Sergio four putt. Had my Pimento sandwich at the thirteenth green, afternoon tea at the 12th tee and was at the 18th green for the final groups on my seat. TV pictures of Phil's birdie putt have my ugly mug in them , to prove to my wife I did not spend all day in Hooters.

Awesome as the locals say.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2W_KUl-bew

Tell your friend Mark to look up an Irish comedian , Dave Allen. He lost a finger as a young boy and never told the same story how he had lost it. When he died at 68, his 30 year old son still did not know how he had lost it. Above is one of the versions!

Had a great day on Thursday, watching from the sixth tee while Tiger and Rory went through, and enjoyed seeing Sergio four putt. Had my Pimento sandwich at the thirteenth green, afternoon tea at the 12th tee and was at the 18th green for the final groups on my seat. TV pictures of Phil's birdie putt have my ugly mug in them , to prove to my wife I did not spend all day in Hooters.

Awesome as the locals say.

Were you already close enough to ANGC to avoid I-20 and Washington Rd Thursday morning? Getting off the interstate, I about peed myself when I saw that the exit was closed and we had to loop all the way around
 
Were you already close enough to ANGC to avoid I-20 and Washington Rd Thursday morning? Getting off the interstate, I about peed myself when I saw that the exit was closed and we had to loop all the way around

We left the house at 8 am since Tiger didn’t tee off until 11am. Huge mistake. We almost missed a real small window to get one of the last handicapped spaces left that was near the course. We were in traffic for 45 min.


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2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

Finally figured out the picture issues. I’ll post some by category. The scenery was like a painting. Here’s some of the flowers, trees, etc. The trees were unbelievably tall and pretty spread out. It was nice to sit at 16 near the sand trap and just look up at them.
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2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

Here are a few of some of the fairways, mostly from the front 9. That grass is the perfect shades of green in every direction.
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When we walked in through the gate on Wednesday morning and began to move towards the course, we were greeted by incredible views with a bit of early morning fog and Hello Friends: the great Phil practicing his chipping and flop shots. Amazing to just stand there and watch.
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The signage all around was very neat and clean and perfect. It’s something to stand under a directional sign that says Amen Corner. The Masters big board welcomes you as you move towards the first hole.
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We left the house at 8 am since Tiger didn’t tee off until 11am. Huge mistake. We almost missed a real small window to get one of the last handicapped spaces left that was near the course. We were in traffic for 45 min.


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I think my buddy and I left Covington at 5:15 or so. Got to Augusta around 7, parked at 7:40 and speed walked like hell. Got there, but it was a “gentle sprint”
 
Food: There were several concession buildings around the course and the wait was minimal. Everything is packaged cafeteria style and you moved through the line quickly. For as many people were in there, I don’t think I was in line more than a minute. All the food is labeled with a Masters logo. I didn’t try everything but had most of the popular items. Favorites: BBQ sandwich and the oatmeal cookies. I could live off those: I would be enormous but very content! The chicken and sausage biscuits were good and I had to have a pimento cheese sandwich which was not my style. One bite and into the garbage it went. Sorry. But At least I had a bite! The beer(Blue Moon) was $4, served in a green cup and was cold and smooth. This is now my favorite beer.
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The Stand 12: this is not a menu item but offered if you ask for it. It’s a mix of blue sports drink, Sprite and lemonade. It was pretty warm out on both days and this is a great, refreshing drink. I found out about it when I sent in two Masters related questions to the Callaway Ship Show a week before I left and AJ and HashtagChad read it on the air. HC offered me the insiders tip of going to the concession stand on #12 and asking for it. Here’s another tip from me to you: if you ask any concession stand drink server for it, there will be at least one person who can serve it up. A great $2 secret. Here’s a pic of the Stand 12 at #12.
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2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

Speaking of #12, I can’t say enough about it. We sat in our chairs in the sun drinking beers and drinking in the scenery for two hours on Wednesday. We met some great people there and shared some Blue Moons. Everyone is in the greatest mood here. You are at the place that you’ve seen on tv and in photos countless times. I said to Marc more than once, “I can’t believe we are sitting right here.” Quite a few heavy hitters rolled through as we were taking it all in. Jordan, Henrik, Vijay, Rickie and quite a few others. My camera battery was fading fast at this point but I was able to get a few pics in before I had to find a place to charge it. The guy I am standing next to in the picture is the inventor and the owner of the Orange Whip training aid. Cool guy and we had a great golf conversation. Tip #2: bring your camera charging cord: every bathroom has a few outlets in or outside the building. The first picture in this set is one of my favorites .
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#16. We spent an hour here Wednesday and put our chairs here at around 12:30 to make sure we had a good sightline of the tee box and the green. You can also get up, walk a few feet and see the group tee off of 17. A quick walk around the grandstand and you can see them approach and putt on #15. Good location to see a lot of action. On Thursday, we saw Tiger and his group here as well as Rickie and Rory. Saw them tee off on 17 too. Powerful cheers from the crowd and powerful sounds from their drivers. On Wednesday each group skipped a ball across the water: most made it safely on the green. I have a few pics of Poulter, Hideki and Molinari in the sand traps and on the green. That sand in these traps is the purest, whitest sand I’ve ever seen. If pine needles blow on the green, a few employees pick each one up by hand. Definitely a place to stop and watch for a while.
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2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

#13: probably the most picturesque place on the course. Great views all around and the green scenery is spectacular.
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The Par 3 Tournament: this happens Wednesday afternoon. It starts at noon but the TV coverage is from 3-5 pm so we figured that’s when Jack, Gary and Tom would tee off. We were correct. Seeing these legends tee off, walk by and putt out on hole #1 was unforgettable. The crowd that gathered to watch them was huge so we did not follow them. It’s hard to get a sight line when it’s 10 people deep in all directions. Rickie, Jordan and Justin teed off next so we stayed for them too. Great pics of the guys and their wives/girlfriends. We took a few more pics of a few other holes and saw Craig Stadler and Ben Crenshaw tee off and putt out. A very cool venue. Lot of kids and families surrounding the course here.
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Here’s a few final pics of some areas and items around the course. The house is off the Par 3:there are a few homes here and man do they look awesome! There are metal tables near the concession stands with the logo cut into them: you can see the pine needles through them. The bag is Tommy Fleetwood’s. Each tee box had two small logs, nothing else: very plain but it works. There is not a single thing gaudy about this course at all. Even the tv stands are simple and kind of artistic.
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2019 Masters adventures Tuesday to Thursday

The Gift Shop: That place is incredible and you can do serious damage in there. Everything has The Masters logo. I went in there with an idea of what I wanted to spend and I went about $200 over it. My justification, like everyone else’s, is this may be the only time I’m here so why not? I bought a few polos and a real nice 1/4 zip, 2 chairs, a print, some smaller items, hats. golf balls, etc. Something that I will get the most use out of are the Corksicles with the Masters logo. The picture also has the clear and green cups that we saved after buying drinks. I split them with Marc but his are mostly green( meaning they held beer): that dude can drink like a champion! The one thing that I looked for that I saw on a website last year was a special edition decks of playing cards in a wooden box with Masters logo. The Jack, Queen and King cards are all different and each one has something related to the Masters in the artwork. A little pricy but worth it, to me anyway. That box is a dark green. Pretty cool looking
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One last item: when standing in a long line to use the restroom off of the Par 3 course, some guy next to me pointed near some bushes by our feet and said is that a golf ball there. It was about 3 feet in underneath a tree. He was an older guy so I said I’d get it for him. It was a golf ball and there was another one a foot away. We looked at them and they were Pro V1’s that said Practice with a Masters logo on them. I guess a driving range area may have been near by. We each kept one. I put it next to a new ball I bought a sleeve of in the golf shop. Kind of a neat piece of the golf course to take back with me.
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Ok that wraps up my adventures of the past week. Hope you enjoyed checking out the pictures even though when you see it with your own eyes, it’s a thousand times better. An epic journey to be sure and a massive bucket list item is checked off. I hope to go back someday, hopefully with my son, Jake, next time but if it’s my only visit, I am beyond satisfied. As I watched the final round on tv, i was kind of freaking out inside after Molinari put that shot into the creek. I started thinking if Tiger wins the tournament that I just went to, it would be beyond belief. And he won, and I cried. I’m not embarrassed to say it. It’s a magical place no matter who you go with or who wins. I hope you get as lucky as I did if you haven’t been there already. Buy a chair, sit at 12, drink a beer from a green cup or a Stand 12 from a clear cup. Take at least one bite from a pimento cheese sandwich. Pick up a pine cone and put it in your pocket. Look up at the trees and stare down those long, green fairways. Take pictures if you can but if you don’t, those memories will paint a picture you’ll never forget.


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Great pics @FernDog! Looks like an amazing time all the way around for sure. Glad you got to go and enjoy the time with a friend.
 
Thanks for sharing!! I think every golfer should have The Masters Experience. It’s a trip like no other.
 
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