I wonder if any THP’ers have...

Walked the course, yes, played it, no


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But when THP staff get media passes in the future then get entered into the Monday draw and your name gets picked out, maybe? 😀😍
I have been entered into the media lottery on two occasions but have not Won.
 
I have been entered into the media lottery on two occasions but have not Won.
I have entered the ticket lottery for a few years but to no avail either
 
I can't even manage to get on the course with tickets to the Master's..... #LotteryLoser

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My one time at Masters I sat next to area for members looking for opening to engage with one and speak to possibilities. Didn't happen.
 
Nope but one of my hospitals is at Augusta and the CEO is a member…I’ve been planting the seed.
 
Was Augusta on Tiger Woods Golf? Because that’s the only shot I would have.
 
I lived in Augusta from 2000-2004 and one of the gentlemen I worked with had a member in his family (think it was his father-in-law). I got close to an invite once, but in the week between the second hand invitation and when we were supposed to go, I was told the guest policy had been changed and each guest had to have an individual host.

In those years (and a couple of times since through a different connection), I got to go several times to practice rounds and a couple of different tournament rounds…so definitely luckier than most.

Having been on the grounds, I always wondered if playing it could possibly meet the expectations since so many of the greens are framed by the crowds during the tournament and without everything in bloom like it is in early April.
 
I have two friends that have both were high level golfers that took a run at the PGA tour and got on through their college programs. I have another friend who I expect will get to play there in the future he has actually had to turn down an offer to play.
 
Never played it but naively believed I was going to attend The Masters about 30 years ago. We were TDY down at Eglin and our test plane ended up grounded awaiting parts so we had a few unexpected days to kill. Pilot suggested we head up to Augusta. Sounded good enough to me and three of us took one of our rental cars up there. Not a well thought out 'plan' ... lol. Not an event you just bought tickets for, even back then. We watched Freddie win it over wings and beer at one of our favorite spots back in Ft Walton Beach.
 
Negative. I don't even know anyone who's done it or got close.

But man, what a day that would be!
 
Not I...

My dad has a client who has played numerous times. I ask him about it everytime I see him
 
I have two friends that have both were high level golfers that took a run at the PGA tour and got on through their college programs. I have another friend who I expect will get to play there in the future he has actually had to turn down an offer to play.

WHY WOULD HE TURN IT DOWN
 
WHY WOULD HE TURN IT DOWN

He had other commitments elsewhere for his business (small business owner) and he knows he will get another chance. Most of us aren’t in that situation but he is.
 
He had other commitments elsewhere for his business (small business owner) and he knows he will get another chance. Most of us aren’t in that situation but he is.

You never know if you have another chance, that’s the best part of it. People have been like oh yeah, turned down Billy, but he’ll get me on again. Aaaaannnddd then Billy dies.

Have heard of two examples of that exact scenario happening. They won’t let you on just because you knew Billy and he said it was cool. Side note, if you don’t think I wouldn’t “Weekend at Bernie’s” ole Billy right on through the gate on Magnolia Lane…
 
Played it on a simulator…. Lol!
 
Well the one thing I know, for 100% certain, employees are allowed to play the course 1 day a year. I was never an employee there but I have a very good friend that is, and…… let’s leave it at that! 💰
 
... played Augusta National?

As a side note, I fully appreciate how exclusive and (nearly) impossible it is to get on there, but just wondering if anyone out of the many thousands of THP’ers have ever managed it somehow? 😊

Closest I came was selling a set of Mizuno blades years ago and the guy was local to me in SE Michigan area so we met up and did a cash swap for the irons. Something like $600-$700 for the set.

We got to talking and he was heading to play Augusta as a guest as he was a member at Oakland Hills.

I told him he could have the Mizuno’s for free if he could get me a round on Augusta.

He just laughed and said it was quite an adventure to get his round and he said he had no option for anyone else.
 
You never know if you have another chance, that’s the best part of it. People have been like oh yeah, turned down Billy, but he’ll get me on again. Aaaaannnddd then Billy dies.

Have heard of two examples of that exact scenario happening. They won’t let you on just because you knew Billy and he said it was cool. Side note, if you don’t think I wouldn’t “Weekend at Bernie’s” ole Billy right on through the gate on Magnolia Lane…
So... I don’t think you’re talking about me are you? Because if you are, I can promise you they won’t even let me look at the club house.
 
So... I don’t think you’re talking about me are you? Because if you are, I can promise you they won’t even let me look at the club house.

Nope! I just always use Billy as my example for people
 
For my bachelor party, my brother looked at buying a media website and driving a bunch of traffic to it via click farms with the hopes of getting press passes to Augusta and entering the media lottery, but his plan fell apart very early on after the scheming phase.

As his brother and the beneficiary of the bachelor party I appreciated his effort.
 
I guess I am the first to say yes - I have told this story before on THP but its been a few years so I will tell it again.

I was at my wife's office Christmas party in 1983 when my wife's boss sidled over to me and asked me what I was doing on next Feb. 27. I told him I had no plans other than a work day, and he said to keep that day open, because that was the day I would play the Augusta National. He was the director of the Augusta College computer department, and turns out he had spoken at the Augusta Rotary Club at the request of a local member, who told him to bring two others to make a foursome.

As luck would have it, the "boss" got subpoenaed to testify in a court case that day, and had to pass - I told him any local judge would understand his plea for postponement, but he said he had played it a few times and he would pass. In his place he sent two vendors he dealt with.

We all met with the member at the Green Jacket restaurant across Washington Road (long since defunct), and followed the member through the gate. They took my clubs and directed me to the Champions locker room to change shoes. Then we were told to browse the pro shop and purchase what we wanted, but I was entranced in the hallway by the clubs mounted there from past champions and gawked at those mostly. I have always regretted that I didn't buy SOMETHING in the pro shop that said Augusta National rather than Masters.

Then we headed to the first tee and my feet weren't touching the ground. The member said he wanted to play the member tees because he had played with the UGA golf team his last round and wanted a shorter course. He said hit'em til you're happy and proceeded to hit 3. I stepped up and somehow blasted it long and straight over the corner trap (this was when I was 30 and could really move it). Then the other two guys stepped up and both proved they had maybe never played golf before - they were pitiful awful.

I hit a short iron pin high, but it backed off the green and I bogeyed. After a par on 2, my caddy (who was excellent all day) made his only error of the day and handed me driver and took off down the fairway - I got to the tee and really wanted to hit an iron. I hit it in the right trees and made double. I parred 4 and bogeyed 5, then at the 6th tee (par 3's the member tees were the pro tees) the caddy handed me a 6 iron and said "don't leave any of it up here". I hit it full and green center - par. I got to number 9 at 5 over and hit into the left greenside trap with the pin waaaay back. I hit a gorgeous bunker shot that lipped out for a tap-in 41.

We left the green headed for the 10th tee, and halfway there was a sandwich cart. The two vendors pulled out wads of cash, which really offended the member, and I knew then I would always be associated with these two and would never get another invite.

The back nine went much better - at #12 I hit the green but it trickled into the back fringe, and I parred. I didn't hit 13 in two but did birdie, and the same on 15. There I had about a 15-18 foot birdie putt from near the left edge to the hole and the caddy told me it was dead straight - I would have allowed two feet of break toward the pond by my eye, but I trusted him and hit it dead straight and in. On 16 the pin was in the Sunday position and I left my tee shot just in front of the green - the caddy told me to give it a little extra because I was going into the grain, but I hadn't felt grain anywhere so I chipped normally and came up 8 feet short. I was even on the back until I bogeyed the 18th for a 37 and a 78 total.

That is my day at the AN - living in Augusta and it's suburbs all these years I have been to many practice and tournament rounds, but playing it was totally different than just viewing it.
 
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I drove by the entrance one time. My wife took me to PF Chang's for my birthday... only they were closed due to a kitchen fire that day. So we wound up at Longhorn's down the road a ways after driving around trying to find something that wasn't absolutely jam packed with people... and we passed Augusta. I pointed it out.

Maybe it was Augusta Country Club... either way, that's the closest I've ever been to something like that.
 
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