Master's Week Questions

So I was able to spend Wednesday with a Berckmans pass and my thoughts on these questions have changed since I was able to putt on their replica greens... They have some Augusta caddies that help you with the reads that gave me advice I never would've thought to look at. I mean, they had me putting into the fringe 20ft away from the hole to kill the speed and let it fall back to the hole... I executed pretty well on a few of them and still ended up 10ft away. I have a lot more respect for these guys and how they can get up and down here.

1. With an ANGC caddy, maybe.
2. 99, if I'm lucky
3. I like the $20/hole theory.

1) Not in the course conditions that the pros play.
2) Double bogey golf has me at 108. Anything under is gravy.
3) Once in a lifetime chance, I'd pay a paycheck.

1) Probably
2) I would guess 96
3) Anything less than $1000 and I am on the next flight.

After watching, I am changed my predicted score to 9 million. Those greens are beasts.

1. Nope...even teeing it forward lol.
2. Maybe 150

3. 500 bucks

1. Could you break 100 on Augusta National in tournament conditions and length?
Not a chance, but I would have a smile on my face the whole time
2. What do you think your score would be??
I think I would score somewhere around 130 with perfect conditions and a good caddie to club me and give me reads on the greens, the length and the hilly lies especially some of the downhill lies you get would kill me.
3. What would you pay to try??
I would pay anywhere from $500 to $1000, that would be an absolute dream

1. I probably couldn't break 100 on the first 9.
2. I am thinking it would be in around 150 or so.
3. Not sure how much I'd pay.

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No way would I break 100 don't think 110 to 120 would be out of the question and I think 500 bucks would be the where's the first tee number for me

1. No chance I break 100

2. 110-ish

3. Meh... I'm not one who pays premiums for stuff like this. Probably no more than $100. I'm not up for paying $1,000 to be frustrated with triple bogeys and 4 putts for four hours.

In all honesty given the state of my game I'd probably pay more to go watch the pros take on Augusta than I'd pay to play it myself.


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When I see a thread like this, I like to answer with my own AN experience. At my former wife's 1983 office Christmas party, her boss sidled up to me and asked me what I was doing next Feb. 27 - he said keep it open because that's the day you are going to play Augusta National. Turns out he had spoken at the Augusta Rotary Club at the request of one of the local members, who invited him to bring a group out. Here are a few memories:

1) We met at the Green Jacket restaurant across from the AN (no longer exists) and ate lunch, then drove in following the member thru the gate and down Magnolia Lane. Our bags were picked up where we parked, and we were escorted to the men's locker room. I dawdled in the hallways, looking at a museum's worth of memorabilia on the walls (stuff like Bobby Jones Calamity Jane putter, clubs from many of the past champions, etc.). The locker room was like that of most any nice club, oak lockers and benches - we changed shoes and were told to leave our street shoes there - at the end of the round freshly polished shoes awaited.

2) We were told to go to the pro shop to, well shop - to me the cool thing was that all of the merchandise had the Augusta National logos, not the Masters logos that can be bought at the tournament - I wished later I had a do-over on that part, because I made no purchases. I was too pumped about playing.

3) We walked out the door about 40 yards to the first tee - the member said "hit'em til yer happy" and proceeded to hit 3. I floated onto the tee-box and somehow blistered one over the corner trap (member tees and it was a shorter carry back then). BTW - I was a scratch hdcp. at the time. I hit my approach well into the center of the green, and it spun all the way back off the front. I bogeyed; the greens were not near Masters speed, probably average country club speed.

4) As we walked to#2 green, my caddy handed me my putter and driver and took off up #3 - it was probably his only mistake of the day, because I got on #3 tee and really wanted my 4 iron. I drove into the right trees and made a double bogey.

5) I got up and down from the front trap on #4 (and we played that and all the par 3's from the "pro" tees). Whitest sand in the world BTW.

6) At #6 tee, the caddy handed me a 6 iron and said "don't leave any of it up here" - I hit it full and was in the green center.

7) #7 is one of the tightest par 4's I ever played, and now it's fully 50 yards longer.

8) I hit my approach into the left greenside bunker on #9, and with the hole on the right side of the middle level, I pitched out perfectly and lipped out the birdie. 41 on the front nine.

9) #12 was calm, and with a right center pin I hit it just over the left side, and made an easy up-and-in par. The hill behind the green is extremely steep, and it feels a bit cooler back there, and to my surprise I saw that the hill is partly composed of exposed solid granite rock.

10) I got my first birdie at #13, but it wasn't very pretty - I pretty much topped my second shot off that sidehill and luckily stayed short of the tributary that fronts the green. But, I pitched close!

11) Second birdie was on #15, as I went over in two and pitched back - the pin was center left, and I was putting from maybe 15 feet left of it - I was seeing a good foot of right break, but my caddy said it was dead straight. I trusted him and played the putt dead straight, dead in!

12) #16 I learned another nuance - pin was in the Sunday position, and I left it in the front fringe. My caddy told me to give the chip a little extra because I was going into strong grain - well, I hadn't noticed any grain on any green, so I chipped normally and struck it perfectly - and came up 8 feet short. Since then I have watched many a pro come up short chipping on that angle.

13) I bogeyed the last hole, which is incredibly uphill, to finish with a 37 on the back and 78 on the round. We had been instructed not to tip the caddy, that the member does that, but mine was so good I had to slip him a tip unseen - the only money I spent all day.