Some memories of the Masters Tournament that Sandie and I attended in 2006.
We went to the first day of the Tournament on Thursday so we missed the par three tournament on Wednesday. I asked one of the guards if we could go out on the course and see a couple of the holes. He said no, the course was closed to spectators. About a half hour later we were up by Butler Cabin looking around and a voice behind me said “would you still like to go out on the par 3 course”? I said yes we would so he took us down to the course and told us we could walk it, so off we went walking all nine holes by ourselves. It was beautiful and some of the holes are more difficult then they look on TV.
I wanted to see the main course before it was filled up with people so while the first groups were teeing of on # 1 I walked backwards down the 18th hole and when no one was looking I snuck out into the middle of the fairway where they normally hit their tee shots to see what it looked like. It’s straight uphill, you can’t see the green or the flagstick, just the two large bunkers, a lot harder looking then it shows on TV. I also managed to walk out on the 18th tee back by the camera stand, the tee shot looks narrow on TV but much more so in person. I walked down # 10 which is very much downhill and # 11 where the trees they added on the right blocked the spectators view of the fairway and the green, they have removed some of them this year. I worked my way down to Amen Corner. When I got to the par three 12th hole no one was there, no marshals etc. so I ducked under the ropes and walked out on the championship tee. On TV it is always shown from above but when your standing on the tee box level with the green it looks much more difficult and you can see why you never want to go right on that hole. I also snuck out on the 15th hole fairway where some players hit their third shot to the green. It is very much more downhill then it appears on TV with an extremely tight lie, very scary. Some other observations; the par 4 fifth hole is very difficult, when you look at the green to find a good spot to putt from, there isn’t any. The par 4 seventh hole has a very small area to hit on the right back of the green, we saw both Phil and Tiger hit impossible flop shots on that hole. The par 5 eighth hole is straight up hill, you cannot see the green at all and don’t miss left. A surprise to me was the par 4 ninth hole, the green slopes back to front but in person it doesn’t look as difficult as it does on TV.
See Sandie’s Memories of the Masters, The Masters
Some changes to Sandie’s writeup, the driving range and practice area are now located where the main parking lot was when we were there. The old driving range is now another short game practice area.