Iain D. Wright

I spent 5 hours on my feet at Augusta before I even saw a golf shot. Went to the Masters practice round this week...best Tuesday of my life. We got there at 6 AM. Already a long line at the first gate. By 7:15 we were through. By 9:00 we still hadn't touched the course. Here's where all that time went: 1) The merch shop is controlled chaos. No phones allowed inside. So you're just standing in line making friends with strangers for 30 minutes. Once you're in, most of the good stuff is behind the counter on display with a number. You walk up and say "I'll take three of number 73 and two of 57." No price tags visible on most of it. It almost feels like a shopping spree, which is only made worse by the fact that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I've never spent more money before 9AM. 2) The course is nothing like TV. The elevation changes are insane. The first tee drops about 50 feet before climbing back uphill. I had no idea. The green on 7 is more tilted than you'd ever guess. The approach on 8 is way steeper than it looks on screen. The fairway bunkers are so deep that I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. 3) People make big sacrifices to get to Augusta At Amen corner, I met two Australian guys who flew in from Sydney. Their plane had to turn around over Fiji because a passenger went into anaphylactic shock from trail mix. One had a five-week-old baby at home. The other had a 20-month-old and a pregnant wife. They still made the trip. 4) The bathroom situation deserves its own post. They have attendants in the men's room directing traffic. "Number two? Against the wall. Number one? This line." There's a dedicated attendant to wiping down the toilets after each person uses it. No other event moves people around as efficiently as the Masters 5) 16 is electric. Practice round Tuesday is when they skip balls across the water. The crowd loses it every time someone tries. Goes absolutely nuts when one makes it across. Watched Rory skip one that rolled all the way through the green into the crowd and trickled back out. He tried to play it from there. Almost came back to his feet. 6) The end of the day was the best part. By late afternoon, most players were off the course. Almost everyone had cleared out from Amen Corner. We walked back to 12 and it was just... quiet. Peaceful. Then watched the grounds crew replace divots on the 12 tee box. They carve out oval-shaped pieces, lay in fresh sod, and hammer it down with a mallet. On every single tee box. Every single day. That's Augusta. I also brought my camera for the first time in a while. I used to shoot golf content on the side, and it felt really good to pick it back up again.

Flight delayed on tarmac. Missed our connection. Based on the other flights available, which were also delayed, and the fact that taking a flight tomorrow would require getting back into a security line stretching seemingly for miles, we decided to get a car and drive five hours to our destination. That’s how bad air travel is right now. Driving is faster. Air travel is awful in this country. People don’t realize just how much it sucks unless they have to do it a lot. It’s not just TSA. Flight delays. Air traffic control issues. Service is even worse than usual. Every airport is crowded and slow and worn down and dirty. Everyone brings their dogs. The term “service animal” doesn’t mean anything anymore. Air travel used to be luxurious. People used to wear suits. Working for an airline was prestigious. The employees took it seriously. It sucks now. It’s terrible. This is the kind of thing our leaders should be fixing. Because the most frustrating thing is that it is so eminently fixable. If only anyone bothered to try.

Let’s have a night.

🚨OH MY GOSH!!! The Atlanta TSA line is so long, that it is not just wrapped around baggage claim... ...BUT IS WRAPPING AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF THE FREAKING BUILDING!!!! I am hearing that people waited in line for SIX HOURS last night and still missed their flights. INSANE!!!!!

Would you rather... Browns draft Carnell Tate at 6, Caleb Lomu at 24 Or Monroe Freeling at 6, best WR available (Tyson/Lemon/Cooper) At 24?