Jackson Randle retweetledi
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.
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