At Augusta National, A Blind Squirrel Finds An Acorn

From today's Times and News-Star

Every now and then, in between the kids getting sick and your car insurance being due and the ice box going out, life decides to give you a cherry on top of an unexpected hot fudge sundae.

Such was the case a year ago this week when fate threw me a bone and I was allowed to play 18 holes at Augusta National. Ahem…yes. Thank you. I know. I couldn’t believe it either.

It was the day after Bubba Watson hit the historic hook on No. 10 to beat King Louie Oosthuizen (pronounced … “Oosthuizen”?) in sudden death and win the 2012 Masters. I know ’cause I was there. I was also there about five hours earlier, standing 30 yards from him, when King Louie double-eagled Pink Dogwood, something never before done in Masters play and something that would have been more historic had Bubba not pulled a gold coin from a barrel of pennies as the Georgia sun set on America’s favorite golf tournament.

So what happens is, each year the Augusta National membership draws media names from a hat and allows them to play the course on Monday, along with some blindly drawn advertisers and CBS TV folk. If you walk into the press room Sunday morning and your name is on the screen, you are one of the 40-odd folk who have basically won that year’s Masters Lottery.

I walked in that fine Sunday morning, ate breakfast, got my notes ready, noticed my name was on the board, and did what anyone in my position would do: I threw up.

If memory serves, I also screamed, wept, and changed my diaper. Then I went to Martha, who is the Matron Saint at the welcome desk inside the Press Building. Mrs. Martha is nice and helpful like the Grand Canyon is deep and wide.

“I don’t deserve to play,” I told her. “Someone else can take my place.”

“Can’t do it,” she said. “We drew the names and formed the foursomes last night. It’s you or nobody.”

Me. Nobody. Same difference. “I’ll be there,” I said.

I will not replay my entire round, but if you see me in person and want to know and have six hours, give or take, I’ll be glad to relive it. Thrilled to relive it.

I borrowed clubs from former Times editor Alan English and shoes from former Times editor Ronnie Ramos. Had other former Times editors been hanging around, I would have borrowed stuff from them.

Then, on this hallowed ground where thousands of people had been the day before, me and three other guys – Chris from Atlanta, Topher from Michigan and Mike from New Orleans – spent the next five hours pretending to be rich and privileged.

As the Masters likes to say, it’s a tradition like no other. But there was nothing traditional about this day for me and for the gang I was paired with. We all knew we were brown shoes at a black-tie optional gig, but once you got used to playing pretend, it wasn’t so uncomfortable.

We came up with a new slogan. “Monday after the Masters: A dream like no other.” Or, “A tradition like plenty of others -- if you’re used to double bogeys.”

Next week I’d like to share the highlights that even the non-golfer (which technically, based on talent, I am) can relate to. They involve jumper cables, a guy named Glenny, pansies, a valet and Henry Picard.

Until then, enjoy your Sunday at The Masters.

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Haddox Helps Guard Rich Tradition

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Like millions of other fans of golf, Ruston’s Greg Haddox will watch the 2013 Masters today.

But like only about 300 others, he’ll do it as a gallery guard at Augusta National Golf Club.

This is the ninth straight year Haddox has taken a week off his own job to serve as a volunteer on the course during Masters Week. He’s always loved ball: he played basketball at Centenary College after graduating from Cedar Creek, then coached college hoops before going into private business. He’s an avid golfer, and the game is as glorified and honored at ultra-exclusive Augusta National as it is anywhere.

“We get to go back and play the course one day in May; that’s huge,” Haddox said of the benefits of being a gallery guard. “But I’d work the tournament even if we couldn’t play the course anymore. It’s the enjoyment of just being there in the moment. I’m a fan of good golf. I’ve always loved the majors, and this is the only one that’s on the same course every year. A lot of people that don’t necessarily enjoy golf enjoy The Masters. The mystique and tradition here is what I love about it.”

It’s a working vacation. Gallery guards man the practice range, practice green, crosswalks, tee boxes, fairways, rough and greens, all to control crowds of about 35,000 patrons a day during the official four-day early spring tournament and the Monday-Wednesday practice rounds.

In the summer of 2004, a friend of Haddox who’s related to the person in charge of recruiting volunteers told him where to send his contact information to in Georgia to get on the wait list. Haddox was accepted that very winter and, in April of 2005, was working “Tea Olive,” the 445-yard par 4 No. 1. It’s a fairly active piece of real estate: at least three-fourths of the patrons come through the opening gate and the entrance to the course along No. 1’s fairway.

“It’s a very visible and very busy spot,” said Haddox, which is why 32 guards are assigned to No. 1 alone. “But I think it’s the best hole out there for me. You’ve got to be on your toes all the time, but at 2:30 or so when the last group comes through, you’re off. You can go watch golf on the course or leave and watch the rest of the day on TV.”

Each year Haddox and others rent a local home for the week. Friendships develop, especially when you’ve been at it as long as Haddox. When he first started – Tiger Woods’ victory after the great chip on No. 16 when the Nike golf ball “posed” before dropping in 2005 was his first Masters – the guards wore matching shirts and yellow hard hats. Now the uniform is khaki pants, matching shirts and Masters caps. They keep moving along the traffic of people who hold, during the weekend, tickets among the most scarce and coveted in sports.

“Monday through Wednesday are completely different galleries than the ones on the weekend,” Haddox said. “Early in the week, the gallery is a little more hyper; for most of them, it’s their first time here. Come tournament days, you get a much more educated fan. They know where to go, how things work and what’s going on.

“About the only issues you have are reminding people not to run or where you can and can’t walk and when,” he said. “There aren’t any cell phones around, or there aren’t supposed to be. If you see one, you turn it in to one of the security guards. We’re inside the ropes with the players; we remind the fans when it’s time to keep quiet and still, help players if they need anything. A guy might ask us to get him from the practice green to the first tee, or a caddie might come over and see how much time they have until they tee off. We don’t initiate conversations with the players; during the actual tournament, those guys are totally locked in. They say very little.”

A big part of their job is answering questions and giving directions to patrons. Where’s a bathroom? Where’s something to drink? Where’s a certain player? Thursday an older couple at the entrance asked him the quickest and easiest way to Amen Corner, the most historic spot on the course and also the most far away from the clubhouse.

“You got a helicopter?” Haddox asked them. Then he pointed to a distant leaderboard, told them to head for that and take a left.

“It’s a good way back there,” he said, “but it’s worth it, I promise.”

“That’s one of the things I love about being out here more than anything else: just meeting people,” Haddox said. “All different kinds and from everywhere.”

Though they pay for their travel, lodging and meals, gallery guards are treated like members for the day in late May when they play the course. Since the course closes for the summer annually, guards are given carts and told to drive anywhere they please except on the greens.

“We go to the locker room, the clubhouse, anywhere,” Haddox said. “They’ll let you play the Par 3 as much as you want. Usually we try to play 9 or 18 on the Par 3 course, then play our 18 on Augusta National. I love to play 13; that’s probably my favorite to play. No. 10, that’s my other favorite. Seven is very intimidating, very narrow. But the whole experience is something else. The difficulty for us is that you’re so in awe of the course, you tend to look around and sightsee more than concentrate on your game. Driving the ball is about the same as anywhere; chipping and putting, that’s what’s hard for us to do at this place. It’s Augusta; it’s a different ballgame.”

His son, Mitchell, a senior at Ruston High, has already signed to play golf at Louisiana Tech, so Greg’s wife Debbie is well aware of how golf can affect a guy. It requires a lot of time to play well and, when it’s a springtime major tournament in north Georgia, a lot of time to watch and work well.

“I tell people not to ask him how his trip was unless they really have some time, because he’ll stand there and talk to them about Augusta as long as they’ll listen,” said Debbie. “I’m not joking. He just loves it. We’re happy for him that he gets this opportunity every year.”

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Masters Set For Big Finish, (Barring Any Rule Hijinks)

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Unless there’s another overnight ruling and score change, Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera will lead the 2013 Masters by a stroke over a power-packed leaderboard going into today’s final round.

Snedeker, winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach this year, and 2009 Masters champ Cabrera, with his son as his caddie, each shot 69 Saturday to move to 7-under. They took the lead late when second round co-leaders Jason Day and Fred Couples stumbled coming in.

Eleven players are five strokes or less from a share of the lead, including Tiger Woods, who left the course Friday at 3-under par but teed off Saturday at 1-under. Augusta National reviewed video Saturday morning before the third round began and added a two-stroke penalty to Woods’ score for an improper drop he’d made after hitting a ball that went off the flagstick and into the pond on his approach shot to No. 15 green Friday; that bogey 6 was changed to an 8.

Woods has won 14 majors, including four Masters, but he’s never come from behind to win any of them; he’s 3-under and trails by four now.

Day shot a 73 and held at least a share of Saturday’s lead until bogeys on 17 and 18. Couples, at age 53 trying to become the oldest player to win a Masters, lost five strokes over the final five holes, including a triple on 17, to finish at even par after three rounds.

A couple of things to note today: Snedeker had 16 of 17 rounds in the 60s earlier this year; when Snedeker was third at The Masters five years ago, he shot 77 in the final round; Rory McIlroy shot 79 with a triple on 11 and double on 15 Saturday; Phil Mickelson shot a first-round 71 but 76-77 since; Cabrera, “Big Pato,” birdied 16 and 18 Saturday and is a fan favorite in Augusta, not just in his home of Argentina.

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2013 Masters: Leaderboard Logjam For Moving Day

By Teddy Allen

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- If you’ve got a ticket to get into Augusta National or a television that works, odds are you’re in for a fairly exciting Saturday. Things are getting awfully dicey here at the 2013 Masters.

The leaderboard is a logjam of big names. Equate it to college football and what you’ve got within five strokes of the lead is a bunch of BCS teams – minus bowl crashers Marc Leishman and Masters rookie David Lynn.

It ended up being Jason Day, the 2011 Masters runner-up, who used three birdies on the back Friday to finally take a solo lead no one could quite get a handle on. Day’s 68 was the day’s best round and put him at 6-under. He leads by one stroke lead over Leishman, the co-leader after round one, and fan favorite Fred Couples, who shot 34 on the back, finished with a 71 and actually led the tournament for about an hour during the afternoon.

Couples might have grabbed the lead and held it, but he was finished shooting his 71 by 2:30 when all the fun started. And Leishman might have kept the lead had he not shot a 73, seven shots worse than what he shot Thursday.

Sergio Garcia, Thursday’s other co-leader, was no threat as he went off early and struggled to a 76. Dustin Johnson, who started with a 67 Thursday, had the lead for a few fleeting moments Friday before manufacturing a blueprint for losing a lead: he finished bogey, double-bogey, par, bogey, double-bogey. He’s 5 strokes back and, you would think, staggering somewhere.

Jim Furyk could have held a share of the lead had he not dumped a shot in the water on 15 and doubled. Instead, he’s tied with Angel Cabrera and Brent Snedeker at 4-under.

The names at 3-under are each notable: Adam Scott, Jason Dufner, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, K.J. Choi and a guy chasing his fifth Masters green jacket, Tiger Woods.

For a good while Friday, it seemed Tiger would make a run. Especially after three birdies in four holes on the front.

But on the back, he was too busy saving things to gain stuff. His sand saves at 12 and 16 and a par save after flying the green at 14 were vintage, big-game Tiger. His biggest save might have been his bogey at 15: After his approach hit the stick and went back into the water, he hit a wedge to five feet and made the putt for a 6.

But then, an oops moment: for the first time in his Masters career, he three-putted the 18^th green. Tiger was the only player in the field not to have made a bogey Friday until his tough luck on 15 and his hiccup on 18. A 38 on the back sort of let the air out of the 33 on the front.

But then again, the course hit a lot of people fairly hard. After surrendering 45 rounds of par or better Thursday, Augusta National gave up just 32 rounds of par or better Friday. Besides Garcia and Johnson, some notable casualties were Ernie Els (74), Zach Johnson (76), Rickie Fowler (76), Trevor Immelman (75) and Phil Mickelson, who said after his opening round 71 that he was showing the course “too much respect” by not firing at the pins on greens that were playing slower than usual.

A bit of rain Friday morning, a little afternoon wind and some bold pin placements changed things from a scoring standpoint Friday. If Round One went to the players, Round Two belonged to the course. And simply, some people, like Mickelson, just didn’t hit the ball well.

One benefit of the higher scores and bumpy play by the leaders down the stretch is that young Tianlang Guan and defending champ Bubba Watson made the cut on the number. Guan, who won’t be 15 until October and is the youngest Masters participant ever, was assessed a one-stroke penalty by the tournament committee at the 17^th hole for slow play. The eighth-grader shot a 3-over 75 and is 4 over for the tournament.

LSU alum and Masters rookie John Peterson also made the cut on the number. Former LSU All-American David Toms, who played with Peterson in Wednesday’s Par Three tournament, shot a 70-74 for an even-par 142 and is six strokes off the lead.

On the other end of the age spectrum from Guan is Couples, who at 53 is trying to become the oldest Masters champ. More than a dozen players in this year’s Masters field weren’t even born when Couples played in his first Masters, in 1983. The tournament winner in 1992, Couples led after last year’s second round before finishing in a tie for 12th.

The Augusta weekend weather forecast is for temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s with no chance of rain. And as usual at Augusta on Masters weekend, the forecast for who will win the tournament is anybody’s guess.

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MASTERS EVE: The quiet before the storm

Good morning --- weather forecast calls for rain this afternoon and clear the rest of the week. Sky is gray now (9 am EST). We'll see...Looks like weather could jack around with this afternoon's schedule, and tomorrow's...

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It’s a bit after 7 on Masters Eve, twilight in North Georgia on the evening before America’s favorite golf tournament. Wisteria guards the Butler Cabins, mowers groom and fairway sweepers sweep and the grass is the kind of green you get only in early April, a deep, glowing, happy green.

The azaleas were quiet last year when Bubba Watson hit a historic hook to win the 2012 Masters in overtime. They’d bloomed too early for the tournament. Not this year. Augusta National is lit up in pink and red and white and rose. A bit past prime, but still fabulous. Bubba, on the other hand, is a 33-to-1 longshot to defend his title.

Oh well. Win some. Lose some.

But you can bet your hat it’s going to be somebody’s day. Somebody’s week. Somebody’s 2013 Masters. 

Maybe it will be the course that beats everybody. The winds and weather – it’s supposed to rain hard Thursday morning, then be pretty and warm – will have a say, for sure. Always does, if only for a gust or two on 12 that comes out of nowhere and puts a tee shot in the water.

Maybe it will be a single shot – one like Bubba’s on 10 last year – that puts the exclamation point on an unlikely victory. Or maybe it will be decided half by fate and half by nerves and will and talent and who wants it most but panics the least in the all-American tournament every pro wants to win.

The favorite is Tiger Woods. You remember Tiger. He’s that guy who’s already won three times this season and is taking rather serious aim, it appears, at green jacket Number 5. That is one less than Jack Nicklaus’ total of a sweet half dozen, a third of his 18 majors. Tiger has 14 majors. He hasn’t won here since 2005 and hasn’t won a major since limping along on a bum knee to win the U.S. Open in 2008 somewhat dramatically, as he has the knack for doing.

If you recall, Tiger was hitting every putt in sight when he was ranked the world’s best player. He’s doing that again. And he recently regained that No. 1 ranking. And Augusta National demands you putt well. Which adds up to … what? We’ll see. The last time he’d won three times in the season coming into this tournament, he finished 15^th.

The odds on charm-bracelet-sized fan favorite Rory McIlroy is 8/1, followed by Augusta’s adopted favorite son, Phil Mickelson, 10/1. Justin Rose (20/1) and Charl Schwartzel (22/1) round out the top five.

Odds on Shreveport’s David Toms winning are, according to Vegas, anywhere from a 200/1 to 750/1, right in there with the Tim Clarks and Trevor Immelmans of the world. Fellow LSU alum John Peterson, a Masters rookie, is 1000/1 and will tee off first today in the 77^th Masters. (UPDATE: Watched Peterson par 1 and 2; he's even through 4. David parred No. 1...)

Actually, he’ll tee off after the ceremonial tee shots by The Big Three of Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, who played as a threesome and drew huge cheers at the Par Three Tournament here Wednesday. Each of these former champs has been in the position that Toms and Woods and McIlroy and the rest of the field are in today. Each knows Augusta’s quiet on Masters Eve, and each knows that, come Day One of the tournament, when that Georgia sun comes up and patrons start filing in by the thousands, it’s a whole different ballgame. That’s when the roulette wheel really starts spinning.

As always, it’ll be fun during the next four days to see who’s able to make the most noise.

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