I was lucky enough to get drawn this year for practice round tickets. If anyone is familiar with how that works you have to enter a lottery and this was the 6th year I tried before my number finally came up. After being fortunate in 2003 to have a customer give me a Friday tournament ticket (VERY HARD TO GET)I have been trying to get back ever since. If you have never been to Augusta, you have no idea just how incredibly nice this place is. It has to be one of the most prestigious places in the world, never mind just golf courses. They are incredibly hospitable and everyone is super courteous and friendly including the green jacket members. The food and beer is cheap, there are no sponsor tents and the only thing expensive is the golf shop stuff. They are proud of their hats, clothing, etc. We were able to follow Tiger and Couples for a good while. They had been joined by Furyk by the time we caught up to them. Tiger had an incredible number of private security people escorting him around the course. I would say 8 or 10 followed him on every hole with 2 of them walking the rope line up the fairways and the rest ringing each green. He was friendly though, which is something the veterans around the course said was unusually. How not surprising was that? He spoke to my group a couple times with his guards close by. Asked us if we were having fun, if it was our first trip, etc. We asked him how his round was going (even though we knew from watching) and he just went "ugh" and shook his head. He did not look good. He was spraying drives into the trees, missing short putts and just looked out of sync. Couples looked the best out of the 3. He was out driving Tiger and hitting em stiff into the greens. Furyk was also hitting into trees and missing greens. David Toms looked really good. Fantastic swing and was really hitting it close. Unfortunately one of my group members was off with my camera when we came across Toms and I didn't get any pictures of him. Here's a few pics from the day. Zac Johnson - Great Guy! Soren Hanson hitting out of the pine straw Couples & Furyk Freddie was talking the crowd up at every tee and green. Mark O'Meara - Great Guy, came over and talked for a few minutes Stevie leaving the caddie cabin. Said hi and waived after this shot. Harrington. Good guy, came over and signed a few autographs. Chad Campbell ready to drill another long one. He was really tagging the ball good! Justin Leonard hitting a nice tee shot on 17 Tom sizing up a bunker shot. I bet he hit 15 balls from this spot before he walked up on the green. He was paired with a young amateur kid, from Italy I think, and made him try skipping the ball across the water at 16. Funny thing was the kid made the green and Tom didnt! Tom was out driving the kid though, how bout that for 61 years old! Lee Westwood on one of the practice greens. His putting stroke was looking bad. I got him at the perfect time as he was breathing out in frustration after missing about 6 or 7 of 10 short ones. Jerry Kelly sank about 10 in a row from about 15 feet while Westwood was pouting. Geoff Ogilve after skipping one onto the green at 16. He was super nice and talked to the crowd at every hole. He was playing by himself and we followed him a few holes. He was on fire hitting every shot perfect. Lucas Glover on the practice range. He was blasting them so far you never saw a ball land when he was hitting driver. Over 275 every time. He was on the tee for an hour just hitting balls. Funny thing though, Bernhard Langer came out and shook everyone's hand as he walked down the row of tee boxes but snubbed Glover. Sure there is a story to that. Glover about to blast one Ross Fisher about to putt a ball that just hit the pin!
Great pictures. Thanks for posting 'em. I would guess part of Tiger's image clean up strategy is to be more interactive with the gallery during practice rounds and Pro Ams. I even saw a photo of him signing autographs yesterday something he didn't do previously. Will be interesting to see how he scores when the bell rings Thursday. His first round scoring average at AN has never been good.
We didnt follow Tiger off the 18th to the practice area but someone told us he was signing autographs over there. I'm sure its an image building effort but he did seem genuine out on the course. There is no way he is going to contend if his form isn't vastly improved from yesterday. He took 3 drives on one hole, sliced them all into the trees and Stevie had to go fetch the balls out of the straw. They were all playable but almost none of the players would hit out of the straw. They would just throw a ball into the fairway and play it. That course is insanely hard. You dont realize just how hilly it is on TV but its a hike just to get around that place.
I am insanely jealous, DRC. Great pics, thanks for putting them up. My father's been to the practice round a couple of times, and echoed what you said: the place is gorgeous, and they do an unbelievable job of keeping it immaculate; you never see a single piece of trash on the ground, even with thousands of people roaming the course. And you can't appreciate on TV how hilly it is.
Here is the info for getting on the mailing list. ------------------------------------------------------------- If you are not on the Practice Rounds mailing list and would like to be added for 2011, please send your name, address, daytime telephone number, email address and last four digits of your social security number no later than May 1, 2010, to: Masters Tournament Practice Rounds PO Box 2047 Augusta, GA 30903-2047 -------------------------------------------------------------
If it's that hard just to get practice round tickets, then I can't even imagine how one would go about getting them for the actual tournament. I guess you probably have to be on a waiting list of some sort?
