Memories of Augusta (Page 2)
(con’t)
A stop via the media centre was kept as brief as possible, as we travailed to the first tee.
First task: Walk the course. Being a practice day, the crowds are allowed to move around freely behind the ropes, even during the backswing. The first hole was awe inspiring, an angular fairway with a green perched in a quiet corner. The second , a par 5 -not surprisingly long - with a tee set amongst the forest, so that first shot has that wonderful echo. The third and fourth holes a blur. The players are superfluous right now, this is simply about Augusta. The camera stands are green, almost camouflaged into the surrounds. Even the camera cables are the same colour as the grass. On the subject of green, the fairways could be putting surfaces in their own right. So smooth and shiny, it’s almost criminal they have to be violated with golf clubs. The scoreboards are blank but it’s obvious they were designed with this place in mind. White and unobtrusive, they are a pretty backdrop. It is all so beautiful but also unfamiliar. For all but the last couple of years, television could only cover the ninth hole onwards. The modus operandi becoming to walk those opening holes quickly, committing as much to memory as possible.
Arriving at the ninth and memories start to come back. Like any Australian, they centre around one man. Nine has another soup bowl fairway, with the front of the green boasting a horrible slope, like a big dipper. Got the Shark good on the final round in 1996. The tenth runs downwards from the top of the tee and doesn’t stop. The major scoreboard on the right, with scores of wonderful properties on the left. The fairway their backyard. These hills are so deceptive on television. The eleventh has a hidden tee before opening up towards the green. That vision of eleventh green, set near a scoreboard and an old cabin, with Rae’s Creek and the twelfth green as a backdrop, is simply jaw dropping. Oh my goodness. Another vision: Larry Mize. The twelth has its own mystique purely because the crowd sits behind the tee and nowhere else. There is no access to the green. The Shark produced ‘the greatest bogey in the history of golf’ in 96, when he overcooked the green and lost his ball in the scrub.
That spot in the corner, with 11, 12 and 13 all in view, is argued by locals as the best location on the course. I would’ve agreed, until 16. If it’s not the most recognizable hole in the game, it’s in the grand final with the road hole at St.Andrews. A thick rectangle of black rubber is placed over the tee on this practice Tuesday, so players hit from 10 metres closer. The audience is so educated, it immediately knows when a ball landing five feet from the pin is going to dribble off the green, and when a ball 40 feet away will suck back in.
Speaking of the crowd, it’s large and slightly uncomfortable in parts, however there is no sense of unrest. It is as if everyone knows they’ve stepped into heaven and they’ve left their bad behaviour at the gates. Augusta has that affect. The Tuesday and Wednesday crowds are appreciably larger than tournament days, simply because tournament days are capped. Pimento sandwiches are a dollar, a cup of coke the same, a beer two dollars fifty. The organizers treat their patrons with respect, a respect fans feel obliged to honour and return. Mobile phones are not allowed on course, so behind sixteen is a bank of public telephones. The lines are popular and the conversation is always the same “We’re here at Augusta. This is unbelievable!”.
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