I’ve been a golf fan for over 45 years and when the opportunity came up in 2018 for me to attend a practice round at Augusta National, I was in golf heaven.  My doctor had other plans, I had to back out.

On January 3rd of this year my friend Chris called me and I thought he was calling to wish me a Happy Birthday but in fact he was calling because he’d been lucky again and gotten tickets for the Monday practice round at the Masters.

Sue and I left, late in the afternoon of April 5th for Augusta, Georgia, we planned to take our time and arrived Friday afternoon.

We visited with Noel and Chris for 4 days, playing cards, touring the city, shopping and of course Chris and I went birding.

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Carolina Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow

Cardinal

Swainson’s Warbler

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

We also had dinner at Deanna and Herbs, Sunday night.

We left, very early on Monday for the course……

Drive by Magnolia Lane.

First thing we did was go to the Gift Shop and buy golf hats, shirts, pins and golf towels.

Later that day tis was the lineup for the Gift Shop

We walked about 6 miles that day and the course was just beautiful, Nelson Bridge

Hogan Bridge

The players were all out…..Tommy Fleetwood

Tiger Woods with a smile on his face….maybe he knows something is up

Congrats on your win Tiger

Sergio Garcia

Rory MacIlroy

Rory and Dustin

Marc Leishman

Justin Rose

Jordan Speith

Jason Day

Dustin Johnson

Franchesco Molinari

Fred Couples

Bubba Watson, Butch Harmon and Ted Scott

Brooks Koepka

Bryson DeChambeau

Great day with Chris and Sue

Chris and I

In front of Butler Cabin

$3.00 Beer and $2.50 Sandwiches, Sens could learn a thing or two

What can I say

Before we left we spent a bit of time at the 16th hole, they have a tradition during the practice round that players are urge to try and skip the ball over the pond and onto the green.

We were there for 8 hours until the horn sounded and we had to leave because there was lightning in the area.

Thanks Noel and Chris, a memory for life.  Ciao for now