Speaker 1: I miss a green for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my.
Speaker 2: Ball in a frid Egg, Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg,
Speaker 2: Frida Egg, Frida Egg Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg, Lie,
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Hello
Speaker 2: and welcome to the Friday Egg Podcast. My name is
Speaker 2: Garrett Morrison, and today we have a special episode for
Speaker 2: you all about Augusta National and the Masters, specifically about
Speaker 2: the spectating experience at Augusta National. And I think that
Speaker 2: we're going to revolve our discussion a little bit around
Speaker 2: sort of the first time experience if you haven't been
Speaker 2: there before and you're going. This is a set of
Speaker 2: recommendations and ideas for that. And to help me with this,
Speaker 2: I have three guests today. This is an unusual format
Speaker 2: for the Frida Egg podcast. So we have Andy Johnson,
Speaker 2: the founder of the Frida Egg. We have Brendan Porath,
Speaker 2: who is Andy Johnson's co host on the Shotgun Start
Speaker 2: podcast and the most recent employee of the Frida Egg,
Speaker 2: which we're very excited about. Title there's no title, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so have we we haven't decided on a title at
Speaker 2: all for Brendan.
Speaker 3: Then huh, employee works.
Speaker 4: I was thinking, like managing managing director emeritus.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything you want.
Speaker 2: To I'm managing editor, and Brendan's coming in here and
Speaker 2: trying to claim managing director emeritus. Er all right? And
Speaker 2: then finally we have Michael Wolfe with us. Michael Wolfe,
Speaker 2: who may be better known as Bama Bearcat on Twitter,
Speaker 2: is a golf history savant and in particular somebody who
Speaker 2: knows a lot about the history of the Masters and
Speaker 2: Augusta National. So very excited to have Michael Wolfe with
Speaker 2: us today.
Speaker 5: I was excited at too, until I just learned that
Speaker 5: I'm the only person in this room right now.
Speaker 6: Not like it's not getting.
Speaker 2: Papers, this is already going off the rails. Well, we'll
Speaker 2: we'll figure out the payment later. Maybe maybe there will
Speaker 2: be some dinner tonight or something like that.
Speaker 7: I mean, who knows, maybe you'll get payment for you know,
Speaker 7: from something else.
Speaker 6: Delicious Elijah Craig, Bob who knows you.
Speaker 1: Already got a sip of that? That seems like enough
Speaker 1: people would do that for the Well.
Speaker 2: Thank you for working in the sponsor of the episode. Michael,
Speaker 2: that's very professional of you. So our basic idea here
Speaker 2: today is to go through some recommendations for the experience
Speaker 2: at Augusta National, and those recommendations can be whatever you
Speaker 2: guys want, essentially, and then at the end of the
Speaker 2: podcast we'll talk about our favorite spots at Augusta. So
Speaker 2: that's the basic idea. Why don't we start with Michael. Michael,
Speaker 2: what is your number one recommendation for somebody who's going
Speaker 2: to go be a spectator at Augusta National.
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 5: So, the Masters, like they do with everything, They've got
Speaker 5: a great website and if you click on Spectator Information,
Speaker 5: it'll give you tips on how to get here and
Speaker 5: how to park and everything. The first tip would be
Speaker 5: to follow those directions. This is not a place where
Speaker 5: you're going to outsmart them. They've been doing this for
Speaker 5: a long time. Use the parking. It's free, it's well organized.
Speaker 5: Just trust the process, don't try to get fancy and
Speaker 5: work around it. So I would say the first thing
Speaker 5: is parking. But then the most important part I would
Speaker 5: say of that tip is you're gonna see big signs
Speaker 5: when you get in the parking that say leave your
Speaker 5: phone in the car, that's very unusual for most of
Speaker 5: us these days, and it takes a little thinking if
Speaker 5: you are with a group of people, and particularly if
Speaker 5: you're not all arriving at the same time. So the
Speaker 5: first thing, first and foremost, everybody needs to know what
Speaker 5: each other's phone numbers are. We don't know everybody's phone
Speaker 5: numbers anymore. But if you don't have your phone and
Speaker 5: you've got a content tacked them down the line, and
Speaker 5: you don't you don't have your contacts to look up.
Speaker 6: So you gotta know what people's phone numbers are.
Speaker 5: So write down whoever you're with, and you gotta get
Speaker 5: a hold of what their phone numbers are.
Speaker 6: And then.
Speaker 5: Because their phone's out on the course to call, you're
Speaker 5: gonna need and then you're gonna need a coordinator. So
Speaker 5: you're gonna need to figure out whether it's somebody's cell
Speaker 5: phone or somebody's answering machine, or somebody's friend who's at
Speaker 5: home and not with everybody, somebody that everybody can call
Speaker 5: from the course if there's a rain delay or whatever
Speaker 5: that can tell you where everybody else is, or just
Speaker 5: messages that everybody can access.
Speaker 7: You're gonna you sound like you're making this out to
Speaker 7: be you know, like a this sounds like a chore.
Speaker 1: I I might, you know, I might turned out.
Speaker 5: The master well and then the simplest then is also
Speaker 5: a place to meet. So if everybody hasn't been before,
Speaker 5: you may not know where to go to meet.
Speaker 6: You've got to establish. Okay, if we get.
Speaker 5: Lost, or if one person wants to go to the
Speaker 5: merchandise tent, or if just two cars are arriving with
Speaker 5: groups of people from different parts of the country at
Speaker 5: different times, where are we gonna meet up? Figure that
Speaker 5: out for It's important because you can't text each other
Speaker 5: when you get there, so you gotta have a spot.
Speaker 5: And it's going to be crowded, so you got to
Speaker 5: be very specific in where to meet. You can't just
Speaker 5: say let's meet on the twelfth hole. You got to
Speaker 5: say we're gonna meet in front of the beer only
Speaker 5: line in the concession stand.
Speaker 2: But been there?
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, what if you haven't been there?
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna give you a couple of places right
Speaker 5: now where everybody can meet.
Speaker 7: And the other thing about it is, I can't stress
Speaker 7: this enough. Everybody, Oh, let's meet up, Oh, let's meet up.
Speaker 7: Oh in this this is the hardest part about going
Speaker 7: to the Masters is meeting up with people, yes, and
Speaker 7: different parties. This is this is you know, in somewhat
Speaker 7: essential because people arrive at different times like you.
Speaker 5: And and adding to the degree of difficulty, every single
Speaker 5: person who comes to watch the Masters dresses alike. Everybody's
Speaker 5: wearing the same khaki shorts or navy blue pants and
Speaker 5: the same Great Bee dratty golf shirts.
Speaker 2: So, oh wow, I've tried to get especially a non
Speaker 2: brand something.
Speaker 5: And then, last but not least, if you're gonna meet
Speaker 5: someplace and you're a green on a time, you gotta
Speaker 5: be wearing a watch because if you're like me and
Speaker 5: you just look at your phone for the time and
Speaker 5: your phone is in your car, that ain't gonna help.
Speaker 5: So everybody's got to have a watch, and everybody's got
Speaker 5: to have a plan for where you're meeting and when,
Speaker 5: and you got to be as specific as possible because
Speaker 5: there's gonna be a thousand other people in that same
Speaker 5: spot and they're all gonna be wearing khaki shorts in
Speaker 5: a white cul shirt.
Speaker 4: And you got to be cushion. You got to have
Speaker 4: cushion on the time. So if they say ten thirty.
Speaker 4: You gotta nobody, you know, you wait till ten forty
Speaker 4: and you know, be specific, pick out a few landmarks.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 4: It's very hard plant it all in advance, you know,
Speaker 4: and have those numbers because there are phones on the course.
Speaker 2: This is like a set of skills that people don't
Speaker 2: have anymore, and so that that's it's It's really funny
Speaker 2: how when you go there, it's almost like an elementary
Speaker 2: school field trip.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, though, it is liberating.
Speaker 7: I was I was riding the media that we we
Speaker 7: get like a shuttle from the the press center. It's
Speaker 7: the press shuttle, I guess, the press center to the
Speaker 7: to the course. It's it's a ways away, you know,
Speaker 7: it's at the end of the range, so you know,
Speaker 7: and I'm sitting on the back of this cart and
Speaker 7: some nice lady that was that was uh she she
Speaker 7: we stopped to drop somebody at the range and she's like, god,
Speaker 7: he look so relaxed, and I go, you know, I'm
Speaker 7: not walking around with a bundle of anxiety in my pocket.
Speaker 7: You know, this is this is delightful. I knew at
Speaker 7: that point when I left, It's like I'm just out
Speaker 7: here you know, and I think that's one of the
Speaker 7: great things. But I don't have a watch. I didn't
Speaker 7: bring one. I have one, but I didn't bring one
Speaker 7: because I'm an idiot. But that also has allowed me
Speaker 7: a little bit more freedom. But you know, the uh,
Speaker 7: this is this is a it's a great you know,
Speaker 7: everybody hates it, but once you're out there, the way
Speaker 7: you take in everything, it really adds to the experience.
Speaker 2: Well, it makes you think how many other opportunities we
Speaker 2: should take to separate ourselves from our phones, and it
Speaker 2: makes you wish that there were more kind of required
Speaker 2: moments to do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I would.
Speaker 4: I think it heightens your senses overall. Right, you're not
Speaker 4: looking at your phone, You're just not looking. You're not
Speaker 4: scrolling your phone the whole time. It heightens your senses.
Speaker 4: It heightens your awareness of the course of what's happening
Speaker 4: in front of you, of the people you're with. I'd
Speaker 4: add to Andy's segment sentiment about liberating because like there
Speaker 4: are just meetups that.
Speaker 3: Aren't going to happen. It's kind of great, right, you
Speaker 3: know that there are.
Speaker 4: People in town that theoretically you probably would have to
Speaker 4: meet up with or might meet up with if you
Speaker 4: had all of your phones out there, right, and it's
Speaker 4: just like you go in there and it's like, well,
Speaker 4: that's not going to happen. I know they're here, we
Speaker 4: talked about it. It's just not going to happen. We
Speaker 4: didn't set it up. And so it's liberating in that
Speaker 4: way that it kind of shrinks the circle, if that's right,
Speaker 4: you know, and maybe that's anti social in a way,
Speaker 4: but it just sort of shrinks the sort of distraction
Speaker 4: and it heightens your senses of everything else.
Speaker 7: The one thing I will say though about that is like,
Speaker 7: meet up don't happen, but then organically things do happen
Speaker 7: because of the nature of the golf course.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's an this huge property. Everybody's in awe.
Speaker 7: Of this massive, seemingly massive property, but it's really small.
Speaker 1: It's really packed together.
Speaker 7: You wrote a great article about the art of the
Speaker 7: Roars a few years ago, and what the art of
Speaker 7: the roars is is that there are greens that are
Speaker 7: super close.
Speaker 1: They're all the greens are packed together. They're jammed together.
Speaker 1: That's why it gets so loud.
Speaker 7: And that's one of the great things about it is
Speaker 7: that you might you have best intentions to meet people
Speaker 7: and things fall through and you talk about it, and
Speaker 7: there's a good likelihood that you run into that person
Speaker 7: because it's just like kind of quaint and intimate in
Speaker 7: a way.
Speaker 2: Well, this helps me understand why the Big Tree is
Speaker 2: so important.
Speaker 1: Oh, the big trees.
Speaker 7: Not everybody could get to the Big Tree, and the
Speaker 7: Big Tree is like the ultimate.
Speaker 3: This is yeah, but.
Speaker 1: It's it's the easy if if you it makes meeting
Speaker 1: at the Big Tree super easy.
Speaker 7: Michael, let's get to your your meeting spots.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you want to Everything around the clubhouse is
Speaker 5: kind of it's a madhouse. There's just a lot of
Speaker 5: people coming and going. Obviously the first he's there, the
Speaker 5: tenth tees there, that's where the players are coming out.
Speaker 5: If you can avoid meeting at the clubhouse, try to
Speaker 5: avoid it. If it's unavoidable to meet at the clubhouse, okay,
Speaker 5: and you've never been there before, then then the spot
Speaker 5: that you're gonna want to meet at, which is in
Speaker 5: that area, is what everyone would refer to as the
Speaker 5: big scoreboard. And the big scoreboard is to the right
Speaker 5: of the first t Okay, so it's right when you
Speaker 5: walk on the property and it's not the Big score
Speaker 5: but that she's on the eighteenth green.
Speaker 6: It's this is a scoreboard.
Speaker 5: It's it's on the right hand side of the first
Speaker 5: fairway and it's kind of close to the merchandise and
Speaker 5: the food and everything, and there's kind of a picnic area.
Speaker 5: But but it's called the Big Scoreboard because it literally
Speaker 5: has every score for every hole.
Speaker 6: For every player.
Speaker 5: So it's got the entire field on a scoreboard and
Speaker 5: they record the scores like old fashioned, you know, box
Speaker 5: by box for everyone that's in the field. And it's
Speaker 5: far enough away from the crowds that if you have
Speaker 5: to meet in that area, then that's the spot to
Speaker 5: meet at. The other place that I like to meet
Speaker 5: at that I think is good, I try I would
Speaker 5: try to avoid twelve thirteen.
Speaker 6: It's just too crowded.
Speaker 5: But a nice tea box where you'll be able to
Speaker 5: find your friends right away and see them and they'll
Speaker 5: be able to see you because it's.
Speaker 6: Just never that crowded.
Speaker 5: Is there's a spot behind the fourth t where you
Speaker 5: can meet friends, and that also has the advantage of
Speaker 5: you can see a lot that's going on in that area.
Speaker 6: So there's a spot.
Speaker 5: It's kind of hard to get to, but it's up
Speaker 5: on a hill and you'll be able to see your
Speaker 5: friends and they'll be able to spot to you from
Speaker 5: a while away.
Speaker 6: And there's never anybody up there. So I would say big.
Speaker 5: Scoreboard to the right of the first T if you're
Speaker 5: on that side of the property. If you're on the
Speaker 5: other side of the property. My personal favorite is right
Speaker 5: behind the fourth T.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One other one I do is seven.
Speaker 7: Behind seven there's a great hill in a big lawn
Speaker 7: and if you there's a scoreboard there that's big and
Speaker 7: you could just stand like and lean against the scoreboard
Speaker 7: if you want it, and it makes meeting really easy,
Speaker 7: Like we're going to meet at the base of the
Speaker 7: scoreboard behind seven green, and that's.
Speaker 4: Like a center point of the course, like you could
Speaker 4: literally go you go to you know, amen corner, quickly,
Speaker 4: you go to sixteen, you can go to ten, eleven,
Speaker 4: like you could just go a bunch of different directions
Speaker 4: from seven.
Speaker 3: I'd say that's a great spot.
Speaker 2: And it's right next to two green, two right two green.
Speaker 2: Seventeen green is nearby. Jeff Ogilvie refers to this as
Speaker 2: the sweet spot of Augusta National, partly because of what
Speaker 2: Brendan just said. You can get to other parts of
Speaker 2: the property pretty quickly from there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can get to Aim and Corner really quick.
Speaker 7: Like you're basically right at eleven, you're right at ten green,
Speaker 7: you're right at eighteen t it's a wonderful little spot.
Speaker 7: You're close to fifteen. So yeah, that's another great meeting spot.
Speaker 7: Anything sound logistics.
Speaker 5: So last, but not least, the Masters is held every
Speaker 5: year but one. It's always held the first week about April.
Speaker 5: In this part of the country. The first week of April,
Speaker 5: you're gonna get thunderstorms. It's pretty rare that you get
Speaker 5: a whole Master's week where there isn't at least one
Speaker 5: day where there's weather. The same thing with the no phones.
Speaker 5: If there's weather, they make you leave the course. There's
Speaker 5: nowhere to go on the property. For the spectators, there's
Speaker 5: nowhere to shelter under. They physically make you empty out
Speaker 5: when they blow the siren. Everybody's got to remember where
Speaker 5: the car is, Okay, so you've got to remember how
Speaker 5: to get back to where the car is parked, and
Speaker 5: you got to have a plan of where you know
Speaker 5: that we're all headed to which car, so that everybody
Speaker 5: knows where the heck everybody is because it you know,
Speaker 5: they blowing the horn. Thirty thousand people are all headed
Speaker 5: in the same direction at the same time. So when
Speaker 5: you get out of your car in the morning, make
Speaker 5: a mental note of where you're parked.
Speaker 2: All right, So why don't we go to Brendan and
Speaker 2: get his main recommendation.
Speaker 4: Okay, my top twenty items in the merged town you
Speaker 4: have to buy are no?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: I mean, I understand the appeal of the merch ten
Speaker 4: and I understand why people go.
Speaker 3: I'd say, once you've done it, I might not.
Speaker 4: It's a lot, it's a lot of time and a
Speaker 4: lot of drama. I saw people yesterday, saw people yesterday
Speaker 4: they let you we knew I the storms are coming
Speaker 4: at noon, and they let I saw people run in
Speaker 4: at eight spend probably a thousand dollars in merchandise and
Speaker 4: run back out to their cars because you can go
Speaker 4: in twice, right, every badge can be scanned twice and
Speaker 4: drop that off and go back. And we had four
Speaker 4: hours and they burned like an hour and a half
Speaker 4: of that, you know, taking the merch out to their car.
Speaker 4: It's just like, I don't know if that's always the
Speaker 4: best time.
Speaker 3: You know, best spent.
Speaker 4: But I understand why people do it, given that it's
Speaker 4: exclusive to the property. One recommendation I would have, and
Speaker 4: maybe I'm being a negative Nancy or whatever the term
Speaker 4: would be, is I wouldn't spend a preponderance of time
Speaker 4: in Amen Corner. I don't think it's a great viewing experience.
Speaker 4: I understand you need to go see it if it's
Speaker 4: your one visit, it's your first visit. Of course, I'm
Speaker 4: not discouraged you you from going to see it. It's
Speaker 4: far away. You can't see the ball. You can't see
Speaker 4: the ball real well in twelve. Obviously, you can't see
Speaker 4: much of thirteen. You don't get real close. I mean,
Speaker 4: the closest you get is the corner right the elbow
Speaker 4: up at the top of thirteen.
Speaker 3: It's a good spot.
Speaker 4: But as far as like going deep down into Amen Corner,
Speaker 4: it's very crowded. It's a social scene. I think I
Speaker 4: once wrote an article like the five senses at Amen Corner. Right,
Speaker 4: it's like cigar smoke and sun dresses and all these
Speaker 4: different like all your senses get you really get overwhelmed
Speaker 4: with all the different Augusta National feels. I just don't
Speaker 4: think you need to spend a lot of time down there.
Speaker 4: It's not great for watching the golf in my opinion.
Speaker 4: I know it's the most famous Part three in the
Speaker 4: world and all that stuff. I just think it's far
Speaker 4: away from watching the golf.
Speaker 7: Yeah, every hole eleven you're distanced. You can't get close
Speaker 7: to eleven, twelve you can be close to the tee,
Speaker 7: but there's a lot of people there, and then thirteen
Speaker 7: you're set back way far away. The only spot I'll
Speaker 7: say is that, and it's usually not very crowded. Surprisingly,
Speaker 7: I think people don't know you can go back there
Speaker 7: because of how roped off you are through that section.
Speaker 7: But if you cross fourteen and then go down into
Speaker 7: the corner, you can get like right down on the
Speaker 7: corner of the zaleas and you have this beautiful view
Speaker 7: of the green. You're really close to the green there
Speaker 7: and you get to see that topography going back, and
Speaker 7: it's that's a great spot, But like Brendan said, it's
Speaker 7: not the It's great to see, but it's not necessarily
Speaker 7: where I would spend a ton of time.
Speaker 2: So you wouldn't. You wouldn't post up at twelve, right,
Speaker 2: But it sounds like there are maybe a couple of
Speaker 2: good spots that are sort of on the perimeter of
Speaker 2: Amen Corner. Right if you go to thirteen Green, there's
Speaker 2: sort of a route of escape to the rest of
Speaker 2: the course. You're not like deep in there. But I
Speaker 2: guess you would recommend at least going to see the holes,
Speaker 2: just not necessarily planning to spend an entire afternoon there.
Speaker 4: I would walk it, Yes, I would walk Amen Corner.
Speaker 4: What I see sometimes it's happening quite often, is people
Speaker 4: just posting up in this social scene, this party, this
Speaker 4: sort of field party in the spot that you know
Speaker 4: below the grand stands, because it is pretty open, it's
Speaker 4: a bit of an expanse there where a lot of
Speaker 4: people can congregate. It's not like there's not a huge
Speaker 4: chair area like there might be on sixteen. So I
Speaker 4: just see that happening a lot, And I just wouldn't
Speaker 4: spend an hour and a half or an hour even
Speaker 4: watching shots on twelve. I would just walk the holes,
Speaker 4: maybe spend some time on thirteen.
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Speaker 2: Let's get Andy's recommendation.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mind centers around the course and how you
Speaker 7: go about navigating the course. And everybody obviously has watched
Speaker 7: this event for years and years before they go, and
Speaker 7: it's always like what should we pay attention to? Obviously,
Speaker 7: the greens of Augusta are what you want to see.
Speaker 7: And I think there's no better way to take in
Speaker 7: a golf course and understand the way the greens relate
Speaker 7: to the rest of the golf course than walking it backwards.
Speaker 7: You start on eighteen green and go backwards. Everybody walks
Speaker 7: one direction and it's like around it right, Start on
Speaker 7: the eighteenth green and go around. And one of the
Speaker 7: things you can do on almost every green out there
Speaker 7: is you can walk. You can't walk in front of it,
Speaker 7: but you can walk from the edge of almost every
Speaker 7: green excluding aim and corner all the way around the
Speaker 7: green and you can really like just see the whole
Speaker 7: green and take that in.
Speaker 1: If you want to go see the golf course. This
Speaker 1: is the way I would do it.
Speaker 7: Start on eighteen green, walk around, and especially if you're
Speaker 7: there early, what you're doing, you're gonna get like this
Speaker 7: wonderful walk, like right out of the gate where there's
Speaker 7: no people because you're there early and you're on holes
Speaker 7: the golfers aren't on and this is a wonderful way
Speaker 7: to see the golf course. Walk around the green and
Speaker 7: then walk back, And the thing you do while you're
Speaker 7: walking back kind of take in. You're taking in the topography,
Speaker 7: but then you can always look back and understand how
Speaker 7: everything relates back to the green that really is driving
Speaker 7: everything back.
Speaker 1: So everybody thinks.
Speaker 7: Oh, I got to walk it the way I'd play it,
Speaker 7: But if you really want to understand the golf holes,
Speaker 7: the best way to walk it, for if you're walking
Speaker 7: out one time, is walk it backwards.
Speaker 2: And this is kind of a manifestation of an architectural principle,
Speaker 2: which is that in order to understand a golf hole,
Speaker 2: the best thing that you can do is to understand
Speaker 2: the green first and then see the rest of the
Speaker 2: hole and how it relates to it. And so I
Speaker 2: guess that walking Augusta National in this way is like
Speaker 2: the easiest way to wrap your mind around the golf course.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this was the way I walked it the first
Speaker 7: time I walked it, and it really like I think,
Speaker 7: like there's certain holes that just stand out so much
Speaker 7: when you do it this way, Like fourteen is utterly
Speaker 7: amazing when you walk it this way the first time.
Speaker 7: I remember just like being mesmerized by that green and
Speaker 7: especially taking the time to walk all the way around
Speaker 7: it and then going back and understanding how the contour
Speaker 7: works and the fairway against the green and how difficult
Speaker 7: that shot becomes because of what's going on in the
Speaker 7: fairway because I understood the green. Otherwise you're like looking
Speaker 7: at the T shot and you don't know what's going
Speaker 7: on at the green, and you know it's like, oh,
Speaker 7: this is a T shot. But if you understand what's
Speaker 7: going on the green, then that T shot every shot
Speaker 7: backwards has so much more context to it.
Speaker 3: That's brilliant.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's brilliant the way you put that, Like
Speaker 4: it just then you get to the spot in the
Speaker 4: fairway right and you're thinking about what you just saw
Speaker 4: at the green. I would just say, while we're on fourteen,
Speaker 4: like obviously it gets lost in the shelfle right, and
Speaker 4: he's written about it. I would recommend that as like
Speaker 4: a spot to post up, quite honestly, because like every
Speaker 4: time I go there, it's just quiet. It's dead because
Speaker 4: on the left side of the hole, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of traffic comes up the left side, but it dead
Speaker 4: ends on the left side.
Speaker 3: You can't get to the green, so.
Speaker 4: That like cuts off a lot of like would be
Speaker 4: congregation and traffic makes it a little more quiet and accessible.
Speaker 1: It's like having a house at the end of a
Speaker 1: cul de sac.
Speaker 3: Yeah, potentially potentially Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then like on the other side where there's a
Speaker 4: grandstand every worried about like Elavin and get into fifteen
Speaker 4: or getting down to Amen corner. It just kind of
Speaker 4: is right there where everybody else is like missing it, right,
Speaker 4: they're going other places, and there's grandstand right of the green.
Speaker 4: If you're hitting into the green, I would really recommend,
Speaker 4: like I think you can get pretty close there because
Speaker 4: so many people end up on that left side and
Speaker 4: it cuts off they like bene you back up fifteen
Speaker 4: faraway and they don't get close.
Speaker 7: I would there's a cool grandstand you could sit in
Speaker 7: just right of the green. And there too if if
Speaker 7: you just like it's an awesome you know, I think
Speaker 7: there's this overwhelming like you're gonna spend a whole day there.
Speaker 7: It's a lot of time, and you want some downtime
Speaker 7: built in, and if you were looking for somewhere that
Speaker 7: maybe might not be that crowded to just get some chill,
Speaker 7: relaxed time in your day, that's a great spot to go,
Speaker 7: you know, sit down, and it's a it's a really
Speaker 7: cool hole to watch too, because you get a lot
Speaker 7: of that the ingredients of Augusta National. You get this
Speaker 7: vicious green that has funnel pins and unpinnable slopes that
Speaker 7: reject mediocre shots away and and that's it's a great
Speaker 7: hole to watch.
Speaker 2: Cool Okay, So that's good for the recommendations, And just
Speaker 2: to sum up, Michael recommended kind of getting organized from
Speaker 2: a logistical perspective, you know, keeping in mind that you
Speaker 2: don't have the phone out there to assist you in
Speaker 2: finding people and doing various things, and so having some
Speaker 2: planning helps. Andy recommended walking the course backwards in order
Speaker 2: to really understand the architecture, and Brendan gave the suggestion
Speaker 2: suggestion of kind of avoiding camping out at Amen Corner
Speaker 2: because there's so much else to see. Also recommended sort
Speaker 2: of avoiding the merch tent. So there are a couple
Speaker 2: of places kind of to stay away from if you're
Speaker 2: gonna believe Brendan here and I would trust both of
Speaker 2: those recommendations. They sound reasonable enough to me.
Speaker 4: I mean, I would just add, like, I don't want
Speaker 4: to sell, like preach your authoritative like, I'm not discouraging
Speaker 4: you to go to them, not go the merged tent
Speaker 4: or not go the a Yeah.
Speaker 2: Of course makes it happy, of course, But but these
Speaker 2: are these are based on experiences. These are recommendations.
Speaker 4: We've done it several times, trying to be helpful based
Speaker 4: on our experience. Like you said, I don't want to
Speaker 4: come off as some of it.
Speaker 2: I don't think you came off that way in my opinion.
Speaker 2: So why don't we go to our favorite spots at
Speaker 2: Augusta National Michael Wolfe, what would you choose here?
Speaker 5: I know it's difficult, sure, So my recommendation is going
Speaker 5: to be for once the tournament starts, Okay, I like
Speaker 5: to if you get a pass to the beginning of
Speaker 5: the week, or it's the first time you've ever been
Speaker 5: to Augusta.
Speaker 6: I definitely agree. You want to see all eighteen holes.
Speaker 5: Welcome backwards to things that Andy covered once the tournament starts.
Speaker 5: I'm interested kind of in the drama and the players
Speaker 5: in particular. You know, I watch these guys on TV
Speaker 5: every week, but this is a chance to see them
Speaker 5: at the event that means the most of them, and
Speaker 5: I want to be as up close and kind of
Speaker 5: be able to, you know, get as close and hear
Speaker 5: those conversations and just kind of see in their face
Speaker 5: is what's going on. And I think a really good
Speaker 5: spot for that again, I'm gonna go back to kind
Speaker 5: of the little triangle between between the second shot on two,
Speaker 5: so the right hand of the second fairway, and from
Speaker 5: there you can also see them coming back up to
Speaker 5: three green, which I think most people know is almost
Speaker 5: a driveable part four, but it creates a lot of action.
Speaker 5: There's you know, things can go horribly wrong there. You
Speaker 5: occasionally see an eagle, you see birdies. You know, it's
Speaker 5: it's a gambling hole depending on what guys want to do.
Speaker 6: And then the.
Speaker 5: Fourth hole, probably the hardest shot on the course. When
Speaker 5: the t's all the way back you're talking about a
Speaker 5: two hundred and fifty yard par three. It's it's, you know,
Speaker 5: really tough, and it gives you the sense once the
Speaker 5: tournament starts and they're playing for keeps, that kind of
Speaker 5: they the players themselves know they're gonna push it hard
Speaker 5: on two.
Speaker 6: There's a real opportunity there.
Speaker 5: I think you see more eagles on two than any
Speaker 5: other whole a lot of years.
Speaker 6: And you can see a really good perspective.
Speaker 5: You're behind them, if you're standing to that right hand
Speaker 5: side of two, behind four to t, you trying to
Speaker 5: see him shooting down the hill, and they're being aggressive there.
Speaker 6: Same thing.
Speaker 5: You kind of see the story develop. You see who
Speaker 5: hit a good shot on two? Did they end up
Speaker 5: making the putt? You can you can see all that
Speaker 5: from where you're standing. You don't even have to move.
Speaker 5: And then they turn right back around and come up three,
Speaker 5: and again they're probably going to be aggressive there. It's
Speaker 5: interesting as the players walk off of the third green
Speaker 5: and they're walking right to you, and they're looking almost
Speaker 5: right at you as they come up to the back
Speaker 5: of the fourth tea box and there's guys that are
Speaker 5: you know, three under after the first three holes and
Speaker 5: they're excited, and there's guys that are there one over
Speaker 5: after three and they know they just missed two good
Speaker 5: birdie chances and now they're facing a really, really tough
Speaker 5: hole on number four to make a four on you
Speaker 5: can almost see like the dread of like, oh man,
Speaker 5: I didn't take advantage of those easy ones, and now
Speaker 5: I got to get to work. And I just like
Speaker 5: that seeing that drama up front. You know, you don't
Speaker 5: get to see that on television. The camera doesn't stay
Speaker 5: on a guy for forty five minutes straight, whereas in
Speaker 5: that little section, without having to move more than about
Speaker 5: twenty feet, you can watch all three of those shots
Speaker 5: and kind of get an idea of what kind of
Speaker 5: start the players off to and how he's feeling about it.
Speaker 4: Just a quick supplement to that is, do not get
Speaker 4: caught going up the left side of three. I see
Speaker 4: this happen all the time. You can't see anything. You're
Speaker 4: way below the green. You're seeing guys chip, You have
Speaker 4: no idea where the ball is going, Like it's a
Speaker 4: sweet hole, it's cool hole. He'll probably be close to
Speaker 4: where the guys are wedging up to. But like three,
Speaker 4: I see a lot of people if you're going for
Speaker 4: the left side of three, yeah, you might find Briceon's
Speaker 4: lost ball down there. But just if you're going up
Speaker 4: the left side of three, this is super specific. No,
Speaker 4: you got to get up around the green to the
Speaker 4: back to the right side.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the high side.
Speaker 7: And that's the key, one of the keys at Augusta.
Speaker 7: I think in general, I guess I could parlay this
Speaker 7: is into mind is finding high points where you can
Speaker 7: see a lot of shots.
Speaker 1: And the point that Michael made there is.
Speaker 7: That spot is great because you're up high and everything
Speaker 7: you're looking at is down, so you're able to see
Speaker 7: so much more right. It's in a way kind of
Speaker 7: like the stadium course at Sawgrass where they have those
Speaker 7: ampathy Augusta's hills creates some really great spectating spots, and
Speaker 7: a lot of times what happens is the congregation of
Speaker 7: people is lower in the in near the greens, and
Speaker 7: if you stay up higher, that's uh, that's a really
Speaker 7: good way to do it. So I the spot I
Speaker 7: called out earlier, I love the that what I forgot
Speaker 7: what Jeff Ogilvie.
Speaker 2: Called sweet spot of Augusta National the sweet spot.
Speaker 1: So that's another spot. Uh.
Speaker 7: If you're on that hill, you can watch two green.
Speaker 7: It's uh, it's where this big scoreboard is. You can
Speaker 7: see some of seven and but then you can also
Speaker 7: watch that T shot on three, which is really cool,
Speaker 7: and then you see them back up on the on
Speaker 7: the green. You're close to seventeen green. You you can
Speaker 7: bounce around and you can kind of it's a good spot.
Speaker 7: I you know, I have a d D, so I
Speaker 7: kind of like to like, I get kind of jittery
Speaker 7: when I'm standing around one spot. I like to move around.
Speaker 7: I'm not just like a sitter, right, So that's a spot.
Speaker 7: But but if I was sitting one spot, if I'm sitting,
Speaker 7: if you want to go into the heart of the action,
Speaker 7: you want to see the drama the left side if
Speaker 7: you can get there, the left side of the grandstand
Speaker 7: left of sixteen T is spectacular because you can see
Speaker 7: the shots in from fifteen and you can see the
Speaker 7: T shots on sixteen, and that can be a real
Speaker 7: scintillating spot in terms of drama and action and a
Speaker 7: wonderful place to just sit, you know.
Speaker 4: Can I can I can I make you talked about
Speaker 4: the sweet spot? Yeah, Sixteen's fantastic, But you talked about
Speaker 4: that sweet spot. Can I make a spectator's argument, and
Speaker 4: I know there's an architectural sort of argument against for
Speaker 4: watching as a spectator, I think watching approach shots into
Speaker 4: seven is not bad. I think seven's pretty great. Being
Speaker 4: sitting behind seven is. I know the the hole is panned.
Speaker 4: It's kind of the number one option when people start
Speaker 4: talking about not superb holes out there, I'd say, spectator,
Speaker 4: it's pretty it's kind of great to stand behind seven green.
Speaker 7: It's the high point in the middle of the property too,
Speaker 7: So again it affords you if you're behind seven green,
Speaker 7: which there's a lot of space right there. Again, you
Speaker 7: can see three T and two green and two fair away,
Speaker 7: so it's a great yeah, eight eight and eighteen T.
Speaker 2: And it's kind of a fun dramatic green too. I
Speaker 2: mean the architectural argument against seven is mainly that the
Speaker 2: hole doesn't really match up with the green that well,
Speaker 2: it's just this long, really narrow hole choked by trees,
Speaker 2: and then you're hitting into this green that doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to match with that distance of hole, but the green itself,
Speaker 2: I mean, seeing the shots go in there is always
Speaker 2: a dramatic moment. You know that the ball really rolls there,
Speaker 2: and the Sunday pin there is cool. So I mean
Speaker 2: staying up by the green, you get to see the
Speaker 2: good stuff at that hole.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
Speaker 4: I just I remember watching like Tony fenal threat a
Speaker 4: shot like in between the bunkers, like complete mirror shot.
Speaker 4: And then of course you get so many where there
Speaker 4: they throw them up and kind of suck them back
Speaker 4: to a front pin.
Speaker 3: It's just it's just a.
Speaker 4: Fun dramatic as a spectator, it's kind of a dramatic
Speaker 4: play to watch every every time groups come through.
Speaker 2: All right, so have we gone through all the all
Speaker 2: the favorite spots at this point, Andy gave haz Brendan
Speaker 2: is seven yours or did you have another in mind?
Speaker 3: It was one of them, I would add.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is not nothing, you know, you need
Speaker 4: you know, unexpected nine green. You know, just standing to
Speaker 4: the right side of nine green is awesome. It's a
Speaker 4: great approach shot to watch. It's another like high point,
Speaker 4: as Andy would say, it gets a little it's.
Speaker 3: A high traffic spot.
Speaker 4: Of course you've got the first and you've got the
Speaker 4: eighteenth green behind you. But but just spending a little
Speaker 4: time there watching those t shots. You're gonna see amazing
Speaker 4: approach shots. You can see great approach shots. You have
Speaker 4: to see some great short game or poor short game recoveries.
Speaker 4: You can see some amazing lag putts. It's just a
Speaker 4: really cool place to see a lot of different skills
Speaker 4: and you're at a high point. I mean maybe you
Speaker 4: maybe you can you can look down to two Green
Speaker 4: across the way there. It's not you're not gonna be
Speaker 4: close or anything like that, but in terms of you know,
Speaker 4: seeing a really a real sort of display of Augusta National,
Speaker 4: it's best. I think that's a great place to be
Speaker 4: right of nine Green. It's going to be crowded, but
Speaker 4: if you can get there, I think that's great.
Speaker 2: All right. Yeah, I hope that gives people some ideas
Speaker 2: about what to do when they're going to Augusta National,
Speaker 2: whether it's for the first time or if they've been
Speaker 2: lucky enough to go multiple times. I think some of
Speaker 2: these recommendations can can fit for for people who have
Speaker 2: actually been to the Masters before. So thank you so
Speaker 2: much to you three for sitting down and going through
Speaker 2: some of that stuff. Now, to cap things off, Michael,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you were intending to share this
Speaker 2: on the air. But before we started recording, you had
Speaker 2: kind of a fun Masters fact of the Day type
Speaker 2: thing that you were talking about. Can we give that
Speaker 2: just to just to send people out on a high note.
Speaker 1: He probably doesn't remember.
Speaker 6: Another one.
Speaker 5: I think, well, they're they're gonna guess, So I'm gonn
Speaker 5: give him a different one. I' gonna gi him afer one.
Speaker 6: Who's the first.
Speaker 2: By the way, in case people don't know, Michael is
Speaker 2: the curator I guess of Masters facts of the day
Speaker 2: going back a couple of years on the Shotgun Start podcast.
Speaker 2: He has a bunch of these kinds. It's nice for
Speaker 2: my genius to finally be recognized. Is a tougher room.
Speaker 5: Okay, So the previous question was which which person has
Speaker 5: the most top ten finishes in professional majors without winning
Speaker 5: a professional major? And the answer was Ed Dudley, the first,
Speaker 5: the first head professional at Augusta National.
Speaker 6: I think he had twenty seven.
Speaker 5: But now I'm gonna give you guys a different onecause
Speaker 5: you guys already heard that one. So here's a different one.
Speaker 5: Who was the first professional golfer to finish in the
Speaker 5: top ten in all four majors in the same year.
Speaker 5: Who was the first one?
Speaker 2: Oh wow? An all four majors? So do you mean
Speaker 2: all four modern majors?
Speaker 6: All four modern majors? Top ten senior.
Speaker 3: Ricky twenty four Ricky twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna go with uh. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with uh J H. Taylor.
Speaker 5: That would have been pre major. It's a it's a
Speaker 5: trick question. The answer again, it is a trick question.
Speaker 5: The answer again is Ed Dudley, the first head pro
Speaker 5: and I guess the national most majors without winning one
Speaker 5: first got to finish in the top ten in all four.
Speaker 1: Ed Dudley, a golfer, was the old four major. Dodley
Speaker 1: could play major.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think we used this one last year,
Speaker 5: but another one more fun factory we go.
Speaker 7: About he did at Dudley finished in the top ten
Speaker 7: of the Western Open.
Speaker 6: Is not a major.
Speaker 5: No check check Bobby Jones is qualifying criteria for the Masters.
Speaker 6: There's no Western exemption in there.
Speaker 5: All right, we're gonna finish the last bullet in the
Speaker 5: Ed in the Ed Dudley Chamber. He didn't get paid
Speaker 5: by Augusta National when he was the professional there. They
Speaker 5: didn't pay him but he had he got the proceeds
Speaker 5: from the merchandise. Oh wow, how about that now? That
Speaker 5: would have been very valuable today. He didn't drawur He
Speaker 5: did not draw salary the first Protogust National did not
Speaker 5: draw salary. But he owned the rights to all the merchandise.
Speaker 1: That was saying, I guess, and that was a short
Speaker 1: term deal.
Speaker 2: How much how much would somebody make if they got
Speaker 2: all the proceeds from the merchandise today?
Speaker 7: I don't know that would be well if Brendan was
Speaker 7: in charge of persuade people from going in there. So
Speaker 7: don't go, don't go into the merchandise. This is a
Speaker 7: once your once in a life one merch wreck I have.
Speaker 7: I truly believe in this. This is somebody that visits
Speaker 7: a lot of a lot of pro shops. You know,
Speaker 7: this is a lot of courses. Do not get a hat,
Speaker 7: get a shirt, whatever you want, but I recommend buying
Speaker 7: something that is going to have utility and durability for
Speaker 7: a long time. I have a coffee tumblr a like
Speaker 7: one of those like almost I don't know if it's
Speaker 7: Yetti who knows that a lot of them are white
Speaker 7: labeled in there, but I have effectively like a twenty
Speaker 7: three ounce coffee yetti that I have used since twenty
Speaker 7: nineteen and I use it regularly and it brings me
Speaker 7: great joy. And you know the hat. I don't have
Speaker 7: the hat that I bought. And that's what I would say,
Speaker 7: is that buying something like you're going to the Masters,
Speaker 7: you don't know when you're ever coming back.
Speaker 1: Buy stuff that has lasting powers.
Speaker 2: And buy something that is not easy to lose. But yeah,
Speaker 2: you want to hang on to your nice stuff that
Speaker 2: you get at the merch tent.
Speaker 7: All right, thank you, Garrett. I'm ending this podcast. I'm
Speaker 7: not the host, but I'm deciding.
Speaker 2: That this that's fine. You're putting a hard stop. You
Speaker 2: guys need to go to dinner. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: This episode of the Frida Egg podcast was edited by
Speaker 2: meg Atkins. If you'd like more coverage of the Masters
Speaker 2: and Augusta National, we have lots of stuff on the
Speaker 2: Frida egg dot com. In fact, we have a Master's
Speaker 2: Hub where you'll find articles and podcasts on a variety
Speaker 2: of subjects related to Augusta National and the tournament. I'll
Speaker 2: put a link to the Master's Hub in the show notes,
Speaker 2: so check that out. And thanks for listening,