Augusta Diary: Inside the ropes and the tour trucks at the Masters
HEAVEN: Seamus Power walks across the Nelson bridge on the 13th hole at Augusta National.
A huge sense of awe as you enter the course and get to appreciate the vastness of the grounds. It almost feels like the set for a movie as everything is picture-perfect. Immediately you start spotting familiar holes and walking over for a closer look. Seamus Power played the back 9 with Billy Horschel at 9.30 am and played the front nine with Rory, Harrington, and Lowry at 12pm. The weather was perfect and the fourball drew a sizable crowd. Harrington and Rory beat Seamus and Lowry 1up in the 9 hole match. Seamus did the first of his three gym sessions Monday evening in the great gym at nearby Augusta Country Club.
We had been warned that thunderstorms would hit the area at about noon, and this is exactly what happened. In anticipation of this Seamus decided to use the practice area for a couple of hours early in the morning rather than go out on the course. The chipping and pitching at Augusta is very challenging due to the slopes around and on the greens. It was very cool to watch Seamus practice different shots to see which had the best chance of getting the ball close to the hole. Going low and running the ball along the contours and going high trying to land on a flat spot near the hole. On many holes, getting a pitch or chip shot slightly wrong can lead to the ball catching a slope, and making two-putting from there difficult. The course was closed for the day at about 11.30am and a huge amount of rain fell Tuesday and Tuesday night. A tough pill to swallow for fans who had made the journey with a one day ticket.
An articulated lorry with a gym in the trailer drives around to every tour event, and this was utilised by a lot of the players on Tuesday afternoon.
Seamus played nine holes in the morning with Dustin Johnson and Harold Varner III. There was a weather warning for lightning which meant the course grounds had to be evacuated by fans and players couldn’t practice or play. Thankfully the weather passed and the par 3 tournament went ahead. The Par 3 course struck us all as the ultimate playground for golf fanatics. Unbelievably picturesque holes of 70-140 yards with perfect course condition. The pins are set up in funnel areas in the hope of hole-in-ones, and it’s amazing how close the players come from these distances. The atmosphere at the par 3 course is very relaxed with most players having family members caddying for them and it’s good fun for the fans.
Something which really adds to the atmosphere at Augusta is that no phones are allowed inside the grounds. Fans are allowed to bring a camera from Monday to Wednesday, but not a phone, and then from Thursday onwards there are no cameras allowed. This leads to everyone being fully consumed in the Augusta bubble! On Wednesday evening Seamus did his second gym session of the week. A big crew of family, friends, and sponsors had come to support Seamus and everyone had arrived by this stage. Three houses had been rented for people to stay in and each evening we would spend a couple of hours relaxing and catching up on the day in one of the houses. Liam Deasy, the head chef in the Old Head of Kinsale is a close friend of Simon Keelan (Seamus' caddy), and he came over for the week to take care of cooking. A very popular choice. He made incredible food each day.
The sense of anticipation before the start of the first day's play is huge. Practice had gone extremely well and Seamus’ form had been very good coming into the event, but you just never know in golf. He may have received the loudest cheer on the first tee of any player (except for Tiger), due to the large and vocal group of family and friends who were there. So much so that walking up the first fairway Patrick Reed asked him what his connection to Augusta was. An opening day 74 (+2) was a solid start in windy afternoon conditions. Everyone has heard about the green speed in Augusta but the amount of slope is a bigger factor. The severity of the slopes can mean that uphill putts need to be hit very hard, but of course nobody wants a three-footer back down the hill, making it a challenge to get uphill putts to the hole.
FRIDAY
There are no digital scoreboards in Augusta and no phones are allowed. This makes it tricky to track how scoring is on the course as the scoreboards that are around the course only focus on the top 10. Chatter amongst the supporters suggested that +4 would be safe for the weekend, but +5 would be risking it. Standing on the 13th tee at +6 made things interesting but a truly remarkable run of ball-striking led to Seamus playing the last six holes in -2 and getting in on the number. The ball striking on the back 9 was exceptional in very challenging conditions, and everyone was delighted to have made the weekend and have another two days to follow and support. Seamus was very happy to have two more rounds to try and climb up the leaderboard. Gym session #3 of the week was followed with dinner prepared by Liam and spirits were very high all round.
This was the toughest day of the week. It was very windy and very cold. Just 54% of the greens were hit in regulation by the field proving how challenging conditions were. The pins on many greens tend to be positioned on small shelves. Near impossible up and downs await if one gets too aggressive, and extremely difficult two putts are the issue if players tend to aim for the fat side of the green. When you add in the firmness of the putting surfaces and the high winds, it makes approach shots very challenging.
This was summed up by Seamus’ perfect 7 wood that ended up in the water on the 15th. It flew three yards too far into a very strong wind, caught the downslope and trundled into the water leading to bogey. It was very nearly a good chance of eagle, and certain birdie. It’s not often a player will hit two shots of such quality on a par 5 and make a bogey. The quality of ball-striking has been superb, and the hope is this continues into Sunday. If a few putts drop, who knows where he will end up on the leaderboard.
Sunshine and much less wind was very welcome after the conditions on Saturday. While everyone would have loved to be in contention there is something nice about all pressure being off on the weekend and trying to climb as many spots as possible.
With Seamus’ ball-striking being so good all week we were hoping he could capitaliSe on the nicer conditions and have plenty of good looks at birdie. This is exactly what happened and the putter got a little hotter. I’m writing this with a little bit of time left to go for the final groups on Sunday, but Seamus is lying 7th in strokes gained putting for the day which balanced out the week on the greens.
Between family, close friends, sponsors, and staff there was about 30 people together following Seamus and living every shot for the week. Everyone was very grateful to be part of his first Masters and first major.
Going to the Masters is a dream come true for any golf fan and this week is more unique still. It’s hard to sum up how surreal and cool the whole week was. From a personal point of view I’ve been very close friends with Simon (caddie) for about 10 years and obviously enjoyed it as part of the support crew for Seamus. Getting to see Seamus, his family and lifelong friends soak up the experience was just very nice. It’s a rare thing to get to be a part of and I’m sure nobody here will ever forget it. Based on the quality of play seen over the last 12 months and this week the potential for bigger days ahead is very bright.
My biggest takeaway from the week might seem obvious but it is just how exceptionally good this calibre of player is and how high a skill level is needed to navigate Augusta when the wind blows. The classic cliche is that TV doesn’t do the course justice, but this is absolutely true. In Saturday's conditions, I reckon a scratch golfer would have done well to break 90. Bad shots are just so severely punished around and on the green.
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