Masters patrons given special eclipse viewing glasses

A patron look up at the sun during an solar eclipse during a practice round  for the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on Monday. Picture: Matt Slocum/AP

Patrons arriving for the 88th Masters week on Monday were given something never before available at Augusta National – eclipse viewing glasses.

For the first time, a solar eclipse coincided with Masters week. Augusta was not in the path of totality — which stretched across the US from Texas up through a dozen states into Maine and southern Canada — but the sun was 76.1% occluded by the moon — essentially a crescent sun — over Augusta National Golf Club at 3:08pm (8.08pm Irish time) while players were still playing practice rounds and the course was packed with patrons.

To prevent its 50,000-plus practice-round badge holders from going blind staring up at the eclipse, the Masters had special viewing glasses exclusively created for its patrons and passed them out at the entrance gates. 

Not everybody started gazing at the sky in their 3D-style glasses at the same time, but everywhere you looked someone was peering up to see various stages of the eclipse that lasted more than three-and-a-half hours from beginning to end.

Not Shane Lowry, however.

“Nah, I’m not much of a science nerd,” Lowry said.

Before the eclipse even reach its zenith, some patrons had put their Masters glasses on eBay for $199.99. Most patrons, however, seemed to appreciate the unique value of the moment.

“This is a completely unique day,” said Bob Duke of Charleston, South Carolina, who was standing near the scoreboard with his son, Kyle, taking in the peak of the eclipse. 

“First of all, I’m at Augusta National with my son, which we don’t get to do often enough because of work. Second, there are no cell phones. And third, there’s an eclipse. That’s a wonderfully unique day.” 

Brain Harman, the reigning Open champion, appreciated the moment in his own way. “This is timed up pretty good; get to watch the end of the world at Augusta National, right?” he said. 

“No, last time we were in a (FedEx Cup) playoff event seven years ago, and same thing happened. We were on the golf course then, too. So, yeah, both eclipses I guess my last seven years will be on the golf course getting ready for a golf tournament.” 

For any locals who experienced the total solar eclipse that passed directly over Georgia only seven years ago in 2017, the full eclipse window from roughly 1-4:30pm was a good time to hit the merchandise shop, which has seen unprecedented queues up to two-plus hours just to get in the building to buy goods.

According to Nasa, about 31.6m people live in the path of totality from Mexico through Canada, with an additional 150m within 300km of the path.