Dispatches From The Masters
I’ve made this drive a hundred times. Maybe two hundred. From my first trip in 1979 from Charleston to this year from Ponte Vedra Beach, it never gets old. Driving to Atlanta is all about interstates and traffic. Driving to Augusta is about savoring the countryside, the anticipation of what the week might bring, and how the golf course has changed and how it looks. Azaleas in bloom? Green as ever? With the tournament being scheduled the first full week of April when that Monday isn’t the 1st, just a few days and perhaps a cold snap or thunderstorm can alter the appearance of Augusta National.
From Charleston, the drive is a combination of backroads and working towns, farms and warehouses. You could take I-26 up towards Columbia and cut over on 301 and 4 to I-20 and come in that way from the north. But you’d miss stopping for gas in Ridgeland and having the clerk ask, “How are you today? Headed to the toonament?”
According to Google Maps, the Interstate route is 2 Hours and 46 minutes. I always preferred going through Summerville on 78 and heading northwest through Ridgeville, St. George, Reevesville, Branchville, and the aptly named town of Midway before crossing over 301. From there you hooked up with 278, which took you right to Augusta. I learned a lot about farming on those drives.
Two or three times during my tenure in Charleston, the General Manager of the TV station I was working at would rent a plane and fly us up there and come back the same day, home in time to be on the six o’clock news. You could still just walk up and buy a ticket to the practice rounds. I’m not sure if he just wanted to go to the Masters or go flying, or both. I understand either motivation.
I was very happy in January of1982 when my credential followed me to the station in Jacksonville, my next professional stop. I was told when I took the job that the station had lost its credential in the past and I figured my covering the Masters was over. But the letter on my desk from Martha Wallace inviting me to apply for a credential in late January was a welcome sight.
But I didn’t attend the Masters that year.
My wife, Linda, was due with our first child that week and I didn’t want to chance being nearly three hours away (before cell phones, which wouldn’t have been allowed on the grounds anyway) and not being able to get back in time. So, I let Martha know I wouldn’t be coming that year, and why, and she graciously said, “Well good luck, and we’ll see you next year!” True to form, our daughter Austin was born on her due date, April 10, 1982. (That night the New York Cosmos of the NASL were making their only appearance against the Tea Men in Jacksonville and I missed that too. It rained like crazy. The Cosmos won 2-0). Craig Stadler won the Green Jacket that year, and now that he’s a neighbor of mine in Florida, I’ll have to mention that to him the next time I see him.
The drive from Jacksonville was different but no less enlightening. Also just over four hours, I used to take I-95 to just north of Savanah and go up 21 through Rincon, Springfield, Newington, Hiltonia, Sylvania and Sardis (home of Cale Yarborough) and straight into Augusta. I altered that sometime in the early ‘90’s when they finally finished the construction on 25 going to and through Statesboro. It’s still just over four hours, but up 95 and west on 16 before jumping off on 25 and heading north is now the regular route. It takes you through Millen and Waynesboro, right through the intersection where Sam Snead had an accident driving to the tournament in 1992 from his home in Ft. Pierce. Snead, a three time champion and 78 years old that year, missed being the honorary starter because of the accident and was cited for running a stop sign and driving too fast. The driver he hit was left paralyzed.
Once, I took a commercial flight into Augusta. I don’t know where I was coming from, maybe covering the NCAA basketball tournament somewhere, but it seemed kind of silly laying over in Atlanta for the short hop to Augusta Regional.
Since becoming a pilot more than two decades ago, I’ve flown into Augusta Regional plenty during the tournament but most recently they’ve moved small planes over to Daniel Field, not far from “The National.” On Wednesday night of the Masters, it’s always been said that Augusta Regional hosts the largest collection of private aircraft in the world in that calendar year. Hard to say, but they do close one runway to make room for the jets that fly in from all over. N1AP (Arnold Palmer’s Citation X) was always parked in spot one, with N1JN (Jack Nicklaus’ G5) right next to him.
This drive happens to be at lunchtime on Monday, with my brother and my nephew. although I’ve made the trip Sunday before the tournament and almost every day after that. Anytime we can get tickets, my brother and I make it a point to meet at The Masters.
The 2020 trip was unique, because the competition was delayed until November that year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. I never knew how many cotton fields there were in that part of Georgia until I drove it in November. The growing season. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it snowed on that plot of land! The red clay and the white cotton balls make quite a contrast. Arriving at The National, I was directed to the large Patron Parking lot down Berkman’s Road to the Covid testing tent.
Pulling my car into tent, as I went to get out, I was greeted with a sign instructing me to stay in my car. Two nurses in Hazmat suits came out of a temporary building with a piece of paper and held it up to my window with instructions. “Roll your window down a few inches to begin the test,” I read. They slid another piece of paper into the car, with instructions on how to take the test. Two long q-tips and a holding tube followed. I took the test and handed it back to them saying, “I’ll just park over here to use the bathroom.” “Pull over there and stay in your car,” were the firm instructions. Having driven four and a half hours, perhaps a bathroom stop earlier would have been in order. As I pulled to the right, although I had no indication that I might have Covid, it occurred to me that they might just send me home if the test came back positive.
I was given the green light to attend the tournament, but others weren’t so lucky. Former Players Champion, Jacksonville native and Former #1 in the world David Duval had made the more than twenty hour drive from Denver to continue to serve as one of the lead analysts on The Golf Channel coverage. A negative test sent him back to Denver for the week.
Monday is usually a day to get organized, although there are a few press conference opportunities in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to what Justin Rose has to say Easy guy to like and he’s been close here, in playoffs, a couple of times.
