Speaker 1: Hey, it's Fred and We're going to do something here
Speaker 1: that I've never ever done before in the history of
Speaker 1: Golf Smarter. And that's just riff. This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 1: I'm not interviewing anybody here. This is a bonus episode
Speaker 1: that I'm just going to add lib on. Let it
Speaker 1: fly and see what happens. So I'll stay with me
Speaker 1: because I can't wait to share with you my two
Speaker 1: days at the Masters. It's been absolutely amazing to spend
Speaker 1: those two days. I've been to multiple sporting events. I've
Speaker 1: been to the Super Bowl, I've been to eight World Series.
Speaker 1: I've been to five Baseball All Star Games. I've been
Speaker 1: to the NBA All Star Game, ND five hundred NASCAR.
Speaker 1: I've been to a couple WrestleManias, but nothing compares to
Speaker 1: the excitement of the Master going to Augusta. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's everybody's bucket list, everybody who's ever been
Speaker 1: around golf, it's their bucket list, and I get to
Speaker 1: check it off. A little background on how I got
Speaker 1: here first, So a Golf Smarter listener named Chett Hurwitz,
Speaker 1: who really is an amazing ambassador at Golf Smarter here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta telling many of his friends, and then he
Speaker 1: saw on Facebook. He saw on Facebook that a high
Speaker 1: school classmate of his had written a memoir that was
Speaker 1: being highly recommended. So Chet got the book, a book
Speaker 1: called By Accident by joe Anne Green, and he started
Speaker 1: reading it. And while he's reading it, he's realizing, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, she keeps talking about her husband Fred. It's
Speaker 1: the same Fred Green who I've been listening to for
Speaker 1: a while. So Chet reached out to Joanne and in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, Joanne and I took the civil Rights
Speaker 1: tour in the South and we stopped in Atlanta first.
Speaker 1: We came in a day early and we met Chet
Speaker 1: and his wife, who again my wife went to high
Speaker 1: school with him, and you can hear my wife on
Speaker 1: her podcasts in the story, and she also does the
Speaker 1: introduction to golf smarter. That's my wife's voice. So we
Speaker 1: met Chet last year and his wife and Chet and
Speaker 1: I immediately start talking golf and the podcast, and he's
Speaker 1: told me that he had been to multiple Masters before
Speaker 1: and also has played Augusta National at least a half
Speaker 1: dozen times, I think it is. And I told him
Speaker 1: at that point year ago, I said, if there's any
Speaker 1: chance ever of me getting to come with you to
Speaker 1: go to the Masters, give me twenty four hours notice
Speaker 1: and I'll be there. And so over the last year
Speaker 1: we worked on it. And if you remember last week's
Speaker 1: episode or this week's episode with doctor Bob Jones, the
Speaker 1: fourth Bobby Jones' grandson, he talked about Charlie Yates and
Speaker 1: his one of his closest friends, Charlie Yates Junior. Charlie
Speaker 1: Yates was a golfer in the thirties and forties and
Speaker 1: a kind of a legend here in Atlanta. And chet
Speaker 1: is also good friends with Charlie, and Charlie was the
Speaker 1: one who provided He's a member at Augustin National, and
Speaker 1: he was able to provide us with two members badges
Speaker 1: for Wednesday at the Masters and then Thursday for the
Speaker 1: first day of the Masters. We just got regular tickets.
Speaker 1: And I'll break that down and admit it, but I
Speaker 1: just wanted to share with you the introduction of how
Speaker 1: I got here in the first place. As I'm talking
Speaker 1: right now, I'm sitting at my gate. I'm about to
Speaker 1: fly back to San Francisco this morning, and so I
Speaker 1: just want to share observations and stories from my time
Speaker 1: and we'll do that after this. Okay, augusta national amazing. Now,
Speaker 1: first thing I want to tell you is that when
Speaker 1: you okay, so he's talking, I hope you can hear
Speaker 1: me over this guy talking, I'll just wait, Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The first thing I want to talk about is that
Speaker 1: since most of us has to experience the masters, the
Speaker 1: people who go, what they tell you, the ones who've
Speaker 1: been If you've ever talked to people who've been there,
Speaker 1: first thing they talk about is how amazing it is,
Speaker 1: that how steep the holes are, and you really don't
Speaker 1: get a sense of that on television. And it's true,
Speaker 1: you really don't get a sense of how steep the
Speaker 1: holes and the walking is and what a challenging walk
Speaker 1: it is. So here's a piece of advice. When you're
Speaker 1: watching it on TV, look at the player's head, the
Speaker 1: top of his head, and then compare that to the horizon.
Speaker 1: If the horizon is above his head, clearly he's going uphill.
Speaker 1: If the horizon is below his head, then he's going downhill.
Speaker 1: And you can really tell get a better sense of
Speaker 1: what the undulation is like when you're watching on TV.
Speaker 1: I have all these notes that I'm checking off in
Speaker 1: my day here. So when we arrived Whennesday morning, we
Speaker 1: get our badges, and the first thing I'm interested in
Speaker 1: is going to the gift shop because I wanted to
Speaker 1: get a nome, right, a garden nome, and the line
Speaker 1: said it was eighty minutes long, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pass on that for now, and Chat
Speaker 1: recommended that we just pass on that until later and
Speaker 1: go to a different, different store which is on the
Speaker 1: fifth hole instead of the entrance main entrance. And because
Speaker 1: we had members badges for Wednesday, that gave us access
Speaker 1: to the Member's Clubhouse, the Member's pro Shop, the Member's
Speaker 1: gift store, Founder's Hall, and to get inside the ropes
Speaker 1: by the tree. And that's where the golf industry all
Speaker 1: hangs out. It is under the big tree, right outside
Speaker 1: the clubhouse, and that's where all the umbrellas are to
Speaker 1: sit and eat. If you've seen, you know or heard
Speaker 1: about under the umbrellas. So first thing, because Chet has
Speaker 1: played there so many times, he was able to give
Speaker 1: me a detailed tour. And on Wednesday they had the
Speaker 1: putting contest. We didn't watch any golf. We saw a
Speaker 1: couple of golfers practicing on various holes, but we didn't
Speaker 1: see any golf that day, just but we probably put
Speaker 1: in thirty thousand steps walking the course and chet sharing
Speaker 1: details from tee to green on practically every hole and
Speaker 1: how to play them and the best viewing angles for things.
Speaker 1: So at one point, where standing waiting to cross over
Speaker 1: the fifteenth fairway and standing there, and I turn around
Speaker 1: and I look and I'm thinking, wait a minute, is
Speaker 1: that it is? And I walked up to this person
Speaker 1: after watching for a few minutes, and I went page
Speaker 1: and it was Paige Spinner Rack on Wednesday. Well, Wednesday
Speaker 1: is the only day you were allowed to have a
Speaker 1: camera there, and you can't your phones anytime, but I
Speaker 1: had a digital camera that I borrowed from a friend.
Speaker 1: So I talked to Page for a minute. Told her
Speaker 1: that when she first got started doing her YouTube videos,
Speaker 1: that I wrote to her asking her to be on
Speaker 1: the show and that she never responded, which is fine
Speaker 1: because it was a podcast and she's a video star.
Speaker 1: And just told her how happy I was for her success.
Speaker 1: And we got a picture together. So then we take
Speaker 1: off and now we're walking and we're headed up because
Speaker 1: we're supposed to meet Mac Barnhardt who you heard a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago for multiple times on the show.
Speaker 1: Mac is Lucas Glover's agent, and Mac and I had
Speaker 1: been texting and he says, all right, meet me at
Speaker 1: noon at eleven point thirty, buy the tree front of
Speaker 1: the clubhouse and we'll have lunch together and then Lucas
Speaker 1: te's off at twelve fourteen, so we'll go over there together.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, that would be awesome. As we're
Speaker 1: walking over there, there's a group of photographers walking in
Speaker 1: front of us. You know, we're walking across the fairway
Speaker 1: and there's a group of four or five photographers with
Speaker 1: very large lenses, you know, official press photographers in front
Speaker 1: of us. And I look over and one of them
Speaker 1: is Ken Griffy Junior. And I was like Ken, he
Speaker 1: goes yeah, I said, you're working here. What's going on?
Speaker 1: He goes yeah, I am. And I said it's crazy
Speaker 1: because I was just telling Chet a story about you
Speaker 1: this morning. So on the drive over from we were
Speaker 1: staying about an hour outside of Augusta It's which is
Speaker 1: two and a half hours from Atlanta. We were staying
Speaker 1: with a friend of his while we were going to
Speaker 1: Augusta and on the drive over, Chet and I were
Speaker 1: sharing baseball stories. Chet's father was a renowned baseball writer
Speaker 1: for the Boston Globe for decades, and so Chet and
Speaker 1: I both have great baseball stories. We were sharing and
Speaker 1: I was telling about the time that I was at
Speaker 1: a game at the Seattle Mariners game and Ken Griffy
Speaker 1: Junior and Ken Griffy Senior were on the same team together.
Speaker 1: It was one of two years or one year that
Speaker 1: they did that. And the story was the game I
Speaker 1: was at, Dad was on second base, I think he walked,
Speaker 1: and then there was a sacrifice fly. He's on second,
Speaker 1: and then Junior comes up to the plate and hits
Speaker 1: a home run. Well, in baseball, when somebody hits a
Speaker 1: home run, if anybody's on base, they run, they cross
Speaker 1: home and then they wait for the guy who hit
Speaker 1: the home run. They wait for him to cross home plate,
Speaker 1: and when they do, give him a high five, a
Speaker 1: slap on the butt, and they go into the dugout.
Speaker 1: Not Ken Griffy Senior. He's waiting for his son to
Speaker 1: come to home plate, and as he crosses home plate,
Speaker 1: Dad reaches up, grabs his hat and gives Junior a
Speaker 1: noogie and it was the cutest things, a total dad thing.
Speaker 1: So I when I met Ken Griffy walking across Augusta
Speaker 1: National and I said, I was just telling Jet this
Speaker 1: story about you this morning, and I told Ken the
Speaker 1: whole story, and I said, you know, he gave you
Speaker 1: a noogi and Ken looks at me, he goes, he's
Speaker 1: still doing that. It was so good. So he looked
Speaker 1: at me and he goes, is this your first masters
Speaker 1: And I yes, and he said me too. Isn't this awesome?
Speaker 1: So that was really amazing that I got to meet him.
Speaker 1: So then we made it up there and we met.
Speaker 1: We made it to the tree and I find Mac
Speaker 1: and he's having a conversation with Jeff Ogilvie and his daughter.
Speaker 1: So I kind of stand back and wait wait for
Speaker 1: them to finish. And as I'm talking, I look over
Speaker 1: his shoulder and there's Annika Sorenstam having a conversation with somebody.
Speaker 1: And I look over to the right and sitting at
Speaker 1: one of the tables under the umbrella, there's Nancy Lopez.
Speaker 1: You have two of maybe the top five women golfers
Speaker 1: of history standing there. It's like people are just you know,
Speaker 1: schmoozing and happy to see each other and having a
Speaker 1: grand old time. So I'm talking to Mac and he
Speaker 1: introduces me to another person that he's talking to was
Speaker 1: Derek Smith, who I actually met a couple times that afternoon.
Speaker 1: Derek Smith is one of the part owners of the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons and the CEO of Choice Point. But then
Speaker 1: we go and sit down for our lunch. We get
Speaker 1: a table and it's Chet and Mack and myself, and
Speaker 1: across the table are three gentlemen. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: back up the story a little bit. When I landed
Speaker 1: in Atlanta on Monday night, the first thing I did
Speaker 1: was go visit Chet, and I I Chet. It was
Speaker 1: a mile from Chet's house. We went and visited doctor
Speaker 1: Bob Jones. As many times as doctor Bob has been
Speaker 1: on Golf Smarter over the years, he and I had
Speaker 1: never met, so it was really awesome to go to
Speaker 1: us office and meet him and then spend you know,
Speaker 1: hour and a half just chatting or chat and doctor
Speaker 1: Bob and myself. So one of the things that doctor
Speaker 1: Bob and we talked about this earlier. Doctor Bob and
Speaker 1: Charlie Yates are very good friends. Well, Chat is very
Speaker 1: good friends as well. With Charlie Yates Junior, as is
Speaker 1: Doctor Bob and I actually this year I asked if
Speaker 1: Doctor Bob would ask Charlie to be on the show
Speaker 1: with him, and Charlie is very shy about that, doesn't
Speaker 1: like to showcase himself, but he denied, so like, that's fine.
Speaker 1: I just was hoping maybe we can do it. So
Speaker 1: we meet up with Charlie Yates and he introduces me
Speaker 1: to Derek Smith again second time. But now we're sitting
Speaker 1: having lunch with Mac and sitting across the table of
Speaker 1: these three gentlemen, one man probably his late seventies of
Speaker 1: maybe early eighties named William Black, and his two sons
Speaker 1: are sitting there, Stu and Robert. And we get talking
Speaker 1: and I asked Bill. He introduced himself as Bill Black.
Speaker 1: I asked him how long? How many times have you
Speaker 1: been coming to the Masters and he said, well, my
Speaker 1: first time I was fourteen years old, So you're kidding,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. How have you had access like that? He
Speaker 1: said family? And I looked at him. I said, keep going,
Speaker 1: tell me more. He goes, yeah, my grandfather was Bobby Jones.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait a minute, your first cousins with doctor Bob. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, we were with him the other night. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: So here I am sitting with Bobby Jones' grandson and
Speaker 1: two of his great grandsons and we had a wonderful
Speaker 1: time and Bill told crazy stories, but it supported almost
Speaker 1: everything that doctor Bob said. And hopefully Robert Bob Black
Speaker 1: will be on the show because he's got a really
Speaker 1: fascinating organization called Change the Course and I hope to
Speaker 1: feature that soon on a upcoming episode of Golf Smarter.
Speaker 1: Now I'm doing this little bonus episode because I've got
Speaker 1: so much packed in leading up to episode one thousand
Speaker 1: that I didn't want to change any of those, so
Speaker 1: I thought it would be appropriate to put this on
Speaker 1: the Sunday. And Okay, they're preboarding. I'm just going to
Speaker 1: keep talking. Hopefully you'll hear what I'm saying. Because we
Speaker 1: have access to the clubhouse and whatnot from the members.
Speaker 1: We're able to walk into the trophy room and the
Speaker 1: hallway of the main lobby of the Founder's room, and
Speaker 1: it's a museum of Augusta and it's absolutely amazing. And
Speaker 1: after spending two plus hours with Mac and then another
Speaker 1: half hour or so with Charlie, we get back to
Speaker 1: walking the course again. I'll tell you everyone talks about
Speaker 1: how beautiful, how green it is. It's incredibly lush at
Speaker 1: Augusta National as far as how green it is. It's
Speaker 1: maintained perfectly, and you can see how fast the greens are.
Speaker 1: But they're not allowed. The announcers are not allowed to
Speaker 1: call the rough because it's not really rough. They call
Speaker 1: it the second cut. When the ball lands on this
Speaker 1: second cut, which we would think of as rough, the
Speaker 1: ball is still ninety percent above the grass. You don't
Speaker 1: lose the You're not going to lose the ball anywhere.
Speaker 1: It's really kind of wide open, so you know. But
Speaker 1: the course, the greens are so hard, the green complexes
Speaker 1: are so big, and so have such elevation change and undulation.
Speaker 1: They're hard to read. As you're able to see, it's
Speaker 1: just a remarkable golf course. It's really beautiful. And the
Speaker 1: master's tea boxes are much farther away than the members
Speaker 1: tea boxes. It makes it almost you know, a fun
Speaker 1: game to play if you're getting a chance to play there.
Speaker 1: So one other thing before we left Mac we went
Speaker 1: over to go watch the families and the little kids
Speaker 1: doing just before the part three contest. So that's where
Speaker 1: the little kids come out and they get to see
Speaker 1: where see, you know, the families playing and whatnot. I'm
Speaker 1: just checking my the phone. I'm on zone three and
Speaker 1: they're on zone two. So let's take another break here,
Speaker 1: and when we come back, I'll give you my impressions
Speaker 1: of Thursday. I'll be back right after this. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: ready to start again. And now I'm it's Sunday morning
Speaker 1: at the Master. It's no, it's Sunday morning, and I'm
Speaker 1: in my backyard. I couldn't record again. It was too
Speaker 1: loud on a plane obviously to record anything. And then afterwards,
Speaker 1: as soon as I landed, my wife was also in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles during the week watching the grandchildren, and then
Speaker 1: so we landed at the airport at the same time.
Speaker 1: So I just haven't had a chance and we had
Speaker 1: dinner plans last night. I didn't have chance to record
Speaker 1: this second segment until now, and I've been trying to
Speaker 1: gather my thoughts and talk about what Thursday was like
Speaker 1: versus Wednesday, and they're completely different days. Wednesday was like
Speaker 1: being at Disneyland, you know, I went shopping twice. I
Speaker 1: shopped first in the morning, and then I shopped again
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, and then as we were leaving, and
Speaker 1: then Thursday is more like being the Thanksgiving Day parade. Right.
Speaker 1: It's just a bunch of people lined up with mild
Speaker 1: applause watching people watching the stars stroll by. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like being a parade. Funny thing about this. My
Speaker 1: younger son, who I've talked about for so many years
Speaker 1: on the podcast, is the one who got me started
Speaker 1: playing golf when I was in my mid forties. He
Speaker 1: and I have had this ongoing thing about who do
Speaker 1: you think is going to get to go to the
Speaker 1: Masters first. Well, when he asked me that question, I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that he had friends who go every year.
Speaker 1: One of his closest friends from cob friend from college,
Speaker 1: and her husband they go every year because she's from
Speaker 1: that area and her mother has connections. And I was thinking, Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, you you going first, me
Speaker 1: going first? I don't know if I'll ever get a
Speaker 1: chance to go. But now that I realize you have
Speaker 1: a chance to go, maybe your chances of going or
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty. He's like, oh, no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: going to go ninety percent. The irony to all this,
Speaker 1: and again I didn't think I'd ever get to go.
Speaker 1: The irony is that I went on Wednesday and Thursday,
Speaker 1: and my son went on Friday and Saturday, so we
Speaker 1: both got to go, but I got to go first,
Speaker 1: and I had access to things that he would never
Speaker 1: get access to because of Charlie Yates. So who again
Speaker 1: we talked about with doctor Bob this week, So Thursday,
Speaker 1: let's go back. So first thing, I wanted to get
Speaker 1: a home. I wanted a garden nome. So as soon
Speaker 1: as we got there, I got in line at one
Speaker 1: of the stores, not the exclusive store that I got
Speaker 1: to go in yesterday with my member badge, but they
Speaker 1: didn't have nomes. But I went into one stores the
Speaker 1: line was like thirty minutes long. The day before the
Speaker 1: line was ninety minutes long, so I'm like pass, But
Speaker 1: the thirty minute line is like, I'm going to do
Speaker 1: it because I really want a gardennome for my putting green.
Speaker 1: And I go shopping, I get my nome. I find
Speaker 1: out they only have one per person, so I couldn't
Speaker 1: get one for my son. So I told him, you're
Speaker 1: on your own on that and then luckily, you get
Speaker 1: to go to your car once. While you're inside. You
Speaker 1: have one time you can go out and come back in.
Speaker 1: You only get two entries with your pass. So I
Speaker 1: after shopping again, I went to the car, put stuff away,
Speaker 1: and then we came back. Our first stop was we're
Speaker 1: standing near the approach on number three. And as we're
Speaker 1: standing there waiting for the ball, you know, the guys
Speaker 1: to tee off U all of a sudden a spotter
Speaker 1: I'm standing next to the ropes, and the spotter goes
Speaker 1: your feet, your feet, your feet, look off for your feet,
Speaker 1: and a ball comes rolling and a guy on my left,
Speaker 1: the ball hits his foot and rolls back behind the crowd.
Speaker 1: So I immediately walk back and I get to stand
Speaker 1: right behind. It was Patrick McNeely who was plus one
Speaker 1: after two. I'm standing five six feet behind him. As
Speaker 1: the ball is in the second cut. I remember they
Speaker 1: are not allowed to call it the rough. But when
Speaker 1: you look at the grass the second cut for recreational
Speaker 1: players who play public golf, the second cut there is
Speaker 1: kind of like what our fairways are like the ball
Speaker 1: you can still see ninety percent of the ball. It's
Speaker 1: sitting up there is no rough. This is not the
Speaker 1: US Open, so there's always a great opportunity to hit
Speaker 1: the ball. Well. Well, McNeely chipped up to a blind
Speaker 1: shot and we don't know to applod or not. We
Speaker 1: don't know if it rolled off the green, but the
Speaker 1: people behind the green were plotting. It's like, okay, good shot.
Speaker 1: He had a fifteen footer that he missed. It slid
Speaker 1: to the left of the hole and he got the par.
Speaker 1: Then we head over and we're at the number four
Speaker 1: tea box and it's only like twenty yards from the
Speaker 1: third hole which we just saw and the group of McNeely,
Speaker 1: fanw and Dtrie and McNeely was closest to the pin
Speaker 1: on that par and these are just notes. Then the
Speaker 1: day before Charlie hs Junior told Chet, who you know,
Speaker 1: they're good friends, told Chet meet me here at noon
Speaker 1: tomorrow and let's have lunch. And so comes up to noon,
Speaker 1: we meet Charlie and he's talking to some people and
Speaker 1: he introduces us to these other guys and they're entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: fascinating entrepreneurs. And stay tuned because we made to get
Speaker 1: a couple of them on the podcast coming up. I'm
Speaker 1: working on it. And you'll know then at the time
Speaker 1: that these are the people I had lunch with. But
Speaker 1: Charlie then takes us into lunch inside the Founder's dining
Speaker 1: room and then this is only people that can eat
Speaker 1: in there. I'm pretty sure are members and their guests.
Speaker 1: So we get to walk in and Charles at the
Speaker 1: door was I think his name is Charles Cooley and
Speaker 1: he was a past champion that wasn't playing anymore. He's older,
Speaker 1: but he's still alive. Let's see here. Yeah, he found
Speaker 1: his name and it was Charles Coody from Ableing, Texas.
Speaker 1: He wasn't playing, but he was there. So he greeted
Speaker 1: us at the door, said hello to Charlie, and we
Speaker 1: go in and eating lunch in this Founder's room with
Speaker 1: Charlie sharing stories. Again. What a treat, no hats, what
Speaker 1: a treat, What a conversation we had afterwards. I have
Speaker 1: to go to the bathroom and I'm walk down the
Speaker 1: hallway and I'm standing outside the bathroom and this young
Speaker 1: woman comes up to me and says, sir, do you
Speaker 1: need to use the restroom? I say, yeah, I do,
Speaker 1: I'm waiting here. She goes, come with me please, and
Speaker 1: she walks me down the hall. She knocks on a
Speaker 1: door of a different bathroom and saying housekeeping, and nobody responds.
Speaker 1: She goes here, you go, and I get a bathroom
Speaker 1: to myself. That's what goes on at the Masters with
Speaker 1: the staff. It is remarkable how much every person there,
Speaker 1: even in the parking lots, when you're in the parking
Speaker 1: lot and you park your car, every single person is
Speaker 1: welcome to the Masters. Welcome to the Masters, enjoy your day.
Speaker 1: And that's just wherever you go. Later in the day,
Speaker 1: I had to go to the bathroom again, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm old, and I went to what are the public
Speaker 1: bathrooms near one of the halls. He was near six
Speaker 1: or something, and there's a gentleman, young man standing at
Speaker 1: the doorway of this bathroom going, if you're going number one,
Speaker 1: go to the left line. If you're going number two,
Speaker 1: stay against the wall. Number one left, number two. And
Speaker 1: he's constantly just ongoing and going and going. Fine to him,
Speaker 1: and he was great, and he had his beautiful attitude
Speaker 1: and he was fun. But this is all that he
Speaker 1: was saying. Number one, left line, coming on the left,
Speaker 1: number two, stay against the wall. So I said to him,
Speaker 1: did you audition for this job. He's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm just doing this and it's fun. Said, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? He says, this is my fourth year of
Speaker 1: doing it and it's the greatest job I've ever had.
Speaker 1: And it's one WEEKI year. I love this job and
Speaker 1: you just get that feeling from every person you come
Speaker 1: in contact with across the board. The staff was fantastic
Speaker 1: and they'd really appreciate being there. Now we're going through.
Speaker 1: We're walking and as we crossed some of the pine
Speaker 1: straw under some of the trees, the pine trees, I realized,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I've got an empty water bottle with
Speaker 1: me here. I'm just gonna fill it with pine straw.
Speaker 1: This could be the greatest free souvenir I could have,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing like it. This is the only place
Speaker 1: ever to get something like this. So I filled my
Speaker 1: water bottle with pine straw, some twigs I found a
Speaker 1: pine cone, and some azaleas that were on the floor.
Speaker 1: And so I have this bottle. Now when you open
Speaker 1: it up, it smells so great. And the reason I
Speaker 1: did this is years ago, my wife and I took
Speaker 1: a trip to Alaska. We went on a cruise to Alaska,
Speaker 1: and we got on a helicopter and took the helicopter
Speaker 1: up to a glacier. And while at the glacier, I
Speaker 1: took a rock and it was a you know, not
Speaker 1: a boulder and not a pebble, but it was a rock.
Speaker 1: It's the probably the size of a softball. And I
Speaker 1: keep it in my freezer at home so that when
Speaker 1: people come over and they open the freezer, if they
Speaker 1: open the freezer or this conversation comes up, they're like,
Speaker 1: why is there a rock in your freezer? I said,
Speaker 1: because I pulled it off of a glacier and it's
Speaker 1: thousands of maybe millions of years old, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to make it feel at home. So that's made me
Speaker 1: feel like I wanted to bring home some pines trot
Speaker 1: from the Masters, and I have that. But a couple
Speaker 1: people said, don't let the staff or let anybody see that,
Speaker 1: because you could get in trouble for that. Really, okay, fine.
Speaker 1: Never observation about Thursday play, and that would be the
Speaker 1: speed of the greens. It is mind blowing to see
Speaker 1: these guys that are twenty five feet away, thirty feet
Speaker 1: away from the hole, and if there's any slope or
Speaker 1: down hittle at all. They're hitting a five foot put,
Speaker 1: maybe a three foot put, and the fact that they
Speaker 1: can get that to the hole and stop near the hole,
Speaker 1: or in some cases just keeps going. But the pace
Speaker 1: of the greens, the speed of the greens something I've
Speaker 1: never witnessed before, and I'm not too interested in playing
Speaker 1: something like that, because it is really remarkable to watch.
Speaker 1: And the pace of play on the greens. If anyone
Speaker 1: ever gives you a hard time about your pace of play,
Speaker 1: tell them to watch a professional golf tournament. Pace is
Speaker 1: very slow. They're very, very deliberate about every single shot
Speaker 1: they take. We shouldn't feel so badly about that. Also,
Speaker 1: I can only term this as the roar of the
Speaker 1: silence when you have thousands of people standing watching a
Speaker 1: golfer and there's absolutely no sound at all. It's dead silent.
Speaker 1: The respect, the anticipation is so thick on both sides
Speaker 1: that you just can't imagine how quiet it is. But
Speaker 1: then it either you'll then you can close your eyes
Speaker 1: and know basically what happened. There's either you know, applause,
Speaker 1: light applause, or there's oh, a giant grown from the crowd,
Speaker 1: or they erupt in excitement and you could just tell
Speaker 1: what's happening. We were standing with Mac at one point
Speaker 1: the day that day and we heard a crowd scream,
Speaker 1: you know, from the other side of the course, not
Speaker 1: knowing what happened, but Mac goes up. Somebody got an eagle.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. Okay, walking down the tenth fairway, Patrick
Speaker 1: Cantley had just hit his drive on number ten and again,
Speaker 1: this is a hole that you really can't imagine what
Speaker 1: the down slope is like. And if you again on TV,
Speaker 1: watch the top of their head versus the horizon and
Speaker 1: it'll give you a real good sense of what the
Speaker 1: slope of the you know, the downhill and uphill is
Speaker 1: and which way they're going. So as we're walking down
Speaker 1: this railway, can't we just hit his ball and he's
Speaker 1: walking by us, and he's got a sandwich in one
Speaker 1: hand and a drink in the other, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he crosses over the rope, goes over to
Speaker 1: a trash can and spits out everything in his mouth,
Speaker 1: not throwing up, but just yeah, right, and then walks
Speaker 1: back over the ropes, takes another of a bite of
Speaker 1: a sandwich and keeps on going. It's like, wait, do
Speaker 1: you like it or you don't like what is going
Speaker 1: on here? That was like weird number nine. T Sergio
Speaker 1: is about to tee off and he's just bringing his
Speaker 1: club back a little bit, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: we hear from behind him and he stops and he
Speaker 1: turns around and goes sounded like a phone, And the
Speaker 1: officials are sitting there. Police are sitting there. There's armed
Speaker 1: police following every single you don't see them, but they're
Speaker 1: following every single group on the side on the ropes,
Speaker 1: but inside the ropes, and so everyone's looking around. Sergiot's off.
Speaker 1: I'm over listening to these officials and they can't identify
Speaker 1: where that sound came from. They're thinking maybe it was
Speaker 1: a siren from off the chorus. We don't know. We
Speaker 1: couldn't figure it out. Then I had a pimento sandwich.
Speaker 1: You have to do it right. You have to have
Speaker 1: a pimento sandwich while you're there. And the sandwiches and
Speaker 1: the prices of the concessions. If you go to sporting
Speaker 1: events at all, you know that prices at concessions are
Speaker 1: pretty outrageous. Hopefully you can go to Golfsmarter dot com
Speaker 1: and see. I'll post a bunch of my photos that
Speaker 1: go with this episode my time from there, and hopefully
Speaker 1: I'll be able to post it for you. But the
Speaker 1: concession stands, I'm queuing up my photograph so I can
Speaker 1: read some of the numbers to you on how crazy
Speaker 1: it is. Ache salad and pimento cheese sandwiches buck fifty,
Speaker 1: the other sandwiches barbecue, pork, Master's Club, chicken salad on
Speaker 1: honey wheat, ham and cheese on rye, classic chicken three
Speaker 1: dollars apiece. And these are not these. The food is good.
Speaker 1: Breakfast served until ten am. Masters blend fresh brewed coffee
Speaker 1: two bucks, Chicken biscuit three bucks, breakfast sandwich three bucks,
Speaker 1: blueberry muffin two fresh mixed fruit, two fifty. Beverages, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. Soft drinks bottled water, fresh brewed iced tea
Speaker 1: two bucks. Then the alcohol Crown Nest, domestic beer, import beer,
Speaker 1: white wine six bucks. That's expensive for them, right, And
Speaker 1: then the snacks apple slices, chips, plain or barbee buck
Speaker 1: and a half peanuts, bucks seventy five Southern cheese straws.
Speaker 1: Not even sure what that is two bucks, cookies bucks
Speaker 1: seventy five and then the new one this year, the
Speaker 1: Georgia Peach ice cream sandwich three Bucks. So I did
Speaker 1: eat a Pimento sandwich. I did get to do it.
Speaker 1: Would I have another one? Not by choice, but if
Speaker 1: I'm back at the Masters, I'll do anything if i
Speaker 1: can get another chance to go. So after we walked
Speaker 1: around seeing various locations, watching different people play. Now, after
Speaker 1: Lucas Glover finished the ninth Hole, we went and I
Speaker 1: found Mac Barnhard again and he's chatting with the head
Speaker 1: of New Era, the hat company, and we talk for
Speaker 1: a few minutes and talk about what Lucas is doing.
Speaker 1: He's just like I hope Lucas just has to make
Speaker 1: the cut. He just okay, he's not having a good
Speaker 1: dan on Thursday, but he's gonna put it all together
Speaker 1: Friday and I'll make the gut. Well, unfortunately he didn't,
Speaker 1: so we're sorry Lucas, and we're sorry man. But another
Speaker 1: one of Max's client's, Danny Willett, did make it. It
Speaker 1: was much louder on the grounds on Wednesday than it
Speaker 1: was on Thursday, because there's a buzz. Everyone's just like
Speaker 1: exploring and looking at things and getting a feel and shopping,
Speaker 1: and so it was much louder on the chorus. Thursday
Speaker 1: was much quieter. But here's something interesting. When you watch
Speaker 1: it on TV, you hear the birds a lot, but
Speaker 1: when you're there, you don't see any birds. I saw
Speaker 1: two in the parking lot. You don't hear them. Occasionally
Speaker 1: you might hear a couple of birds, but I think
Speaker 1: it's because of these big microphones that they use for
Speaker 1: television so they can get the sound of the club
Speaker 1: hitting the ball. I think they pick up the limited
Speaker 1: sound of birds, unless they're piping in phony bird noises,
Speaker 1: it's quite possible. But I was really amazed at how
Speaker 1: quiet it was, and even not even bird sounds. When
Speaker 1: we were there on fifteen, can't Ley had a show
Speaker 1: a couple of shots, a couple groups ahead of Rory
Speaker 1: who had the same shot where he was off to
Speaker 1: the left of the green on fifteen or behind the green,
Speaker 1: and he chipped up and the ball just kept going
Speaker 1: and went in the water. I saw Can'tley do that.
Speaker 1: I didn't see I didn't get to see Rory do it.
Speaker 1: But then at the end of the day, what did
Speaker 1: I do? Two days the Master's for shopping spreeze if
Speaker 1: I go play a golf course that I've never played
Speaker 1: before and I play well, or it's a unique golf course.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm going to go shopping. I'm going to
Speaker 1: do something, and by first I'll go to the sail
Speaker 1: rack and see if I can find a shirt on
Speaker 1: sale or otherwise I'll spend maybe ninety bucks on his
Speaker 1: shirt or something. Well, I kind of went crazy. He
Speaker 1: went shopping four different times and spent a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it because I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: just God, don't want my wife to hear it. I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money on a golf course I'm
Speaker 1: never going to play. And then we had a two
Speaker 1: and a half hour drive back to Atlanta, back to
Speaker 1: Jet's house. And I just want to thank you for
Speaker 1: letting me share this with you, because you're my closest
Speaker 1: golf friend. I mean, we've been talking together for a
Speaker 1: long time about golf, and I really am so excited
Speaker 1: that I had the opportunity to share this with you.
Speaker 1: And is we're only a few weeks away from episode
Speaker 1: one thousand. I am blown away and I still don't
Speaker 1: know who episode one thousand is, but I did reach
Speaker 1: out to a bunch of some of the best people
Speaker 1: that we've ever had on Golf Smarter to lead up
Speaker 1: to it, and you're hearing it starting now with Doctor
Speaker 1: Bob this week, next week and more. We're going to
Speaker 1: hear people until everything's recorded. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: who it is, but it's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun and I only want to send my regards
Speaker 1: to the Pells family. I wish that we could have
Speaker 1: had Dave Pell's come back again, but we lost him
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago and I could not get him
Speaker 1: to come back on the show one more time. The
Speaker 1: other thing about the podcast is when I was introduced
Speaker 1: to people, and I don't go a lot. I'm a podcaster,
Speaker 1: you know. If I'm introduced as a podcaster like, oh,
Speaker 1: you do a podcast, Yeah, lots of people do podcasts.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. I've been doing my podcast now weekly.
Speaker 1: I'm in my twentieth year and I started a year
Speaker 1: and a half before the iPhone came out, and that
Speaker 1: gets people to go, ooh, that's interesting. So again, thank
Speaker 1: you for bearing with me on this. I had a
Speaker 1: great time. I can't wait to see what happens at
Speaker 1: the end of the day today, when the Masters was beginning,
Speaker 1: I had my two picks well Rory and Bryson, and
Speaker 1: here they are on Sunday on the final pairing