Archive for April, 2007

Is this heaven? No. It’s Augusta

I received a pair of tickets to Wednesday’s final practice round and par three tournament at this country’s golfing shrine, Augusta National Golf Club. Here’s an excerpt from the thank you note I sent my contact:

“The most amazing part of the experience was realizing that the course- no matter how much I seem to know it by heart from 20 years of watching the telecasts- is the true star of the show. The only possible comparison for the immaculate conditions would be the Papal Gardens at Castel Gandolfo outside of Rome… but the National does not allow any stray patches of wilder grasses.”

For the first time in my life, I attended a sporting event when I did not have a deadline or a client to please. As many of you know, I chased news and told feature stories for about 15 years before switching to documenting family histories. I bumped into a former boss of mine from when I lived in Chicago a decade ago, and had dinner with another. My dinner companion reminded me of an episode at Lambeau Field which resulted in my being covered in mud, and a very difficult drive back home to Sweet Chicago. Oy gevalt.

So, being a tourist had its benefits… and here are a few images. A few decades from now, Josh will grow up and take over Tiger’s role as the best golfer of the 21st century. I’ll be able to tell him that I saw the three men who defined golf in the second half of the 20th century play a friendly afternoon nine holes, in front of 40,000 of their closest friends.

Read More...