I love the Masters. I love golf - and I've said before that watching pro golf is one of, if not the, best sport to watch in person. The fade of the ball, the draws, the roar of the crowd on a made birdie putt, the trees, the flowers, the sunshine - it's all awesome.
That said... there's no other sport where you are at the pinnacle of the top event in the sport and can't even see what is happening - that's what being at the Masters is like on that Sunday.
A golf course is the one venue in sport where one cannot see everything happening in a given match, or game, or fight, whatever it may be. When you go to the course, you've gotta strategic in where you want to post up, especially in a popular tournament, because you can't just mozey on out and about at the damn course - this ain't the 1918 US Open at the country club where the tens of attendees could just trail the final pairing like some good gallery members that they may be. Gotta ask yourself and your crew upon arrival: do we want to see a big drive? Do we want to see a clutch putt? Do we want to try and mix it up, see the 7th, then the 12th, then the 18th? It ain't easy, and for Sunday at the Masters when folks want to see the action, all of the people in the gallery at the big holes are exactly there - they ain't seeing each and every shot that Scottie, Homa, Morikawa, Koepka, and the bunch are hitting like on television - they are looking at an old scoreboard updating manually, which is awesome but at the same time, not ideal for wanting to see the competition in action. Keep this in mind at the Masters as well: no phones - can't get any updates, can't get any highlights, complete nothing burger. I don't even know how they would do seat reservations/bathroom breaks - if I'm camping on the 18th green from 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM when the thing ends, and I've gotta go hit the bathroom and grab a sandwich, does my spot get reserved? Do I tell the seats guy in the grandstand and come back and he says 'hey you're good.' Are my buddies and I fending for ourselves out there? That's a tough situation.
It would be kind of like paying for the whole NFL season in one sitting - and most of it you have to watch games that have nothing to do with the actual outcome of the season, but you get a glimpse of the super bowl in person for a brief few minutes with the final pairing, and then you can't even see the end of the damn game if you're on any other hole than the 18th. Not the perfect analogy, but not completely off either.
So for all the kids out there: go to the tournament on Thursday or Friday - get around and see the players, see the tournament taking shape with whose in contention, whose not going to make the cut, see the boys hitting driver, and watch from the couch on the weekend. I would still love to his Augusta with my old man while he can still walk (that may be asking a lot in a few years) but if we do, it'll definitely be an earlier attendance - just a much better experience overall.
On the tournament itself, Scottie Scheffler was incredibly impressive out there - those greens were like putting on a pool table with a layer of ice underneath, and that dude kept his wits about him the whole weekend, even after a few tough holes on the back 9 on Saturday and a slow start on Sunday. His birdies at 13 and 14 made it real tough for anybody else on the course to make a run, be it Homa or Aberg, and 16 was a nice cherry on top to more or less seal his second green jacket. Dude, in the span of a month and a half, has won Bay Hill, the Player's, and now the Master's - that is an unreal stretch, clear cut #1 player in the world.
Hoping Tiger was able to get to the local Perkins on Sunday night in Augusta and blow off some steam. See you all for the US Open! *May have to tune into the PGA in May if some underdog happens to make a run, I reserve that right*.
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