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Getting to play Augusta National Golf Club is at the top of every golfer’s bucket list but as it’s one of the world’s most exclusive clubs, it’s a very tricky thing to achieve.
However, one way to get a game at the iconic home of The Masters is to get a press pass as an on-site journalist during the tournament week, with a media lottery allowing lucky reporters and photographers the chance to gain a tee time the morning after the winning putt is holed and the champion slips the Green Jacket on.
A number of Golf Monthly staff members have played Augusta through the years (not me sadly despite entering the media lottery last year at The Masters) and they each explain what their day at golf’s Disneyland was like…
Tom Clarke
Tom played in 2018, the day after Patrick Reed won the Green Jacket
(Image credit: Future)
How much am I going to shoot round Augusta National… that is not the question I asked myself on the morning of my tee time.
In 2018 when I was picked to play the day after Patrick Reed had slid on the Green Jacket I simply wanted to make sure I got there on time, didn’t crash my car into a tree on Magnolia Lane, and basically just got round and didn’t embarrass myself.
As an 18-handicap cricketer who had never even played a round with a caddie before, I was bricking it. I had a set of clubs that I had never used, in a massive Tour Bag (thank you again TaylorMade) – and I was extremely nervous.
On the driving range beforehand I met my caddie Drake, a former PGA Tour looper, who was an absolute legend, very chilled and understood my situation.
1st tee… I was in the first media group out, and I bravely (or perhaps foolishly) stood up first, smashed one down the middle, and thought – yes I have made it. Amazingly though I actually got more and more nervous the more holes I played.
(Image credit: Future)
My game was hardly on point, and although I drove the ball pretty well I didn’t have a clue what to do around the greens. I didn’t hit a green in regulation, my best chances were on 12 where I evaded Rae’s creek, to then three-jab from the fringe.
And that is what the issue is, you know this is likely to be your only chance to ever play a round on this hallowed turf, and you want to take it all in, and play well, and for some people that is obviously too much.
I did very nearly hole my greenside bunker shot on 18 a la Rory McIlroy in 2022. But unlike Rory it was for par.
Did I play my best? No. Did I make a par? No. Do I…
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