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AUGUSTA, Ga. — As I neared rain-soaked Augusta National at around 1 p.m. Monday, I drove into what I would call the most organized traffic jam I have ever seen.

What could have been 90 minutes of teeth-gnashing turned into a wholly tolerable 15-minute delay. Everything about Augusta National and the community that houses the historic club is as dialed as a Scottie Scheffler 8-iron. On what is my first trip here, I’m in awe of the operation — and I still haven’t even been on property!

Bad weather may have closed the course and forced patrons to a late lunch or a handshake at Hooters with John Daly, but the Tour trucks just outside the main entrance were still open for business. When I popped by to say hello, here’s what I observed.

What happens on Tour trucks during a rainout?

There are a few different things that happen on these days, either independently or at the same time.

The reps play catch-up: Pros may drop in for re-grips, loft and lie adjustments, new wedge builds and maybe even to grab a new club to test (it’s a major so that’s rare) — but that’s about it. Generally, these days are quiet; rainouts can sometimes be a nice reset for the reps to take a breath, whereas regular major days often mean an onslaught of players visiting the trucks for tweaks and tune ups (sometimes placebos, other times not).

Food, music and conversation: Yes, there is some fun to be had as well. In the Callaway truck on Monday, Tour rep Johnny Thompson created a new Masters sandwich by mashing together a chicken breast sandwich and a Masters club. He called his concoction a “Masters Cordon Bleu.”

In many cases, staff will pop in and just hang out while their sticks are being worked on.

Akshay Bhatia and Max Greyserman are regular visitors in situations like this.

Video games and horror films: Some trucks are equipped with game kits attached to 60-inch flat screens, and it’s not uncommon for battles between reps and players to break out. I’ve seen more than a few NBA2K rumbles on the Ping truck. Movies will also sometimes override Golf Central; the genre of choice is usually a good old-fashioned horror flick.

Here’s the thing at the majors: they’re unlike any other week in the trucks, too. These weeks are not your normal fit, build and test free-for-all. They’re for the finest of fine-tuning. If you set foot on Augusta National Monday morning unsure if the clubs in your bag are dialed…you’re going to have a long week.

The reps grind it out in the weeks before majors to ensure their players’ gear is locked in. So, when it does rain and the work is done…Halloween 4 it is!

Want to overhaul your bag for 2025? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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There is, it turns out, a worst part about winning the lottery.

The moment — that bad part — lasts only an instant, but it cuts you deeply.

It arrives long before the payout. Before the stream of congratulatory texts and phone calls. Before the first person asks for a favor. Before you’ve even fully grasped it yourself.

It arrived for me on the morning of April 12, 2024, fifteen seconds after Dad’s voice emerged over the speaker on my phone, and thirty seconds after I’d received the most improbable news of my life.

“Yes?” Dad said, confused by my call in the middle of Masters week.

“I’ve got some news,” I said.

“Yes??” he said again, his eyes growing wide.

I reminded him of the Masters Media Lottery, a tradition granting a small number of writers the opportunity to play Augusta National the morning after the Masters ends each year. I told him how I’d entered each of the last four years, including this one, but I’d always been unsuccessful. And then I threw the haymaker.

“Dad,” I said. “I won.”

“F— you,” he’d said in a moment of pure astonishment.

And then he’d started to cry.

Only then did it hit me: the worst part of winning the lottery.

The wildest gift of my life would be mine alone.

LIKE MOST LOTTERY WINNERS, my journey to Magnolia Lane was a long shot.

For a Long Island family proud of its working-class roots, the Masters was a dream in the literal sense: fleeting, glorious and in some essential way unreal. We did not possess the means to view the tournament through any lens other than a CBS camera, and that was okay. The distance only amplified our lust.

The see-but-don’t-touch way of thinking received a jolt when I was accepted, against very long odds, into a prestigious journalism program in the spring of 2015. It was the opportunity of a lifetime — a golden ticket into a career as a sportswriter, maybe even with the possibility of covering a Masters in the flesh. But there was a problem: I couldn’t afford it. Tuition alone would put me tens of thousands of dollars into debt.

Days before the deadline, I got a phone call. My grandpa wanted to see me. Could I come over for dinner?

Joe Boyle — or “Poppy,” as I knew him — was one of my best friends, at once silly and irreverent and brilliant and generous. His nickname came from the garbagemen he’d gifted his car, and evidence of his inherent goodness included paying for and installing a brand-new roof on a house he’d sold days earlier. (Poppy, a New York City contractor and carpenter by trade, was fired from only one job: As a volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity, after he found their building practices substandard and made a stink.)

Golf was Poppy’s last love, a late-life hobby that morphed into a full-blown obsession. By the time I drove out to see him, the cancer had ended his playing days, but he still devoured every word written about the game in his favorite newspaper, The New York Post.

When I arrived, he cut straight to the point.

“After you graduate from that program, you can really do this,” he said, spreading a Masters story by the writer Mark Cannizzaro across the table. “I’m serious.”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I wasn’t sure if I was taking the offer, I said.

“What do you mean?”

“What if I’m still not good enough?”

He paused for a second, staring deep into my eyes. Then he delivered the line that changed my life.

“James, sometimes in life you need to take the gamble,” he said. “Right now is one of those times.”

That was the end of the conversation, and though neither of us knew it, it was the end of our conversation.

Poppy died a few weeks later, materially poor but rich in all the ways that mattered. His funeral was a standing-room-only affair.

As we arrived at the church for the service, Grandma approached me.

“Poppy wanted me to give you this,” she said with a grin. “Consider it your inheritance.”

She reached into a plastic bag and retrieved a small, circular object: an old, red-and-white poker chip from one of the Atlantic City casinos.

My voice caught in my throat.

I tucked the poker chip into my suit pocket and held it tight. A few minutes later, I stood before a packed house and delivered Poppy’s eulogy.

I finished the speech with a line that Poppy shared with me months earlier, seconds after the last round of his life. It was a quote from the famous golfer Ben Hogan.

“As you walk down the fairways of life, you must smell the roses, for you only get one round.”

“It wasn’t Augusta,” I said. “But congrats Poppy, on a round well-played.”

IT IS NOT WHAT you think about as you pass through the pearly gates into golf heaven, but who.

As you stroll down Magnolia Lane with your windows down and your foot off the accelerator, you are struck by the overwhelming sense that you are being watched. Not (necessarily) by club-employed snipers or high-tech cameras, but by the same primordial force that chooses a Masters Champion each April long before he realizes it himself. The golf gods, maybe. Or maybe someone else.

Some make the drive down Magnolia Lane filled with visions of golfing greatness, some with dreams of club lore. But I bet at least some find themselves thinking, as I did, about the people who gave everything for this moment and received nothing in return.

A tee time at Augusta National is the journey of a lifetime. Sometimes, it is the journey of several lifetimes. Your village can’t witness you play in the flesh, but as far as I know, there are no rules against watching in spirit.

“We’ve got you set up in the Champions Locker Room this morning,” the attendant said at the end of Magnolia Lane, interrupting my daydream. “If my memory serves me, I think we’ve given you a good one.”

A minute later, I’d made it upstairs into the holiest locker room in golf, where I found the first evidence of my visitors-in-spirit. In the back corner of the room, I spotted a plaque with my name — JAMES COLGAN — underneath a plaque with someone else’s.

BEN HOGAN, 1951 – 1953.

After a few minutes of ogling, I reattached my jaw and traveled from Hogan’s locker to the 1st tee box at Augusta National. As I walked, I wondered how many people in golf history could say they’d done the same.

I could not feel my grip as I struck my first tee ball, but I was relieved to see it flying high and straight, perfectly cresting over the tree on the right side of the fairway. As I stepped off the tee box, I was equally relieved to hear the voice of the man joining in the flesh for my round, a New York Post writer I’d gotten to know well. His name was Mark Cannizzaro.

As we approached the green, Mark watched as I reached into my pocket and carefully retrieved a ball mark.

“Nice poker chip,” he said, looking down at the red-and-white piece of clay I’d placed on the putting surface.

“Thanks,” I said, unable to suppress a smile. “It was my inheritance.”

Mark did not notice our gallery in the clouds that day at Augusta, but I knew our gallery noticed him. That was how it had always been: the two of us writing, and Poppy reading.

As per usual, we provided plenty of entertainment. I staved off a few nervy swings to piece together an impressive first nine, though my putting performance seemed to be giving my caddie an ulcer. I turned for the back nine ready to challenge a score in the low-80s, which actually seemed like a possibility until I reached the 13th hole.

I’d allowed myself a moment of quiet celebration as I stared down a birdie putt on the 13th: Somehow, I’d managed to avoid Rae’s Creek around Amen Corner. Then, I hit my putt toward the tucked Sunday flag just a hair too firm, watching as the ball trickled past the hole, off the green and into the water. I was laughing so hard I almost forgot to card the double-bogey.

Thankfully, my not-so-tidy 87 produced at least one highlight. It arrived on the right side of the 15th fairway, as I stared down a terrifying second shot over the water. I debated laying up to the bottom of the hill, as I’d seen countless players do all week, but then something came over me. I grabbed my hybrid.

“Take the gamble,” I thought loud enough that I heard myself whisper.

And so I did, swinging as hard and as well as any shot I hit all year. When I made the birdie putt a few minutes later, my first and only at Augusta National, I let out an audible laugh.

That was Poppy’s favorite hole.

I’VE SPENT TWELVE MONTHS trying to understand how my life led to Augusta National on the morning of April 15, 2024.

I’ve debated the metaphysical, questioned the existence of a higher power, and consulted the golf gods. Each gave a compelling case for the unknowable, but none felt quite right. (Though I remain intrigued by the phenomenon of ‘quantum tunneling,’ where particles pass through great barriers despite lacking the classical energy to do so.)

Then one day it hit me. The path from a childhood dream to the fairways of golf heaven was not a solo journey. It never had been. The achievement lay not in a tee time, a golf course, or a heavenly place, but in all the moments that came before it. It was my gift in the literal sense, but it belonged to a group much larger than me.

It was those people who earned this moment — the ones who gave everything, asked for nothing, and believed it when they said I could do anything. Their history is my history. My tee time was not about putting my stamp on golf heaven, it was about putting theirs.

The path to Augusta National does not begin at the gates to Magnolia Lane, with a ticket to the Masters, or in a classroom. It starts with a dream that becomes a promise: To take the big swing, push the chips to the center of the table, and go all-in.

I didn’t know it when I arrived at Augusta National, but I sure do now.

I won the lottery, and golf has nothing to do with it.

You can reach the author at james.colgan@golf.com.

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Ah yes, the other tradition unlike any other: course changes at Augusta National.

The iconic Masters host is in rarified air among major championship sites in that it does not change locations every year. And, as the only major host that does not move around, the things about Augusta National that do change from one year to the next are often the subject of intrigue.

For the November Masters in 2020, Augusta National responded to pro golf’s Bryson-driven distance craze by backing up tee boxes and creating obstructions to preserve attack angles. With only five months between tournaments in 2021, changes were restricted solely to the food menu, which featured a new Masters Chicken Sandwich and the addition of a “Crow’s Nest” beer.

On Wednesday, the Masters birthed its annual media guide, a 457-page epoch gleaming with every speck of Masters history. There’s something for everyone in the media guide, from a recounting of the tournament’s fabled origins to an in-depth investigation of rainfall during tournament week. But tucked away on page 27 were a trio of updates that provided golf fans with their first glimpses of what to expect in April.

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The shifts were listed under the “Significant Hole Changes” section, and indicate updates to three of Augusta National’s most iconic holes. The changes will lengthen holes No. 11, 15 and 18, adding a cumulative total of at least 35 yards to the Masters’ tees. Below is Augusta National’s official explanation for each of the hole modifications.

No. 11: “Masters tees moved back 15 yards and to the golfer’s left. Fairway recontoured and several trees removed on right side.”

No. 15: “Masters tees moved back 20 yards and fairway recontoured.”

No. 18: “Thirteen yards added to the back of the Masters tees without necessitating a change in length to the hole.”

While the changes marked the first official announcement from the club, they’d been rumored for months after a pilot photographer nabbed images of fairways and tee boxes ripped up during the course’s offseason in May.

Considering none of the three holes ranked among the eight easiest at last year’s Masters by scoring average, it’s unlikely the changes were driven by a competitive imbalance. Rather, Augusta National has repeatedly prioritized maintaining the course’s strategic integrity for the purposes of competition. These changes would appear to be no different.

On No. 11, longer tees and recontoured fairways could serve as a deterrent to players who have used the right rough and pinestraw as a bailout area in recent years. The changes could provide incentive to play tee shots closer to the pond on the left, reintroducing the water as a risk/reward component on approach shots.

On No. 15, a famed par-5 guarded by two ponds on either side of the green, extended tees could force more players to hit fairway woods on their approaches, dramatically increasing the shot execution required to reach the green in two shots.

And on No. 18, the adjustments are likely aimed at reintroducing the gargatuan left bunker, which players have driven the ball past in recent years.

Of course, all this information comes with the caveat that few observers have actually seen these changes in the flesh. It’ll be difficult to understand the full significance of each adjustment until we’ve watched the best players in the world navigating them during the course of a competitive round. But, for those of us who live and breathe every trip down Magnolia Lane, the announcement means one thing above all else: It’s almost that time of year again.

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Want to pour an Arnold Palmer for Jack Nicklaus?

Augusta National is looking for a bartender. Yes, the home of the Masters and one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world is hiring someone part-time who, among other tasks, “mixes, prepares and serves drinks in accordance with recipes approved by the Beverage Supervisor,” according to a recent posting on the club’s Workday page (and first reported by Golfweek). 

It’s not the only opening, either. Augusta’s looking for a “Golf Course General Laborer,” a “Golf Course Equipment Operator” and a “Housekeeper,” among 10 job postings. Earlier this year, the club posted two openings on its LinkedIn page, for a “security manager” and “horticulturist” (the latter of which led to GOLF’s James Colgan putting his best flowers forward).

Still, the chance to check Tiger Woods’ I.D. might be a hoot. Among the other “essential functions of the job” are: 

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— “Prepares garnishes, mixes and pre-mixed drinks according to members or guests requests;”

— “Greets members and their invited guests in a professional manner;”

— “Assists with wine service, delivers wine ordered by members, pours wine for members when needed or instructed by the Beverage Supervisor.”

And there are several “other duties and responsibilities,” including operation of the “beverage cart.” “Operates beverage cart as needed or as instructed by the Beverage Supervisor,” the posting reads. “Serves Members and guests with beverages and snacks as requested and accurately tracks charges on Member sheets.”

But the best requirement may be the last eight words of the posting’s first paragraph:

“While maintaining the strict confidentiality of all Club business.”

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Augusta National, just under two months since this year’s Masters, appears to be already preparing for next year’s. 

In overhead photos recently shared by the Eureka Earth Twitter account (and first reported by Geoff Shackelford), work is being done on the fairway on the 530-yard par-5 15th hole, and the green on the 440-yard par-4 17th hole. Also, the Augusta National members pro shop — which is located near the 1st hole, but is off limits to Masters patrons — appears to have been demolished.

In addition, construction appears to be nearing completion on a new bridge near the water to the left of the green on the 505-yard par-4 11th hole.

Augusta National adjustments, over the years, have been common. In April, while talking about distance in golf, ANGC chairman Fred Ridley said: “As I have stated in the past each year, we look at every hole of our golf course.”

“Fortunately, we do have the ability to make any number of changes to protect the integrity of the course,” he said. 

The Eureka Earth photos:

The new bridge, near the water to the left of the green on the 505-yard par-4 11th:

The work on the Augusta National members pro shop, which is near the 1st hole: 

The work on the green on the 17th hole, and the fairway on the 15th hole: 

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The Masters began, like so many other historic events, with a partnership.

In 1930, the legendary Bobby Jones retired from competitive golf after 13 major championship victories. Around the same time, he met with Clifford Roberts, an investment banker from New York who Jones met a handful of times. For years, Jones dreamt of building and opening a golf course in his post-playing career, and Roberts was prepared to help his newly-retired friend see his goal through to completion. The two decided Augusta, Ga. — a suburb of Atlanta — would be the ideal location for a golf club, and quickly purchased a parcel of land belonging to Fruitland Nurseries. The pair hired Alister Mackenzie, a renowned golf course architect, to design a layout, and within three years’ time, Augusta National was open for play.

Soon after opening, it was decided that Augusta National would host a golf tournament, both to give back to the game of golf and as a way of promoting the new club on the national stage. Roberts, who was named the club’s first chairman (a title he would hold for close to four decades), suggested the name Masters, but it was quickly shot down by Jones, who thought it presumptive. Eventually, membership agreed upon “Augusta National Invitation Tournament,” a name that stuck until Jones relented to Roberts some five years later.

The first-ever recognized Masters winner is Horton Smith, whose four-day total of 285 (or four under for the weekend) was good enough to best Craig Wood, Billy Burke and Paul Runyan. Smith also became the first two-time Masters winner ever in 1936, when he outlasted Gene Sarazen en route to his second-ever victory in the tournament. Jimmy Demaret was the first pro to win the Masters under its current name in 1940, capturing the $5,000 first prize as many of the game’s biggest names — Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, among others — began to flock toward the event.

Traditionally, the Masters is held in the first full week of April, a tradition adopted with the Masters name in 1940. With rare exception, the tournament has been held annually in the months of March and April for the entirety of its existence. The tournament was canceled for a number of years during World War II, and was postponed to the fall in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.

Ultimately, names like Hogan, Snead and Nelson (and later, Nicklaus, Palmer and Player) deserve credit for building the tournament’s international mystique. Those half-dozen names own 20 Masters titles and the lion’s share of many of the great moments in tournament history. In 1949, Snead became the first golfer to receive a green jacket for winning the tournament, which up to that point had been reserved only for Augusta National members (previous winners were retroactively awarded jackets soon thereafter).

The tournament scoring record belongs to Dustin Johnson, who claimed his first Masters in November 2020 with a 20-under total of 268. The win made him the only golfer to record a 72-hole score in the 260s, and the first winner of the tournament outside the months of March and April.

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Billy Horschel’s first mistake on Saturday presumably came around 7 a.m. ET, three hours before he teed off for the third round of the Masters at 10 a.m.

It was around this time we can reasonably estimate he made the ill-fated decision to wear white pants.

Horschel, who entered the day at three over, was about to have an eventful afternoon at Augusta National. An afternoon in which he would not only make three birdies and five bogeys, but would also put himself firmly in the lead for the most eventful par of Masters week.

It all happened on the 13th at Augusta National, where he began the hole by hooking his drive into the trees. After finding his drive in the pine straw a stiff 208 yards from the pin, Horschel threw caution to the wind. With three bogeys and only a single birdie, the 34-year-old figured he needed to shake up his mojo. He elected to take a shot at the flagstick, which was tucked on the front portion of the green directly behind Rae’s Creek. Seconds after making contact, it was clear Horschel’s ball didn’t have the required distance, and it plunked into the creek.

For most, the situation would result in a drop and a penalty stroke. For Horschel, it amounted to a wardrobe change.

Staring at his ball in Rae’s Creek, Horschel figured he might be capable of getting it from the water without taking a penalty stroke. He removed his shoes, rolled up his trousers and walked into the creek. Bingo. He had a shot.

Barefoot, he walked back up to survey the green, which was his second mistake of the day.

At this time, we’d like to state that wearing a pair of white trousers is not, in itself, a poor fashion decision. However, when one is about to walk barefoot down a steep slope with water below, perhaps black pants are a preferable choice.

As he walked back down to the creek, Horschel lost his balance and fell squarely on his rear-end, sliding for a couple of feet before coming to a stop. He stood back up, and with a laugh, wiped off his newly muddied pants.

But his work wasn’t done there.

Seconds later, Horschel sized up his approach shot and knocked it onto the green.

“It was completely submerged, it was probably a couple of inches under the water,” Horschel said. “Fortunately enough, I’ve hit a few shots out of the water just for fun, and so I knew there was a whole bunch of green behind me, so as long as I hit it hard enough, it would come out. So I guess that’s my highlight for the day.”

A few minutes after that, he two-putted for the most bizarre par we’ve seen on Amen Corner in a good while.

Evidently, the par on No. 13 would be the spark he needed to turn his day around. Horschel would make two birdies on the final five holes to finish the day at four over, good for a tie for 49th.

As for his pants, Phil Mickelson was the one to break the news.

“I said, How bad was that grass stain going to be? And Phil said, ‘Yeah, there’s one there, sorry buddy,'” Horschel said after the round. “That’s going to be a highlight that’s replayed on social media, but I was at least hoping to make the putt so there’d be something funny from it.”

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Last fall, Bryson DeChambeau entered Augusta National with a dash of youthful hubris.

DeChambeau was the clear betting favorite leading into November, and everyone — himself included — seemed to think he was poised for an Augusta romping in the vein of Tiger Woods in 1997.

“I’m looking at [Augusta National] as a par-67 for me because I can reach all the par-fives in two, no problem. If the conditions stay the way they are, that’s what I feel like par is for me,” he declared triumphantly on the Tuesday before the tournament. “There is definitely a possibility I don’t play well, and I could shoot whatever everyday and shoot a lot over par relative to my par and still play decent.”

What followed was a classic Augusta National lesson. While the rest of the field lapped up easier-than-usual scoring conditions to record-low scores, DeChambeau struggled to break par at Augusta. After shooting two over on Thursday, he finished tied for 34th, 18 strokes off Dustin Johnson’s 72-hole total.

This year, Bryson returned to Augusta National with a fresh dose of reality.

“Clearly the par was 74 for me last year,” he said Friday. “But I would say for the most part, I think this golf course is an amazing and spectacular, challenging venue and championship. I think one of the most amazing things about this place is that it can turn on you real quick when you least expect it.”

But even with renewed perspective, DeChambeau’s performance didn’t look all that different on Thursday — an ugly opening-round 76 left him an afterthought on a crowded leaderboard. On the course, he looked decidedly shell-shocked. Iron shots blasted over his intended yardages and putts rocketed past the flagstick — or made it only halfway there. He and caddie Tim Tucker rifled through their yardage books and spoke intently, but the results weren’t changing. After a bogey on the par-4 5th hole on Friday, DeChambeau dropped to five over for the week and firmly in danger of missing the cut.

Then, the switch flipped on.

DeChambeau played the final 13 holes on Friday at six under, recording seven birdies to only a single bogey and moving within six strokes of Justin Rose’s lead. Ironically, his blistering pace was carried by two of the weakest parts of his game through the previous 95 holes at Augusta National: putting and iron play.

“I finally felt like I was seeing lines out there for the first time in five years, it feels like, or five times I’ve played it in tournament conditions,” DeChambeau said. “That excites me, for sure. I think if I could just ball strike it a little bit better. Felt like my iron play was great. We didn’t hit it long too many times today. I was proud of that. If I can keep myself positive, in a positive mindset and toward making a lot of birdies, you never know.”

By the time the dust settled, DeChambeau climbed back under par for the week, placing himself a moving day charge away from the lead. More importantly, he’d seemingly found his footing at Augusta for the first time — as much as anybody can.

“I don’t think you can ever figure this place out,” he said. “There’s so many things going on around here. The wind makes it diabolical. It’s flying around through these trees and bouncing off the trees and making it feel into the wind when it should be downwind, and vice versa. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to figure it out, but I’ve just got to be more comfortable.”

Speaking of conditions, Saturday could prove to be the most uncertain day of tournament week. Wind gusts upward of 20 mph are expected throughout the afternoon, and rain is in the forecast for later in the evening. It’s possible, though unlikely, that DeChambeau would make up ground Saturday simply by staying the course. He tees off at 1 p.m. ET alongside Aussie Matt Jones.

“For some reason every year I get here, I’m playing pretty well coming in and I don’t execute the way I want to,” DeChambeau said. “Today was nice to be able to get it back and shoot 5-under, get myself somewhat in contention.”

DeChambeau enters the weekend seeking his first-ever top-20 finish at the Masters — a surprising stat for a player whose game seems primed to take advantage of Augusta National in much the same way Woods did two decades ago. Woods had near-immediate success at the Masters at the beginning of his career, but even a five-time green jacket winner has lost far more Masters than he’s won. That’s the nature of the tournament, as DeChambeau sees it.

“You have to experience failure in order to understand what success is,” DeChambeau said. “It’s just not realistic to have success all the time. That’s what’s so great about this golf course.”

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — There are a few trending phrases at Augusta National this spring.

“Firm and fast.”

“Spieth and Greller.”

“Chicken salad and brioche.”

That’s right: There’s a new sandwich in town.

Breaking news has been replaced by breading news at the 2021 Masters. The menu is expanding. Waistlines are sure to follow. The new sandwich joins the Classic Chicken, the Masters Club, the Egg Salad, the Pimento Cheese, the Ham and Cheese on Rye and the Turkey and Cheese on Wheat. There was chicken salad before, but it was served in a wrap, excluded from the conversation. The brioche bookends mark its call-up to the big leagues.

Believe it or not, there’s actually a point to this article beyond its existence as a vehicle for gluten puns. (Most of ’em are corny, anyway.) The new sandwich — and its rollout — actually means something. It tells us about the Masters and about Augusta National. You can learn a lot from the way a club touts its mayonnaise.

Food

For starters, the sandwich suggests that the crowds this week will be significant. Augusta National never releases attendance figures, and they’ve been particularly tight-lipped about this year’s patron-picking process. But you wouldn’t break out a new food item for a fan-free golf tournament any more than you’d debut a nightclub over Zoom. There are other signs of significant crowds (like the full parking lots outside the gates, or the large number of people actually walking the grounds), but the sandwich confirms it.

The sandwich reminds us of Augusta’s attention to detail. It comes in a green wrapper, like the other food offerings, so that an escaped bit of plastic wouldn’t show up on a TV screen. The trash bags are green, too, as are the patron chairs and the sacks of range balls and tournament-provided masks and the seed that’s used to fill divots. Green tends to blend in around here.

The selection of sandwich suggests Augusta National is open to evolving. For years we’ve been force-fed the idea that egg salad in 85-degree weather is somehow a good idea or that pimento cheese can be the centerpiece of a signature sandwich when in reality pimento cheese doesn’t need to exist, period. The new sandwich immediately joins the upper echelon of Augusta’s concession power rankings. Ham and Cheese on Rye seems suddenly dull by comparison. Change comes slowly to this club, but it’s coming bit by bit — and, yes, bite by bite.

But the most interesting thing that the chicken salad sandwich tells us is that Augusta National has become fully self-aware. The club and tournament have long embraced cutting-edge technology; their deep interest in the content game has been a more recent development. On Monday, the Masters Instagram account rolled out the chicken salad sandwich in an official post.

“New to the most famous fare in golf, Chicken Salad,” the caption read.

There is a vague possibility that you don’t give a single Hootie Johnson about Masters concessions. That’s hardly disqualifying as a fan; there’s no requirement that you care about chicken salad sandwiches on brioche any more than you care about Hudson Swafford’s putting routine.

But here’s the thing: You probably do care, even if you can’t explain why. I can’t exempt myself, either: I care, too. We’re collectively curious about Augusta National’s food offerings. Their prices (low), their quality (high), their relative tastiness (the chocolate chip cookies, then everything else). And now, the Masters knows that we care. They’ve leaned into it. They posted the new sandwich on Instagram for the same reason they co-produced a minutiae-focused documentary. They’ve been releasing short, minimalist clips of things like planting flowers, cutting grass or fluffing pillows — and we’ve eaten them up.

In one of those videos, Director of Communications Steve Ethun explains the approach. “If you could focus on your job 51 weeks a year and execute on it one week a year, just think how good you would be. And that’s how fortunate we are at Augusta National. Here, perfect is just good enough.”

That kind of sums it up, huh? The secret of Augusta’s concessions is that none of them would look out of place in a well-packed school lunchbox. Augusta National takes relatively simple concepts and goes over the top on execution. The club isn’t going to release its chicken salad recipe much sooner than it’ll release its list of members, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything particularly secret about it its ingredients. Chicken. Mayonnaise. Celery. Onion. Pepper. Probably not much else. Simple done right.

The lead-up to Thursday at the Masters is typically filled with conjecture and guesswork. I hear Jordan Spieth speak with confidence about his game, but I can’t tell you if he’ll finish inside the top five this week. I see Brooks Koepka limping, but I can’t tell you to officially disqualify him from contention. The course is playing tough on Tuesday, but there’s no guarantee how it’ll look come tournament time. Uncertainty reigns.

For that reason, it’s nice to bring you some cold hard facts from on the ground. I can tell you with great certainty that the chicken salad on brioche is delicious. I can tell you that there’s slightly too much brioche near the sandwich’s borders but that the bread-to-chicken ratio improves to near perfection the closer you get to the center. If you eat your way from the outside in, you’ll save the best for last.

We can only hope the tournament measures up.

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The post 2021 Masters weather: Storms could play a role at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 Masters weather: Storms could play a role at Augusta National appeared first on Golf.

The 2020 Masters featured one of the most closely watched forecasts in tournament history. The first-ever playing of the event in the month of November gave way to months of consternation surrounding the conditions at Augusta National in the winter months, which gave way to further consternation about how those conditions could be affected by fall weather.

Ultimately, weather played a major factor throughout the week, with heavy rains forcing not only adjusted tee times and an abbreviated cutline, but also major shifts to typical course conditions. With soggy conditions and soft greens for most of the first two-and-a-half days of play, pros could attack pins at Augusta National more than at any Masters in recent memory, and the final result was astonishing. Dustin Johnson won with the lowest 72-hole score of any Masters-winner ever, narrowly edging out Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im, among others, who also recorded record scores for runners-up.

Augusta, Ga. in the spring may be similarly temperate, but its conditions are typically far different. For one, the spring months typically are a notch warmer than in the winter months. Not enough to alter your attire if you’re among the lucky few to attend this year’s event — shorts are probably the ideal selection in either time of year if you’re coming from the northeast — but certainly enough to adjust your expectations. For another, the old “April showers” axiom holds little weight in Augusta, where there is more precipitation during the winter months than in the spring months.

In theory, we should anticipate a return to “normal” course conditions at this year’s Masters, which is to say that it would be unexpected (though not entirely out of the question) to witness another record scoring affair at the 2021 tournament.

In practice, the forecast tells us the weather is a mixed bag for the week at Augusta National. The Weather Channel currently lists chances for storms on three of the four tournament days in Augusta, Ga. On Thursday, the forecast calls for 84 degrees with a 37 percent chance of thunderstorms. On Friday and Saturday, the forecast calls for 79 degrees with a chance of scattered thunderstorms on both days (52 percent on Friday and 54 percent on Saturday). Sunday, the weather looks significantly better, with temperatures at 79 degrees and only a 10 percent chance of rain.

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