Kearney Crew: The Masters

Well, the time came for us to actually attend the Par 3 Contest at Augusta National so we flew out to Atlanta and stayed with Doug Rome. Wed morning, we got up early and drove ~2.5 hours to Augusta. Surprisingly, traffic wasn't bad at all until about 1 mile from the parking lot. Businesses/residents were charging for parking but Augusta National's lot was free. Luckily, since it was a practice round, cameras were allowed. Normally, there would be no cameras allowed and they never allow phones.

The course opened at 8, the Par 3 didn't start until noon, we arrived at 10:20.

Right when you walk in, the driving range and practice area is on the left. The place is immaculate.

Shortly down the path, on the right, was the first bathroom. There were hundreds of dummies waiting in line. I suggested we find one on the course. Next was the first, biggest gift shop. The line was even longer than the one for the bathroom. After that, on the left, was the first concession area. We skipped it. Finally, we approach the course.

Course map for reference

We had decided to head straight to Amen Corner and work our way back. Once you get in there though, it is hard to navigate. On the way to Amen Corner, we passed 17 green.

Off of 18 tee we came across this monument.

Room for one more name.

The view up 18

We soon found Amen Corner

13 green

14 tee

Angel Cabrera

Hunter Mahan on 15

15 green

Dumb caddy

Over on 17, Adam Scott, Kevin Na and Danny Lee are teeing off

Stevie wasn't walking with them

Over on 16, golfers were skipping their balls across the water onto the green

Davis Love III

The view from behind 16 green

View from 6 tee

The view just got better

5 green seems pretty straight forward and flat

Paul Casey

Lunch time!

I got a pimento sandwich, an egg salad sandwich and a Georgia peach ice cream sandwich. And two beers. That cost $14. Plus you get to keep the cups.

The egg salad sandwich was pretty blah. The pimento was OK. The ice cream sandwich was the best thing I ate all day. Their beers were: "Domestic" - Miller Lite ($4), "Craft" - Blue Moon ($5), and "Import" - Stella ($5). They did not let you see the brands of the beer or the "Cola" (Coke products). Later I ate some Georgia caramel pecan popcorn. It was OK. Most people threw their cups away. At the end of the day, people were digging them out of the trash. Steve bought about 25 from a dude in the bathroom for $20. This was obviously not the first financial transaction Steve had made in a men's room. Another volunteer was washing his trash cups and selling them for $5 a cup. He said he could get at least that on eBay.

Back to the course, Stenson on 3

On 2 green , we came across Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and somebody else.

Vijay Singh

Keegan Bradley

We stopped by 18 on the way to the Par 3 Championship. There we found Sergio Garcia

The view from 10 tee

The walk up to the Par 3 course.

Immediately, we see Phil Mickelson

We started to walk around and found the information board

The tee at hole 1 was a great place to watch, players would come early and loosen up and putt on the small green behind the tee.

Ian Poulter

Nick Faldo

Worst caddy ever, can't even carry clubs.

Paul Chaplet

Troy Merritt

Justin Rose

At this point, we started walking around the course backward so we didn't miss anyone.

Hole 8 was pretty cool

Behind hole 9 we came across the TV crew and Mike Tirico

Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer teeing off on 9

View from 9 tee

Over on 3, we found Kevin Na and Danny Lee again

We got back to 1 and hung out by the green. Just in time for Justin Thomas...

Jordan Spieth...

and Ricky Fowler

We moved to an open spot on 1 fairway. On the way, I nearly got assaulted by this ball.

While we were sitting there we hear the crowd erupt. This was happening a lot, there was a record number of aces this year. About 1 minute later, the crowd erupts again. About one minute later, the crown boos. This was caused by Justin Thomas and Ricky Fowler going back-to-back aces then Jordan Spieth not holing out. This wouldn't be the worst thing that happened to Spieth that week. It sounded like a lot of fun to watch. We chose not to follow them around because we were waiting on some old dudes. Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player.

At this point, we left the par 3 to go walk the course from 1 to 18. On the way, we saw more golfers getting ready for the par 3 including: Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Craig Stadler, Ben Crenshaw, and Mike Weir. On the way back, I wanted to stop by the driving range to see if anyone was on it. We took a wrong turn and ended up in some long line. That line led to the clubhouse...