David, 60, has been coming to Augusta National for 21 years, and he sits in the same place every time, down at Amen Corner. He reckons it's the best, and busiest, spot in Augusta. "Other than Hooters, that is."
He has a point there. Hooters, down on the Washington Road that runs up to the gates of the golf course, are running a Ms Green Jacket Bikini contest in one room, and a professional chicken wing‑eating competition in the other. On top of which, John Daly's tour bus is parked up in the lot outside. The former Open and PGA champion has been camped out there all week, flogging merchandise from a trestle table out front, from golf clubs ("Grip it and rip it") to beer mugs ("Grip it and sip it") to baby bibs ("Slurp it and burp it") to his own country and western CDs (featuring his hit, All My Exes Wear Rolexes).
When David and all the other patrons pass that way in the morning, Daly is still asleep inside. You have to start earlier than sunrise if you want to get a prime seat on the Corner. The gates open at 8am, and as soon they're through the "patrons" (as Augusta National insists on calling the punters) break into a rapid waddle across the course, doing their utmost not to break the rule that forbids them from running. By 9am thousands of green folding seats ($30 each from one of the club's many shops) are arrayed around the best watching spots all over the course.
Everybody has their own favourite. The glory hunters make for the 18th green, for obvious reasons. The diligent and dutiful make for the mound at the back of the 7th, because that is where Bobby Jones (sorry, "Robert Tyre Jones Jr") tells them to go in his "spectator suggestions", written in 1949 but still used today. And the connoisseurs may make for the vicious par-three 4th, which, this week at least, is the toughest on the course, with 70 bogeys or worse in the first two rounds alone.
But the thrill-seekers make for Amen Corner, where they can watch the action on the 11th, 12th and the start of the 13th. It's a long way from the clubhouse down there, and the atmosphere is just a little looser, and the grass is carpeted with cigar stubs and ice, tipped out of freshly drained cups. The 11th, where Bubba's Saturday run of birdies came to an end with a double bogey, is a mean hole. But it's the 12th, called Golden Bell, that the patrons come for. They love it so much that the grandstand there fills up three hours before the first players arrive on the tee.
Jack Nicklaus said the 12th was "the hardest tournament hole in golf".
by Andy Bull, The Guardian | Read more:
Image via: Golf.com
