Closing Shot: A Memory Unlike Any Other

SBJ’s Josh Carpenter (left) was joined by Warren Little of Getty Images, Rick Maese of the Washington Post and Dan Parker of Golf Monthly for a round at Augusta National.courtesy of augusta national

Men’s professional golf has been ripped apart at the seams for nearly three years now, with talk of guaranteed money, “growing the game,” signature events and sportswashing more prevalent than birdies and bogeys.

The fight between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour has engulfed the sport, and there’s no end in sight. It’s seemingly turned off fans, too, with viewership numbers for some of the sport’s biggest events trending down.

It’s why the entire golf industry felt a reprieve this month in Augusta, Ga., when the world’s best competed against one another for the first time since last year’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

The Masters is spring’s annual palate cleanser, even more so with the ongoing angst in the professional game. The traditions that happen down Magnolia Lane add up to golf in its purest form, and the competition and golf course delivered again last week.

Further cleansing the palate for me was the Masters’ annual media lottery.

I’ve been to nine Masters tournaments as a patron, my first coming in 2006. My first memory at Augusta National is of Gary Player, clad head-to-toe in green, striding up the first fairway.

But this was my first Masters as a member of the press. And any press member heading to Augusta National knows there’s a slim chance at playing in the annual media outing the day after the tournament, should their lottery number be picked.

Playing the two nines at Augusta National is a pipe dream for most golfers around the world. Being a press member covering the Masters may be the best opportunity.

So it was a “pinch me” moment when that Friday afternoon email came: “Congratulations! You have been selected to play in the Press Monday Golf Outing on Monday, April 15, 2024.”

My round at Augusta National was everything I needed in this current, wacky golf climate. It didn’t matter that it took 90 strokes to get around on the par-72 layout, or my snipe hook off the first tee that ended up across the ninth fairway, or the missile that airmailed the 12th green long and left.

While walking off the brute of a par-3 fourth hole, in which our entire foursome made par, we remarked how before this Monday, we were no more than strangers. But after 4½ hours trudging up and down golf’s most holy grounds together, we’d have a bond and memory that would last the rest of our lives.

The reprieve didn’t last long.

Upon climbing back up the narrow clubhouse stairwell to the Champions Locker Room, where I shared a spot with Tom Watson and Claude Harmon, my phone was buzzing with reports of an $850 million offer from LIV Golf to Rory McIlroy. Back to reality.