I miss a green for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my.
Ball in a frid Egg, Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Hello and welcome to the Friday Egg Podcast. My name is Garrett Morrison, and today we have a special episode for you all about Augusta National and the Masters, specifically about
the spectating experience at Augusta National. And I think that we're going to revolve our discussion a little bit around sort of the first time experience if you haven't been there before and you're going. This is a set of recommendations and ideas for that. And to help me with this, I have three guests today. This is an unusual format for the Frida Egg podcast. So we have Andy Johnson,
the founder of the Frida Egg. We have Brendan Porath, who is Andy Johnson's co host on the Shotgun Start podcast and the most recent employee of the Frida Egg, which we're very excited about. Title there's no title, Yeah, so have we we haven't decided on a title at all for Brendan.
Then huh, employee works.
I was thinking, like managing managing director emeritus.
I don't know anything you want.
To I'm managing editor, and Brendan's coming in here and trying to claim managing director emeritus. Er all right? And then finally we have Michael Wolfe with us. Michael Wolfe, who may be better known as Bama Bearcat on Twitter, is a golf history savant and in particular somebody who knows a lot about the history of the Masters and Augusta National. So very excited to have Michael Wolfe with us today.
I was excited at too, until I just learned that I'm the only person in this room right now.
Not like it's not getting.
Papers, this is already going off the rails. Well, we'll we'll figure out the payment later. Maybe maybe there will be some dinner tonight or something like that.
I mean, who knows, maybe you'll get payment for you know, from something else.
Delicious Elijah Craig, Bob who knows you.
Already got a sip of that? That seems like enough people would do that for the Well.
Thank you for working in the sponsor of the episode. Michael, that's very professional of you. So our basic idea here today is to go through some recommendations for the experience at Augusta National, and those recommendations can be whatever you guys want, essentially, and then at the end of the podcast we'll talk about our favorite spots at Augusta. So
that's the basic idea. Why don't we start with Michael. Michael, what is your number one recommendation for somebody who's going to go be a spectator at Augusta National.
Sure?
So, the Masters, like they do with everything, They've got a great website and if you click on Spectator Information, it'll give you tips on how to get here and how to park and everything. The first tip would be to follow those directions. This is not a place where you're going to outsmart them. They've been doing this for a long time. Use the parking. It's free, it's well organized. Just trust the process, don't try to get fancy and work around it. So I would say the first thing
is parking. But then the most important part I would say of that tip is you're gonna see big signs when you get in the parking that say leave your phone in the car, that's very unusual for most of us these days, and it takes a little thinking if you are with a group of people, and particularly if you're not all arriving at the same time. So the first thing, first and foremost, everybody needs to know what each other's phone numbers are. We don't know everybody's phone
numbers anymore. But if you don't have your phone and you've got a content tacked them down the line, and you don't you don't have your contacts to look up.
So you gotta know what people's phone numbers are.
So write down whoever you're with, and you gotta get a hold of what their phone numbers are.
And then.
Because their phone's out on the course to call, you're gonna need and then you're gonna need a coordinator. So you're gonna need to figure out whether it's somebody's cell phone or somebody's answering machine, or somebody's friend who's at home and not with everybody, somebody that everybody can call from the course if there's a rain delay or whatever that can tell you where everybody else is, or just messages that everybody can access.
You're gonna you sound like you're making this out to be you know, like a this sounds like a chore.
I I might, you know, I might turned out.
The master well and then the simplest then is also a place to meet. So if everybody hasn't been before, you may not know where to go to meet.
You've got to establish. Okay, if we get.
Lost, or if one person wants to go to the merchandise tent, or if just two cars are arriving with groups of people from different parts of the country at different times, where are we gonna meet up? Figure that out for It's important because you can't text each other when you get there, so you gotta have a spot. And it's going to be crowded, so you got to be very specific in where to meet. You can't just
say let's meet on the twelfth hole. You got to say we're gonna meet in front of the beer only line in the concession stand.
But been there?
Here's the thing, what if you haven't been there?
So I'm gonna give you a couple of places right now where everybody can meet.
And the other thing about it is, I can't stress this enough. Everybody, Oh, let's meet up, Oh, let's meet up. Oh in this this is the hardest part about going to the Masters is meeting up with people, yes, and different parties. This is this is you know, in somewhat essential because people arrive at different times like you.
And and adding to the degree of difficulty, every single person who comes to watch the Masters dresses alike. Everybody's wearing the same khaki shorts or navy blue pants and the same Great Bee dratty golf shirts.
So, oh wow, I've tried to get especially a non brand something.
And then, last but not least, if you're gonna meet someplace and you're a green on a time, you gotta be wearing a watch because if you're like me and you just look at your phone for the time and your phone is in your car, that ain't gonna help.
So everybody's got to have a watch, and everybody's got to have a plan for where you're meeting and when, and you got to be as specific as possible because there's gonna be a thousand other people in that same spot and they're all gonna be wearing khaki shorts in a white cul shirt.
And you got to be cushion. You got to have cushion on the time. So if they say ten thirty. You gotta nobody, you know, you wait till ten forty and you know, be specific, pick out a few landmarks.
It is.
It's very hard plant it all in advance, you know, and have those numbers because there are phones on the course.
This is like a set of skills that people don't have anymore, and so that that's it's It's really funny how when you go there, it's almost like an elementary school field trip.
I'll tell you what, though, it is liberating.
I was I was riding the media that we we get like a shuttle from the the press center. It's the press shuttle, I guess, the press center to the to the course. It's it's a ways away, you know, it's at the end of the range, so you know, and I'm sitting on the back of this cart and some nice lady that was that was uh she she we stopped to drop somebody at the range and she's like, god, he look so relaxed, and I go, you know, I'm not walking around with a bundle of anxiety in my pocket.
You know, this is this is delightful. I knew at that point when I left, It's like I'm just out here you know, and I think that's one of the great things. But I don't have a watch. I didn't bring one. I have one, but I didn't bring one because I'm an idiot. But that also has allowed me a little bit more freedom. But you know, the uh, this is this is a it's a great you know, everybody hates it, but once you're out there, the way you take in everything, it really adds to the experience.
Well, it makes you think how many other opportunities we should take to separate ourselves from our phones, and it makes you wish that there were more kind of required moments to do that.
Yeah, absolutely, I would.
I think it heightens your senses overall. Right, you're not looking at your phone, You're just not looking. You're not scrolling your phone the whole time. It heightens your senses. It heightens your awareness of the course of what's happening in front of you, of the people you're with. I'd add to Andy's segment sentiment about liberating because like there are just meetups that.
Aren't going to happen. It's kind of great, right, you know that there are.
People in town that theoretically you probably would have to meet up with or might meet up with if you had all of your phones out there, right, and it's just like you go in there and it's like, well, that's not going to happen. I know they're here, we talked about it. It's just not going to happen. We
didn't set it up. And so it's liberating in that way that it kind of shrinks the circle, if that's right, you know, and maybe that's anti social in a way, but it just sort of shrinks the sort of distraction and it heightens your senses of everything else.
The one thing I will say though about that is like, meet up don't happen, but then organically things do happen because of the nature of the golf course.
It's it's it's an this huge property. Everybody's in awe.
Of this massive, seemingly massive property, but it's really small.
It's really packed together.
You wrote a great article about the art of the Roars a few years ago, and what the art of the roars is is that there are greens that are super close.
They're all the greens are packed together. They're jammed together. That's why it gets so loud.
And that's one of the great things about it is that you might you have best intentions to meet people and things fall through and you talk about it, and there's a good likelihood that you run into that person because it's just like kind of quaint and intimate in a way.
Well, this helps me understand why the Big Tree is so important.
Oh, the big trees.
Not everybody could get to the Big Tree, and the Big Tree is like the ultimate.
This is yeah, but.
It's it's the easy if if you it makes meeting at the Big Tree super easy.
Michael, let's get to your your meeting spots.
Okay, so you want to Everything around the clubhouse is kind of it's a madhouse. There's just a lot of people coming and going. Obviously the first he's there, the tenth tees there, that's where the players are coming out. If you can avoid meeting at the clubhouse, try to avoid it. If it's unavoidable to meet at the clubhouse, okay, and you've never been there before, then then the spot that you're gonna want to meet at, which is in that area, is what everyone would refer to as the
big scoreboard. And the big scoreboard is to the right of the first t Okay, so it's right when you walk on the property and it's not the Big score but that she's on the eighteenth green.
It's this is a scoreboard.
It's it's on the right hand side of the first fairway and it's kind of close to the merchandise and the food and everything, and there's kind of a picnic area. But but it's called the Big Scoreboard because it literally has every score for every hole.
For every player.
So it's got the entire field on a scoreboard and they record the scores like old fashioned, you know, box by box for everyone that's in the field. And it's far enough away from the crowds that if you have to meet in that area, then that's the spot to meet at. The other place that I like to meet at that I think is good, I try I would try to avoid twelve thirteen.
It's just too crowded.
But a nice tea box where you'll be able to find your friends right away and see them and they'll be able to see you because it's.
Just never that crowded.
Is there's a spot behind the fourth t where you can meet friends, and that also has the advantage of you can see a lot that's going on in that area.
So there's a spot.
It's kind of hard to get to, but it's up on a hill and you'll be able to see your friends and they'll be able to spot to you from a while away.
And there's never anybody up there. So I would say big.
Scoreboard to the right of the first T if you're on that side of the property. If you're on the other side of the property. My personal favorite is right behind the fourth T.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
One other one I do is seven.
Behind seven there's a great hill in a big lawn and if you there's a scoreboard there that's big and you could just stand like and lean against the scoreboard if you want it, and it makes meeting really easy, Like we're going to meet at the base of the scoreboard behind seven green, and that's.
Like a center point of the course, like you could literally go you go to you know, amen corner, quickly, you go to sixteen, you can go to ten, eleven, like you could just go a bunch of different directions from seven.
I'd say that's a great spot.
And it's right next to two green, two right two green. Seventeen green is nearby. Jeff Ogilvie refers to this as the sweet spot of Augusta National, partly because of what Brendan just said. You can get to other parts of the property pretty quickly from there.
Yeah, you can get to Aim and Corner really quick.
Like you're basically right at eleven, you're right at ten green, you're right at eighteen t it's a wonderful little spot. You're close to fifteen. So yeah, that's another great meeting spot. Anything sound logistics.
So last, but not least, the Masters is held every year but one. It's always held the first week about April. In this part of the country. The first week of April, you're gonna get thunderstorms. It's pretty rare that you get a whole Master's week where there isn't at least one day where there's weather. The same thing with the no phones. If there's weather, they make you leave the course. There's nowhere to go on the property. For the spectators, there's
nowhere to shelter under. They physically make you empty out when they blow the siren. Everybody's got to remember where the car is, Okay, so you've got to remember how to get back to where the car is parked, and you got to have a plan of where you know that we're all headed to which car, so that everybody knows where the heck everybody is because it you know, they blowing the horn. Thirty thousand people are all headed
in the same direction at the same time. So when you get out of your car in the morning, make a mental note of where you're parked.
All right, So why don't we go to Brendan and get his main recommendation.
Okay, my top twenty items in the merged town you have to buy are no?
No?
I mean, I understand the appeal of the merch ten and I understand why people go.
I'd say, once you've done it, I might not.
It's a lot, it's a lot of time and a lot of drama. I saw people yesterday, saw people yesterday they let you we knew I the storms are coming at noon, and they let I saw people run in at eight spend probably a thousand dollars in merchandise and run back out to their cars because you can go in twice, right, every badge can be scanned twice and drop that off and go back. And we had four hours and they burned like an hour and a half of that, you know, taking the merch out to their car.
It's just like, I don't know if that's always the best time.
You know, best spent.
But I understand why people do it, given that it's exclusive to the property. One recommendation I would have, and maybe I'm being a negative Nancy or whatever the term would be, is I wouldn't spend a preponderance of time in Amen Corner. I don't think it's a great viewing experience. I understand you need to go see it if it's your one visit, it's your first visit. Of course, I'm not discouraged you you from going to see it. It's far away. You can't see the ball. You can't see
the ball real well in twelve. Obviously, you can't see much of thirteen. You don't get real close. I mean, the closest you get is the corner right the elbow up at the top of thirteen.
It's a good spot.
But as far as like going deep down into Amen Corner, it's very crowded. It's a social scene. I think I once wrote an article like the five senses at Amen Corner. Right, it's like cigar smoke and sun dresses and all these different like all your senses get you really get overwhelmed with all the different Augusta National feels. I just don't think you need to spend a lot of time down there. It's not great for watching the golf in my opinion. I know it's the most famous Part three in the
world and all that stuff. I just think it's far away from watching the golf.
Yeah, every hole eleven you're distanced. You can't get close to eleven, twelve you can be close to the tee, but there's a lot of people there, and then thirteen you're set back way far away. The only spot I'll say is that, and it's usually not very crowded. Surprisingly, I think people don't know you can go back there because of how roped off you are through that section.
But if you cross fourteen and then go down into the corner, you can get like right down on the corner of the zaleas and you have this beautiful view of the green. You're really close to the green there and you get to see that topography going back, and it's that's a great spot, But like Brendan said, it's not the It's great to see, but it's not necessarily where I would spend a ton of time.
So you wouldn't. You wouldn't post up at twelve, right, But it sounds like there are maybe a couple of good spots that are sort of on the perimeter of Amen Corner. Right if you go to thirteen Green, there's sort of a route of escape to the rest of the course. You're not like deep in there. But I guess you would recommend at least going to see the holes, just not necessarily planning to spend an entire afternoon there.
I would walk it, Yes, I would walk Amen Corner. What I see sometimes it's happening quite often, is people just posting up in this social scene, this party, this sort of field party in the spot that you know below the grand stands, because it is pretty open, it's a bit of an expanse there where a lot of people can congregate. It's not like there's not a huge chair area like there might be on sixteen. So I just see that happening a lot, And I just wouldn't spend an hour and a half or an hour even
watching shots on twelve. I would just walk the holes, maybe spend some time on thirteen.
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Elijah Craig reminds you to think wisely, drink wisely. Excellent. Let's get Andy's recommendation.
Yeah, I mind centers around the course and how you go about navigating the course. And everybody obviously has watched this event for years and years before they go, and it's always like what should we pay attention to? Obviously, the greens of Augusta are what you want to see. And I think there's no better way to take in a golf course and understand the way the greens relate to the rest of the golf course than walking it backwards.
You start on eighteen green and go backwards. Everybody walks one direction and it's like around it right, Start on the eighteenth green and go around. And one of the things you can do on almost every green out there is you can walk. You can't walk in front of it, but you can walk from the edge of almost every green excluding aim and corner all the way around the green and you can really like just see the whole green and take that in.
If you want to go see the golf course. This is the way I would do it.
Start on eighteen green, walk around, and especially if you're there early, what you're doing, you're gonna get like this wonderful walk, like right out of the gate where there's no people because you're there early and you're on holes the golfers aren't on and this is a wonderful way to see the golf course. Walk around the green and then walk back, And the thing you do while you're
walking back kind of take in. You're taking in the topography, but then you can always look back and understand how everything relates back to the green that really is driving everything back.
So everybody thinks.
Oh, I got to walk it the way I'd play it, But if you really want to understand the golf holes, the best way to walk it, for if you're walking out one time, is walk it backwards.
And this is kind of a manifestation of an architectural principle, which is that in order to understand a golf hole, the best thing that you can do is to understand the green first and then see the rest of the hole and how it relates to it. And so I guess that walking Augusta National in this way is like the easiest way to wrap your mind around the golf course.
Yeah, this was the way I walked it the first time I walked it, and it really like I think, like there's certain holes that just stand out so much when you do it this way, Like fourteen is utterly amazing when you walk it this way the first time.
I remember just like being mesmerized by that green and especially taking the time to walk all the way around it and then going back and understanding how the contour works and the fairway against the green and how difficult that shot becomes because of what's going on in the fairway because I understood the green. Otherwise you're like looking at the T shot and you don't know what's going on at the green, and you know it's like, oh,
this is a T shot. But if you understand what's going on the green, then that T shot every shot backwards has so much more context to it.
That's brilliant.
I mean, that's brilliant the way you put that, Like it just then you get to the spot in the fairway right and you're thinking about what you just saw at the green. I would just say, while we're on fourteen, like obviously it gets lost in the shelfle right, and he's written about it. I would recommend that as like a spot to post up, quite honestly, because like every
time I go there, it's just quiet. It's dead because on the left side of the hole, there's a lot of traffic comes up the left side, but it dead ends on the left side.
You can't get to the green, so.
That like cuts off a lot of like would be congregation and traffic makes it a little more quiet and accessible.
It's like having a house at the end of a cul de sac.
Yeah, potentially potentially Yeah.
And then like on the other side where there's a grandstand every worried about like Elavin and get into fifteen or getting down to Amen corner. It just kind of is right there where everybody else is like missing it, right, they're going other places, and there's grandstand right of the green.
If you're hitting into the green, I would really recommend, like I think you can get pretty close there because so many people end up on that left side and it cuts off they like bene you back up fifteen faraway and they don't get close.
I would there's a cool grandstand you could sit in just right of the green. And there too if if you just like it's an awesome you know, I think there's this overwhelming like you're gonna spend a whole day there.
It's a lot of time, and you want some downtime built in, and if you were looking for somewhere that maybe might not be that crowded to just get some chill, relaxed time in your day, that's a great spot to go, you know, sit down, and it's a it's a really cool hole to watch too, because you get a lot of that the ingredients of Augusta National. You get this vicious green that has funnel pins and unpinnable slopes that reject mediocre shots away and and that's it's a great hole to watch.
Cool Okay, So that's good for the recommendations, And just to sum up, Michael recommended kind of getting organized from a logistical perspective, you know, keeping in mind that you don't have the phone out there to assist you in finding people and doing various things, and so having some planning helps. Andy recommended walking the course backwards in order to really understand the architecture, and Brendan gave the suggestion suggestion of kind of avoiding camping out at Amen Corner
because there's so much else to see. Also recommended sort of avoiding the merch tent. So there are a couple of places kind of to stay away from if you're gonna believe Brendan here and I would trust both of those recommendations. They sound reasonable enough to me.
I mean, I would just add, like, I don't want to sell, like preach your authoritative like, I'm not discouraging you to go to them, not go the merged tent or not go the a Yeah.
Of course makes it happy, of course, But but these are these are based on experiences. These are recommendations.
We've done it several times, trying to be helpful based on our experience. Like you said, I don't want to come off as some of it.
I don't think you came off that way in my opinion. So why don't we go to our favorite spots at Augusta National Michael Wolfe, what would you choose here?
I know it's difficult, sure, So my recommendation is going to be for once the tournament starts, Okay, I like to if you get a pass to the beginning of the week, or it's the first time you've ever been to Augusta.
I definitely agree. You want to see all eighteen holes.
Welcome backwards to things that Andy covered once the tournament starts. I'm interested kind of in the drama and the players in particular. You know, I watch these guys on TV every week, but this is a chance to see them at the event that means the most of them, and I want to be as up close and kind of be able to, you know, get as close and hear those conversations and just kind of see in their face
is what's going on. And I think a really good spot for that again, I'm gonna go back to kind of the little triangle between between the second shot on two, so the right hand of the second fairway, and from there you can also see them coming back up to three green, which I think most people know is almost a driveable part four, but it creates a lot of action. There's you know, things can go horribly wrong there. You
occasionally see an eagle, you see birdies. You know, it's it's a gambling hole depending on what guys want to do.
And then the.
Fourth hole, probably the hardest shot on the course. When the t's all the way back you're talking about a two hundred and fifty yard par three. It's it's, you know, really tough, and it gives you the sense once the tournament starts and they're playing for keeps, that kind of they the players themselves know they're gonna push it hard on two.
There's a real opportunity there.
I think you see more eagles on two than any other whole a lot of years.
And you can see a really good perspective.
You're behind them, if you're standing to that right hand side of two, behind four to t, you trying to see him shooting down the hill, and they're being aggressive there.
Same thing.
You kind of see the story develop. You see who hit a good shot on two? Did they end up making the putt? You can you can see all that from where you're standing. You don't even have to move. And then they turn right back around and come up three,
and again they're probably going to be aggressive there. It's interesting as the players walk off of the third green and they're walking right to you, and they're looking almost right at you as they come up to the back of the fourth tea box and there's guys that are you know, three under after the first three holes and they're excited, and there's guys that are there one over after three and they know they just missed two good birdie chances and now they're facing a really, really tough
hole on number four to make a four on you can almost see like the dread of like, oh man, I didn't take advantage of those easy ones, and now I got to get to work. And I just like that seeing that drama up front. You know, you don't
get to see that on television. The camera doesn't stay on a guy for forty five minutes straight, whereas in that little section, without having to move more than about twenty feet, you can watch all three of those shots and kind of get an idea of what kind of start the players off to and how he's feeling about it.
Just a quick supplement to that is, do not get caught going up the left side of three. I see this happen all the time. You can't see anything. You're way below the green. You're seeing guys chip, You have no idea where the ball is going, Like it's a sweet hole, it's cool hole. He'll probably be close to where the guys are wedging up to. But like three, I see a lot of people if you're going for the left side of three, yeah, you might find Briceon's
lost ball down there. But just if you're going up the left side of three, this is super specific. No, you got to get up around the green to the back to the right side.
Yeah, the high side.
And that's the key, one of the keys at Augusta. I think in general, I guess I could parlay this is into mind is finding high points where you can see a lot of shots.
And the point that Michael made there is.
That spot is great because you're up high and everything you're looking at is down, so you're able to see so much more right. It's in a way kind of like the stadium course at Sawgrass where they have those ampathy Augusta's hills creates some really great spectating spots, and a lot of times what happens is the congregation of people is lower in the in near the greens, and if you stay up higher, that's uh, that's a really
good way to do it. So I the spot I called out earlier, I love the that what I forgot what Jeff Ogilvie.
Called sweet spot of Augusta National the sweet spot.
So that's another spot. Uh.
If you're on that hill, you can watch two green. It's uh, it's where this big scoreboard is. You can see some of seven and but then you can also watch that T shot on three, which is really cool, and then you see them back up on the on the green. You're close to seventeen green. You you can bounce around and you can kind of it's a good spot. I you know, I have a d D, so I kind of like to like, I get kind of jittery when I'm standing around one spot. I like to move around.
I'm not just like a sitter, right, So that's a spot. But but if I was sitting one spot, if I'm sitting, if you want to go into the heart of the action, you want to see the drama the left side if you can get there, the left side of the grandstand left of sixteen T is spectacular because you can see the shots in from fifteen and you can see the T shots on sixteen, and that can be a real scintillating spot in terms of drama and action and a wonderful place to just sit, you know.
Can I can I can I make you talked about the sweet spot? Yeah, Sixteen's fantastic, But you talked about that sweet spot. Can I make a spectator's argument, and I know there's an architectural sort of argument against for watching as a spectator, I think watching approach shots into seven is not bad. I think seven's pretty great. Being sitting behind seven is. I know the the hole is panned.
It's kind of the number one option when people start talking about not superb holes out there, I'd say, spectator, it's pretty it's kind of great to stand behind seven green.
It's the high point in the middle of the property too, So again it affords you if you're behind seven green, which there's a lot of space right there. Again, you can see three T and two green and two fair away, so it's a great yeah, eight eight and eighteen T.
And it's kind of a fun dramatic green too. I mean the architectural argument against seven is mainly that the hole doesn't really match up with the green that well, it's just this long, really narrow hole choked by trees, and then you're hitting into this green that doesn't seem to match with that distance of hole, but the green itself, I mean, seeing the shots go in there is always a dramatic moment. You know that the ball really rolls there,
and the Sunday pin there is cool. So I mean staying up by the green, you get to see the good stuff at that hole.
Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
I just I remember watching like Tony fenal threat a shot like in between the bunkers, like complete mirror shot. And then of course you get so many where there they throw them up and kind of suck them back to a front pin.
It's just it's just a.
Fun dramatic as a spectator, it's kind of a dramatic play to watch every every time groups come through.
All right, so have we gone through all the all the favorite spots at this point, Andy gave haz Brendan is seven yours or did you have another in mind?
It was one of them, I would add.
I mean, this is not nothing, you know, you need you know, unexpected nine green. You know, just standing to the right side of nine green is awesome. It's a great approach shot to watch. It's another like high point, as Andy would say, it gets a little it's.
A high traffic spot.
Of course you've got the first and you've got the eighteenth green behind you. But but just spending a little time there watching those t shots. You're gonna see amazing approach shots. You can see great approach shots. You have to see some great short game or poor short game recoveries. You can see some amazing lag putts. It's just a really cool place to see a lot of different skills and you're at a high point. I mean maybe you maybe you can you can look down to two Green
across the way there. It's not you're not gonna be close or anything like that, but in terms of you know, seeing a really a real sort of display of Augusta National, it's best. I think that's a great place to be right of nine Green. It's going to be crowded, but if you can get there, I think that's great.
All right. Yeah, I hope that gives people some ideas about what to do when they're going to Augusta National, whether it's for the first time or if they've been lucky enough to go multiple times. I think some of these recommendations can can fit for for people who have actually been to the Masters before. So thank you so much to you three for sitting down and going through some of that stuff. Now, to cap things off, Michael, I'm not sure if you were intending to share this
on the air. But before we started recording, you had kind of a fun Masters fact of the Day type thing that you were talking about. Can we give that just to just to send people out on a high note.
He probably doesn't remember.
Another one.
I think, well, they're they're gonna guess, So I'm gonn give him a different one. I' gonna gi him afer one.
Who's the first.
By the way, in case people don't know, Michael is the curator I guess of Masters facts of the day going back a couple of years on the Shotgun Start podcast. He has a bunch of these kinds. It's nice for my genius to finally be recognized. Is a tougher room.
Okay, So the previous question was which which person has the most top ten finishes in professional majors without winning a professional major? And the answer was Ed Dudley, the first, the first head professional at Augusta National.
I think he had twenty seven.
But now I'm gonna give you guys a different onecause you guys already heard that one. So here's a different one. Who was the first professional golfer to finish in the top ten in all four majors in the same year. Who was the first one?
Oh wow? An all four majors? So do you mean all four modern majors?
All four modern majors? Top ten senior.
Ricky twenty four Ricky twenty fourteen.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go with uh. I'm gonna go with uh J H. Taylor.
That would have been pre major. It's a it's a trick question. The answer again, it is a trick question. The answer again is Ed Dudley, the first head pro and I guess the national most majors without winning one first got to finish in the top ten in all four.
Ed Dudley, a golfer, was the old four major. Dodley could play major.
Yeah, and I think we used this one last year, but another one more fun factory we go.
About he did at Dudley finished in the top ten of the Western Open.
Is not a major.
No check check Bobby Jones is qualifying criteria for the Masters.
There's no Western exemption in there.
All right, we're gonna finish the last bullet in the Ed in the Ed Dudley Chamber. He didn't get paid by Augusta National when he was the professional there. They didn't pay him but he had he got the proceeds from the merchandise. Oh wow, how about that now? That would have been very valuable today. He didn't drawur He did not draw salary the first Protogust National did not draw salary. But he owned the rights to all the merchandise.
That was saying, I guess, and that was a short term deal.
How much how much would somebody make if they got all the proceeds from the merchandise today?
I don't know that would be well if Brendan was in charge of persuade people from going in there. So don't go, don't go into the merchandise. This is a once your once in a life one merch wreck I have. I truly believe in this. This is somebody that visits a lot of a lot of pro shops. You know, this is a lot of courses. Do not get a hat, get a shirt, whatever you want, but I recommend buying something that is going to have utility and durability for
a long time. I have a coffee tumblr a like one of those like almost I don't know if it's Yetti who knows that a lot of them are white labeled in there, but I have effectively like a twenty three ounce coffee yetti that I have used since twenty nineteen and I use it regularly and it brings me great joy. And you know the hat. I don't have the hat that I bought. And that's what I would say, is that buying something like you're going to the Masters, you don't know when you're ever coming back.
Buy stuff that has lasting powers.
And buy something that is not easy to lose. But yeah, you want to hang on to your nice stuff that you get at the merch tent.
All right, thank you, Garrett. I'm ending this podcast. I'm not the host, but I'm deciding.
That this that's fine. You're putting a hard stop. You guys need to go to dinner. Thank you so much. This episode of the Frida Egg podcast was edited by meg Atkins. If you'd like more coverage of the Masters and Augusta National, we have lots of stuff on the Frida egg dot com. In fact, we have a Master's Hub where you'll find articles and podcasts on a variety of subjects related to Augusta National and the tournament. I'll put a link to the Master's Hub in the show notes,
so check that out. And thanks for listening,