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AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Masters is a tradition like none other, especially in 2022.
The famous tagline for golf's most prestigious event becomes more applicable with each passing year as the world outside of Augusta National continues to change through advanced technology.
Through incredible luck and a great friend, I had the bucket-list opportunity to attend this year's tournament last Friday, and for those who don't follow golf closely or only watch on television, there's plenty about a trip to the Masters that you may not know.
One thing that's pretty clear to anyone who has gone to or attempted to attend the event is that it's very hard to get a badge, which gives you clearance to walk the grounds of Augusta National for either the four-day event, the par 3 contest on Wednesday or the practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday.
A friend of mine from college won a lottery with her family to see the par 3 contest in 2017, the first year in the 57 years it was held that it was completed rained out. There are no refunds or second chances in the lottery. If you are lucky enough to get selected, and there's nothing played that day, you don't get to go the next day. My friend had the chance to briefly enter the merchandise store, walk along the No. 1 fairway and then was asked to leave the grounds and wait out a delay that never ended.
She thought that would be the closest she ever came to seeing Augusta National, but while playing golf in Texas last October, she offered to do a golf ball exchange of their respective home clubs with someone she'd been playing with, and the man handed her a golf ball from Augusta National. At first, she thought it was a joke, but he assured her that he was a member there. She told him the story about missing out on the lottery after the rain canceled the par 3 in 2017, and he told her he would try and get her passes to the Masters.
After a few months, a confirmation email that she was going back to Augusta National was sent her way, and I was lucky enough to be asked to tag along.
Almost everyone I mentioned to that I was going told me to take a lot of pictures.
I have been a golfer and fan of golf since I was in middle school and had no idea that wouldn't be happening until doing a little research in the weeks before my trip. At Augusta National, as rare as it is to even get on the course to see it, it's even tougher to get pictures. Cell phones are banned, and cameras are banned from non-media when the tournament is taking place.
There's one opportunity for a photo, which we took advantage of, by waiting in an hour-long line to Magnolia Drive and having a staff photographer take your picture in the Founders' Circle. You are given a card, which you can scan later for your complimentary photo.
Without a cell phone, the printed tee time listings available at boxes across the course are valuable to know which order and groupings golfers are playing in, but there's no way to know how they are doing unless you come across one of the big scoreboards that are operated much like Fenway Park's with a person switching out numbers and names on a ladder behind the board.
When a group comes through featuring Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith, their names and scores are provided on a small board near the putting surface that is green if they are over par and red if they are under par and how many holes they have completed. When DeChambeau and Smith finished, the board flipped to Tiger Woods and Joaquin Niemann. If you aren't following a group and are stationed at a hole through several groups, which was the only real way to get close to seeing Woods play, you didn't know their score until the small board was flipped over unless they were on the leaderboard.
We watched Woods on No. 7 and then stood at the No. 10 green and waited for him to catch up to us. When we left him at No. 7, he was 3-over par. When his group arrived at No. 10 and the small board was lifted to show he was at 2-over, meaning he had made birdie on either No. 8 or No. 9, the crowd who was waiting there to see him and had only the updates from anyone who last saw him before walking (no running is allowed) to No. 10 erupted in cheers.
Though it's disappointing not to be able to take photos as keepsakes, it allows everyone there to be 100 percent focused on the moment and the scenery, which is as beautiful as it gets. If you're watching the Masters on television next year, take note of how different the patrons watch and react to the action than at other tournaments where fans are busy recording everything on their cell phones.
The merchandise shop makes up for losing photo keepsakes by only being open one week a year, during the Masters. That's the only opportunity to buy official Masters gear. For those that say in-person shopping is dying, perhaps they should visit the madhouse that is this shop.
Other Masters traditions like the pimento cheese sandwich are still available throughout the course at just $1.50, and beverage prices have not increased much throughout the years, either.
It will be interesting to see if, as younger generations begin to make decisions at Augusta National, many of these traditions, including the cell phone ban, continue.
In a world dominated by Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and other social media, some may frown upon missing out on a selfie next to Shane Lowry as he's doing a dance after chipping one in for birdie. Personally, I'll always enjoy the memory in my head and all of the nice people I met and spoke with who were just so happy to be there and living in the moment, something it felt so good to have no choice but to do again.
Michael Boytim can be reached at mboytim@altoonamirror.com or 814-946-7521.