Hadwin leaves Augusta a wiser man
Adam Hadwin’s assessment of his first tours around Augusta National Golf Club could double as sage advice for just about anything: “It’s all about figuring out where you can go, and where you can’t go,” he said on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, I still found a few places where you can’t go.”
But the 29-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., also found a lot of places he could go, finally making some noise in his first Masters with seven birdies (and, cough, five bogeys) for a 2-under 70 that left him at 6 over for the tournament.
It was a nice bounce-back round for Hadwin after a dispiriting 75 on Saturday during which he said he was fighting his swing the whole day.
“I felt much better,” said Hadwin, who said he went to the range post-round on Saturday and discovered he was lining himself up too far to the left. With that fixed, his struggles were largely solved.
“It was nice to see the ball, the first few holes, go where I was looking,” Hadwin said.
Hadwin said he hoped to watch the finish of the Masters on television, saying it’s more fun to do now that he has played the course.
“It should be fun to watch the leaders duke it out,” he said.
One of the handy things about hosting a sporting event at a club with an extraordinarily wealthy membership is that you don’t have to worry about profits. And so, the Masters continues its tradition of being at once tremendously exclusive and also weirdly accessible.
Tickets, awarded by online lottery, are US$65 for a practice round and US$100 for a tournament day, although only a very limited number of them are available because most of the attendees come with yearly badges that go to associates of Augusta National members and other such swells.
Parking is free — free! — and the concession stands have not increased their prices since the 1980s, so a pimento cheese sandwich is $1.50, a bag of chips is $1 and a beer is $4.
There is one area, though, in which the lords of Augusta are not shy about making a buck: merchandise. All manner of caps (US$34) and golf shirts (US$94) are sold at shops on the grounds.
One other area where Augusta National is either very traditional or woefully outdated, depending on your perspective: cellphones.
The devices are strictly banned from the property, with the only people allowed to possess them being players (in the locker-room) and media (in the press building). Being spotted with a cellphone can get one immediately booted from the property.
Asked this week if the club would consider altering its policy — the other three golf majors all allow cellphones — chairman Billy Payne said it would never happen while he was in charge. Asked if he would like to explain the rationale, Payne responded: “Not really.”