TEE-TIME TALES

■ THIS year sees the opening of Map and Flag, the course’s first off-site corporate hospitality venue. A high-end facility on an intersection a seven-minute walk from the course, it costs around £13,600 for a weekly pass. That figure includes ‘chef-inspired food concepts’ along with beverages. Described as a giant sports bar, it also features an all-important retail store for that premium Patron experience.

÷ ARTIFICIAL intelligence has landed in Augusta. Fans following the tournament online can hear AI narration in Spanish and English. Computer giant IBM will also provide a feature that will reveal how each hole

has been played in the tournament now and over the last eight years, thanks to a memory bank of more than 170,000 shots.

■ PATRONS receive regular reminders they are in Bible-belt country on the roads outside the course. Vans with giant — and often gloomy — religious signs painted on the back, such as, ‘The creator repays sin with global catastrophe’ are regularly spotted on Washington Road.

÷ FIFTEEN years ago the mother of Matthieu Pavon (left) visited the Masters and buried a coin on the Augusta grounds in the hope it would inspire her son to play at the venue. It appears to have done the trick.

The 31-year-old, from

Toulouse, is here following wins on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour in the last six months. ‘I’m probably going to get a coin myself, bury it somewhere, to wish that my son one day will come as a player over here,’ he said.

■ A RITE of passage for many visitors to Augusta is a trip to TBonz Steakhouse, which is viewed as the 19th hole. This year will be the first without co-owner Mark Cummins, who died in October at the age of 66. Cummins was very popular with caddies — thanks in no small part to his willingness to stay open late.