Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

The night before I was to travel to Augusta, GA for the Masters, Darko said to me he did not envy me; he'd rather stay home and watch it. To my surprise, it ended up being one of the most memorable weekends that I'll remember for a very long time. So what happened? This is an abridged and edited version to protect the innocent.

I would call this the ultimate guys weekend, minus playing golf. I arrived in Augusta late Thursday morning and I didn't know what to expect of the weekend; I only knew of the agenda. I was told that there would be car service at any time during the whole weekend, but I didn't realize that I'd be zipping through Augusta in Land Rovers. We headed over to the house that was rented out - located in Jones Creek. It's very common to rent out houses and not stay in hotels during Masters week. Next door to our house was the Ernie Els compound. I call it that because he and his posse rented out 8 homes in the cul-de-sac by us. There were flags and pictures of him on the front lawn of his house. After all my guests had arrived at the house, we headed out to Augusta National for the first round. My initial thoughts of Augusta National is that it's pure green carpet and MUCH harder than what you see on TV. I saw so many guys struggle with the basic 2-3 foot comebacker. The greens are super slick, but that's not the only thing that makes it hard. There's no flat area - the place is so hilly and undulating - and it's a real long course. There really is no rough because they cut the grass short, but if there was US Open type rough, this course would be impossible and the scores would be in the 80s for sure. When you walk in, you feel that it's a special place. The fairways are beautiful and the long skinny trees that extend along the fairways are perfectly aligned. Part of me hated watching the golf because I wanted to run out there and tee off because the course was so inviting. Augusta National is a very large venue that happens to be located in a sleepy town. When you think about it, the Masters is their one week business plan that pays for the rest of the year. There were Escalads and vans everywhere, moving guests and people from one place to another. There were parties at night and most of them occurred on Friday evening. I even heard that they fly in strippers for the weekend because this place is a bit remote.

On Thursday I walked the course just to take it all in. We spent a couple of hours at the 16th hole, the famous par 3 where Tiger chipped a ball that took a v turn and rolled down to the cup. If you ever go, it has one of the best sight lines on the course. The other two places that you must go to are Amen corner and the 18th hole on a Sunday. We left late Thursday and headed back to the house to wash up and have dinner. A private chef was flown in to cook us meals for the 4 days we were there, and she was very good. At night, we went out to the patio and smoked cigars and drank some very fine wine. The conversation was wildly entertaining with a lot of guy talk.

The next day was very cool because we toured the clubhouse and bumped into more golfers (and their pretty wives). Tiger's wife was there with child, rooting on for her hubby. I actually saw her on the course later that day following Tiger with an entourage of women. At the clubhouse, we drank Azaleas - the famed drink that only members and guests have access to - on the upstairs patio in the clubhouse. A member - there are only 300 - invited us to tour Butler Cabin and have cocktails. This was very special because no one is allowed into Butler Cabin. It was great because we learned about the history of Augusta, its traditions and some funny stories. What's Butler Cabin? It's most known for the ceremonial awarding of the Green Jacket to the Master's champ. Interestingly, the ceremony actually occurs in the basement. While we're having drinks and learning about the great tradition of Augusta, we were able to relax and watch the tournament on TV.

On Sunday, we thoroughly enjoyed the entire day, even though we were mightily hungover. You could feel the tension and excitement at Augusta. Would Tiger roar back to win? Could Immelman and the other golfers in front of Tiger maintain a gap. In the end, Immelman deserved to win because he made more shots than the rest of the field. The crowds were pulling for Tiger and hoping that the field in front of him would come back to make it an exciting finish. Everytime a score was posted, you would either hear groans or cheers. When someone bogeyed or double bogeyed, the crowds just moaned loudly. When Tiger got a birdie, the crowd rejoiced. We sat down at Amen Corner for most of the day, where we witnessed Ames hole out with his approach shot for an eagle and the long 70-foot putt by Tiger on 11. For 45mins, we took a nap along the 15th fairway because we were so hungover and tired. We woke up because a herd of people almost trampled us because a ball had landed a few feet away from us. We returned to Amen corner to watch a few more groups pass through. Afterwards, we walked to the 18th hole and found our seats, which were situated in row 4 among the throngs of chairs - probably 50+ deep. We watched the 2nd half of groups come to the 18th until Trevor made the final putt of the tournament to take home the coveted green jacket. In the end, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences. There are other things I had to leave out because of certain reasons, but they made the weekend even more eventful. If only I could share.

If you ever have an opportunity to go to the Masters, just do it.