A new Masters tradition gets off to a good start at Augusta National

I spent many years back in the Midwest wishing, hoping, praying that someday I could attend the Masters Tournament and walk the sacred grounds of Augusta National.

Those wishes, hopes and prayers came true in 1991 when I was sent to cover the tournament for The Sun News. But it wasn’t until Sunday of that year that I learned one more way this was, as the man says, a tournament unlike any other.

On Sunday, the gates would not open to the public until 9 a.m., but with a media badge I could get in earlier and head for a couple hours of solitude at the azalea-lined 13th green.

So I grabbed a copy of the Augusta newspaper and a cup of McDonald’s coffee, made my way through the crowd of patrons who were already forming at 7 a.m.

As I slipped under a rope, I was immediately approached by an employee.

“Sir, sir, could you pour your coffee into this cup?” he said, holding out a green cup. Mine was white and, I realized, green was the color du jour at Augusta National, no exceptions. Suddenly, the green-wrapped pimiento cheese sandwiches made sense.

Augusta National is nothing if not traditional, and it’s one of the reasons we love this tournament. It changes little from year-to-year, one constant in an ever-changing world.

This year, of course, it made one earth-shattering change when it opened its fairways to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

The invitation to women amateurs was primarily to grow the game, according to Fred Ridley, the father of three daughters who became tournament chairman in 2017.

“Our focus throughout our history, as far as our efforts to promote the game outside the Masters, has always been on amateur golf,” Ridley said.

I don’t watch much women’s golf, but I tuned in because it was such a historic event, given Augusta National’s longtime misogynistic, men-only membership. It wasn’t until 2012, remember, that a woman member was admitted.

NBC televised the Sunday event, which was played while the LPGA quietly held its first major of the season, the ANA Inspirational in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Said sportswriter Christine Brennan: “To say the LPGA players played second fiddle to the amateurs wouldn’t do the situation justice. Is there a 10th fiddle? A 100th? Suffice it to say the Augusta National Women’s Amateur blocked out the sun, leaving far better golfers 2,200 miles away playing in figurative darkness.”

If you missed it, the afternoon became a duel between Jennifer Kupcho, a Wake Forest senior, and Maria Fassi of the University of Arkansas, and turned into some of the most enjoyable golf I’ve watched in a long time.

There was inspiring play, of course, but there was more excitement than you seldom see on the PGA tour, where millions of very serious dollars ride on every swing.

On this day there was the friendship of the two college competitors which became so obvious as they traversed Augusta National, fist-pumping each other’s good shots, smiling, laughing, the irrepressible Fassi exhorting the crowd after a great drive, the long emotional hug after the round. I had not planned to stay, but I couldn’t pull myself away.

Kupcho won the day, shooting a 5 under par 67, topped off with a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 18. Her win, incidentally, put her alongside Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win both an NCAA individual championship and a tournament at Augusta National.

Not a bad start to a new tradition.

Contact Bob Bestler at bestler6@tds.net