Augusta National Golf Club

majors next year.

Augusta National, I mean always for the Masters.

PGA Frisco that just held the Stevens Cup for the PGA Championship in May.

You've got the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Yeah, there's nothing anybody could have said to me that would have changed my mind.

And by the way, one of the reasons why is my favorite golf course rating website is top100golfcourses.com. And number 16 on that list is Augusta National Golf Club.

Pretty tight, right? I have heard of it.

Yeah.

So an awesome opportunity.

A lot of them love to go play Augusta.

There's probably one on everyone's bucket list to go and walk Augusta in between the ropes at the Masters.

One for the ages.

And then, yeah, the Open as well.

Geoff, this tournament, how much organisation has gone into this and whose auspices does that organisation fall under? Has New Zealand Golf had a huge part to play in this tournament?

We haven't really had a massive part to play other than helping to bring the event to New Zealand.

The people that have done the heavy lifting have really been Augusta National and the R&A and the clubhouse who have actually helped coordinate a whole lot of the operations and then the TRI link team who they've done an amazing job.

with their comp meals.

What would we do if we ever got a meal comp? How is the media spread at Augusta National? That's what I wonder.

I don't know.

Scott, how is the media spread at Augusta National?

What do you think?

I think it's probably very, very good given how much you enjoy getting to that every year.

Um, Do I want to pay 50 bucks to walk on holes? No, but compare that to a Chastain or an Alfred Tubb, which I don't want to crap on any golf, public golf, but this is not what it used to be.

Chastain used to be, I want to say, I don't want people to talk about it, but people used to come in, like players used to come in to Chastain to play it and get ready for Augusta.

That's how it used to be

like

But yeah, after walking it, I want to say the poles 14 through 16, I think it was 13 through 15.

They're like, all of you.

So I'm like, and then just hearing how, you know, Augusta is, I'm like, you know, I'm like, dude, Al, there's no way I would do a practice round and play four rounds, four rounds if I made the cut.

I'm like, these guys, this is different.

Okay.

Chipped a couple balls over the fence into Augusta National.

You did, did you? Yeah, yeah.

Signed a ball, hit it over the fence into Rays Creek.

Oh, there you go.

Not sure whether you're supposed to do that, but I did.

I've officially lost a ball at Augusta National.

See,

We haven't really had a massive part to play other than helping to bring the event to New Zealand.

The people that have done the heavy lifting have really been Augusta National and the R&A.

And the clubhouse, who have actually helped coordinate a whole lot of the operations.

And then the TRI link team, who they've done an amazing job.

Okay? The world has changed.

Even when they played Augusta National and when Ben Crenshaw was winning, the greens were running 9s and 10s.

Now they're running 12s and 13s and higher on step meters.

So what happens is it takes less effort to go further, but there's more room for error in the putting.