The Olympic race walk and $4.50 must-eat secret for fans behind the gates of ‘golfer’s Disneyland’

It is the walking race policed more strictly than any strut for gold at an Olympics, a grand dash understandable given the real estate at stake, a prized tradition among many curiosities at one of the world’s greatest events.

At 7am over the next four mornings, the gates for the Masters will open and the zoom will be on for the fans fortunate to be at Augusta National this year as they strive to find a vantage point to place their seats.

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What unfolds, according to Fox Sports expert analyst Paul Gow, is almost comical given the handicap on how quickly patrons can reach the best vantage spots to take in the Masters.

Running is banned at Augusta. A no no. And messing with a gallery guard is a mistake that can lead to eviction. There is absolutely no value whatsoever in crossing a course marshal.

“There are rules and regulations and if you don’t abide by them, you are left behind. You are escorted out the gate,” Gow told foxsports.com.au.

“You don’t do anything wrong because if you do, you are shown the door.”

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Sydney club professional Ben Doney, who had the great fortune of watching Tiger Woods’ remarkable triumph in 2019 from the 18th green, said the morning “bolt” is quite a scene.

“One of the great traditions there is that you can have a chair and if you put your chair in a spot, that’s your spot for the day,” he said.

“If you leave it, anyone can sit in it, but you can’t move the chair. And if the patron whose chair it is comes back, you just have to vacate it for them.

“But that’s where the no running policy is quite funny because when you get there at the start of the day, people are trying to rip to those spots to put their chair down, but they can’t run, so you see all these professional walkers looking like Kerry Saxby-Junna (former champion Australian athlete) trying to get to their spot trying to put their seat down. It is pretty cool to see.”

Over the past couple of years, foxsports.com.au has spoken to amateur golfers fortunate to earn the chance to play Augusta via the media ballot for reporters on site working.

This year we have canvassed fans lucky enough to attend the Masters to see whether it is truly an experience as good as what it appears like for those watching from the couch.

The answer swiftly becomes clear with descriptions likening it to “Disneyland for adults” or “better than winning Tattslotto”. But that is not all. It is the wonderment in their voices and the awe that remains many years on from their visit. Those lucky bastards! How good. Anyway, here are some of their tips to help inspire Aussie golf fans to dig deep for the trip of a lifetime.

THE GOLDEN TICKET

London-based South Aussie Suriya Liensavanh made a pact with good mate Gill Tan back in 2010 when they were talking about their sporting loves and bucket list items.

Attending the Masters at least once in their lifetime was a must. And an agreement was reached – they would enter the public ballot and if either one of them was successful, they had to take the other as part of the bargain.

It felt like the longest of long-shots, for only 40,000-odd patrons pass through the gates each year according to Golf Monthly, but each June they dutifully filled out a Hail Mary in the hope of winning the golden ticket.

Liensavanh was sorting through his emails in July, 2023, when the subject caught his eye. Surely not? The news was too good to be true. It must be an elaborate phishing exercise.

But the chance was real enough to convince him to follow the process and, surely enough … we’ll let Liensavanh explain.

“I clicked on the link and went through the process and s***, pardon my French, but it was real. Holy hell. It was actually real,” he said.

“It was just so exciting, that moment when you realise, ‘This is actually going to happen’. People have always had it on their bucket list, but the hope is almost detached from reality. You would be out of your mind to think that it was actually going to happen. In a sense, it felt better than winning the lottery.”

A ticket to golf’s version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory secured, Liensavanh let his partner in crime who was then living in New York know before jumping into action.

The young father had no worries on the home front, with his wife fully aware of the importance of the Masters and how rare an opportunity it was.

Flights were promptly booked and accommodation was secured about an hour away from Augusta which, despite the grandeur of its famous course, is just an average town.

He and another mate then set down to book a golf trip around their “once in a lifetime experience”, but we will get to that later. Most importantly, the dream was on.

WALKING INTO WONDERLAND

Paul Gow counts himself fortunate to have one of the best jobs in the world, with the former Aussie pro golfer providing expert analysis for Fox Sports during the Masters. Every time he arrives at Augusta, the majestic course steals his breath away again.

“It is an adult golfer’s Disneyland. Your eyes are just wide open. Everything is so well manicured and everyone is just so well behaved,” Gow said.

When Fox Sports Australia commentator Warren Smith first walked into Augusta National a couple of years ago, he pinched himself. The reality was even better than what is screened to bleary-eyed Aussies wiping the sleep from their eyes back home.

“You walk into this mythical piece of property where we’ve seen so much drama over the years and it lives up to everything you’ve ever thought in every way,” he said.

“The grass is literally perfect. I get to a lot of good golf courses and see some magnificent turf, but there is literally not a blemish on the grass, just not a discolouration anywhere on the turf. It looks artificial and I just wanted to touch it, to bend down to make sure it’s real.

“There’s no sponsor signs. It’s old school. It’s all very analog. It is a different way of doing it compared to what we are used to in the digital world these days, but it all adds to it.”

For Doney, a special experience for him was spending time at what is called the meeting tree near the club house.

“It is right outside the club house, and there is a mystique about that club house,” he said.

“I remember staring at it and you can see a few green jackets and thinking, ‘Gee. It would be nice to go there one day’. It’s pretty cool to be there and imagine what might be going on.”

Liensavanh said there are similarities in its perfection to Wimbledon, where every blade of grass is said to have its own groundskeeper. But he feels Augusta is even more appealing.

The colouring of the flora was even more vivid in person than what is captured on screen – he too was absolutely stunned by just how green the fairway grass was.

But what also caught his eye was just how diverse the crowd was. Having attended golf tournaments in the past, he felt there tended to be far more men than women at events.

Not so at Augusta, where he said there was a rich chorus of people from all sorts of life as opposed to the “golf nuts” you might normally come across at regular tournaments.

“This is the Holy Grail for any golf fan and you might expect it to be full of golf nuts, but it was an incredibly diverse audience with lots of women and lots and lots of kids,” he said.

“As I was chatting to people, I discovered people were there because it was an event to attend. A festival experience … an amazing day out. And it really is that. It is an incredible day out. You are talking to happy people and you are in a beautiful environment. It is like a botanical garden, except it is a golf course. The flowers are in bloom. It is a lovely viewing experience.

“And you don’t have to know golf to have a fantastic time and that is why it struck me as being similar to Wimbledon. The atmosphere was really genial and communal and everybody, the thread between all the spectators, was this implicit knowledge that we were somewhere special and we were all appreciative of that, whether it was your first time or your 100th time. The entire patronage was of that ilk and it was something I had never experienced anywhere, at any sort of event really, in my life.”

As incredible as securing a ticket to Augusta is, the day his crew attended was even more remarkable, for it fell on the solar eclipse – the first since 2017 in the US and the last until 2044 – a couple of years ago.

Augusta handed out special glasses to enable fans to witness the special occasion and Liensavanh said it was surreal to watch a scene so vibrant and vivid suddenly become grey.

While some claimed it was a sign of a coming apocalypse – it is held in the the United States, so perhaps that is not a surprise – it added to the experience for golfers and fans alike.

“I’ll be keeping my pair for absolutely the rest of my life. These (are) collectables that will be in my office forever,” golfer Will Zalatoris said.

BINNING YOUR PHONE

Liensavanh, who attended a practice day a couple of years ago, is not alone in his appreciation of just how fun it was to wander the course chatting to people.

That is a common sentiment from anyone who has attended, for among the most famous of course rules for fans attending Augusta National is one precluding mobile phones.

“You come from the outside world and you are not allowed your mobile phones. It is real old style country living,” Gow said.

“It is an amazing thing when you take mobile phones out of people’s hands. They struggle for the first hour or so but after that they find it quite liberating. And people can always get back in touch with you if they are desperate.”

What follows, Gow said, is the type of conversations Liensavanh referenced. It is the best kind of barroom banter as fans from all parts of the world share a significant experience.

“The amazing thing for me is how much strangers talk to each other. They are all in a place they want to be and they all talk to each other,” Gow said.

“Golf is a game that so many people play in the same world and you are there watching the best people in the world play. Everybody is there for the same reasons.”

Fans are scanned as they are heading into the gates and, if they do have a mobile, are asked to leave it in a secure locker near the gates.

There is a quirk, for a Masters sponsor provides bays of phone boxes that are well hidden on the course and free for patrons to use. Liensavanh called his wife at work, while Doney touched base with family at home.

As surreal as it feels initially – Liensavanh said his mate Gill claimed to feel naked without her phone when first inside Augusta – the magnificence of the course soon takes hold.

“The best thing about that is that you go into this sanctum and it’s like going back in time,” said Doney, who is the head coach at Terrey Hills Golf and Country Club in Sydney.

“Suddenly you’re in this atmosphere of, I don’t know, 10,000 people or whatever and everybody is watching the golf. They’re looking at each other and either talking to each other, because they’re not looking down at their phones, or they are watching the golf.

“It is quite a surreal feeling. People look at you. They acknowledge you. They’re not looking down at their emails or their Instagram, and they’re not holding their phones in the air on the 18th hole trying to video it, right? You’re just living the moment and that is actually quite refreshing.”

SNARING A GNOME …

Min Woo Lee, who is arguably the nation’s best hope of joining 2013 champion Adam Scott as an Australian winner given his lead-in form, has been a busy boy at Augusta this week.

The Perth golfer dove into on-line branding when performing as a chef for a Masters social media promotion this week of the tasty yet affordable treats on offer at Augusta.

Let the man cook. And let’s hope Lee delivers on his remarkable potential come Sunday.

But he was also quizzed as to what he would do at Augusta if he was a fan and his response was as swift as his swing speed. The West Aussie would head straight for the merchandise tents.

“I would probably have to go to the merch store first,” he said.

“I’m sure there is a stripping situation there and you would spend $1000 to $2000 – I’d say that is the average – and I’d get a gnome for sure and I’d ship it.”

Lee, for the record, would then head to the 16th to take in the tee shots if it was a practice round, and then do the same on the sixth as well.

“But I’d definitely get the merch first. That is a priority. And then enjoy it. It is one of the best places on Earth,” he said.

The merchandise store at Augusta is popular for good reason.

It is the only place in the world where club branded garb can be brought. There is no on-line store. No outlet down the road. Only those who attend the tournament can browse the aisles.

Timing your run is a key. When Liensavanh was there, the line when they arrived shortly after 8am was almost three hours long, so they took leave to wander the course and returned later in the day.

“The merchandise tent, it has got everything you could want,” Doney said.

“You take your credit card in there and you max it out for sure, because you are never sure whether you are going to be back there. There are the gnomes. There are the cups – they have the Masters winners names on them and you can’t bring yourself to throw them out. It is awesome. It is really, really good.”

And the gnomes? Smith, who is aiming to get back to Augusta next year after taking a break this year due to a health scare, wishes he had managed to snaffle the collectable on his prior visits there.

Such is their popularity, there is a raging black market for the little dudes and Augusta National is considering making the 35-centimetre gnomes extinct to preclude on-selling.

Introduced a decade ago, they cost patrons US$49.50 (A$70) on site. But as reported by The Guardian this week, full sets of the gnomes are available on-line for A$35,000, while some individual offerings are going for about A$13,000.

Word has it that it is not so much the black market sales that irk the gallery guards and others at Augusta National, but rather the fact the hunt for them has taken away from the golf, with some fans heading there immediately instead of the fairways.

THE ICE CREAM … AND OTHER MUST CONSUME CONCESSIONS

Another must do experience at Augusta is one that tantalises the taste buds.

The Masters Peach Ice Cream Sandwich appeals to the eye and goes down even better according to the fans foxsports.com.au spoke to this week.

As Liensavanh said, “it is never too early” to snare a signature item on the Masters menu.

While Rory McIlroy’s Champions Dinner menu reportedly came to A$410 a head on Tuesday night, a beauty of the Masters is that the food and beverages are the best value in sport.

The peach ice cream sandwich costs $3, the same price as a breakfast sandwich with egg, bacon, sausage and cheese perfect for those nursing off a night at T-Bonz in Augusta.

An egg salad sanga costs $1.50, the same price as a white chocolate pecan cookie. And you get the idea. Fans load up.

Doney, who was lucky to attend twice in Tiger’s most recent triumph, made a point of working through every item on the menu, while Smith had a tip for anyone lucky enough to attend in coming years.

The underground tip, he said, was mixing the pimento cheese sandwich ($1.50) with the chicken biscuit ($3), which makes for a taste sensation.

DOING THE HARD YARDS

Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the USA will know the ample servings on offer can lead to an even more ample waistline on returning home. Best hide the scales!

With the prices on offer at Augusta, combined with a lengthy day at the golf, it is understandable that patrons take the chance to work their way through the concessions.

Augusta, however, offers a searching workout for patrons who are keen to walk the course, with the television coverage of the course not accurately portraying its true undulations.

On the day Liensavanh and his friends attended, they walked almost 15km and an app on his watch measured that they had gained 265 metres in elevation

This does not surprise Smith, who said the exertion of covering the tournament more than made up for over-indulging in chicken biscuits and peach ice cream sandwiches.

“It is a massive cliche, but it is way more hilly than it appears on TV,” Smith said.

“The 10th hole, in particular, is the steepest bit on the whole property and it’s so downhill … if it snowed, you could ski down the 10th fairway like it was a moguls run.

“By the time you get up and down those hills, you’ve got glutes of steel. It’s a really good test on the hamstrings and the glutes. And you get back to your lodgings at the end of the day, and man, you have dinner and you have a couple of drinks and you head off to bed. It is a solid walk. If you are not fit when you get there, you are certainly fitter after leaving.”

AND DON’T FORGET THE CLUBS

Smith had the great joy of playing Augusta after winning the media ballot, a perk for journalists already fortunate to be covering a truly remarkable tournament.

Although that privilege does not extend to fans, Doney and Liensavanh both tailored their trip to Augusta to ensure they had the chance to hit the links while in the United States.

Doney and a group he was leading played a course next door to Augusta National on an off day and he said it was awesome to be able to hear the roar from fans at the Masters.

On Saturday, the group headed to Sage Valley Golf Club, about 25km from Augusta.

It was rumoured to be built after its owner Weldon Wyatt failed in his bid for membership at Augusta and instead borrowed some ideas from the Masters venue to develop one of America’s best courses.

It is, Doney said, a remarkable course and one well worth securing a tee time if the opportunity presents itself.

Liensavanh, meanwhile, tracked further afield for his golf excursion.

He tackled the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in South Carolina, the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, the RBC Heritage Course, Quail Hollow and courses at Pinehurst, among others.

Those courses had either recently hosted significant tournaments or were in the process of preparing to host an event further into the US PGA season.

“We played three courses that were basically being set up for tournaments, which just added to the awesomeness of the whole experience,” he said.

“It became a 10 to 12 day golfing odyssey that really was a once in a lifetime experience.”