Jack Gruber

Sunday at the Masters

Sunday’s final round at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia is hard to beat. The weather is usually beautiful and some high drama always plays out on the green at 18. I am not a golf crazy fan and insane as it seems, I have only been on a golf course as a player maybe a handful of times. No matter, getting to experience Augusta National Golf Club during Masters week is definitely a highlight for me no matter how difficult it is to cover the tournament. It really is a special place.

I think most of the professional golfers are just happy to make it through Sunday. Many would call it surviving. I know many of the photographers covering the Masters would agree. Covering the many practice rounds and the Par-3 tournament is a full week right there. Then the whole thing starts over again with the serious business of golf starting with the first round of action on Thursday ending up with Sunday’s final round and the late evening green jacket presentation.

The biggest drama for photographers is where to be on Sunday afternoon on the 18th green when the final couple of pairs usually decide the winner. For the last few years, I have always been on the wrong side of the green looking at the backside of the winner celebrating the win or blocked by an absent minded photographer. Usually, your spot is decided when you place a chair along the green’s ropes at 8AM in the morning along with hundreds of other spectators and that is where you return late in the day to shoot the eventual winner on the 18th green.

This year, I decided on making sure I got a spot in one of the three photographer pens positioned around the green. Usually full early in the day, it is a gamble finding room in one of them late in the day. The plan was for me to position in the pen opposite the photo towers where our other photographer/editor would be able to get up high over the green late in the day. After getting into my spot late in the round, I looked over the green and noticed there was still room in the most desirable photo pen. I hoofed it around the top of the green and around the thousands of patrons already in their seats and had to keep walking back down the 18 fairway in order to get past the fans in order to duck under the ropes and get back up the fairway to the green and into the photo pen. A pretty small space but room enough for maybe six or seven photographers.

Just as I got situated, the leader board threw up Phil Mickelson’s birdie on 15. Mickelson had a pretty commanding lead and probably on his way to his third green jacket. Good for him but bad for me. With the Sunday pin placement on 18,  “Lefty” Mickelson would probably be putting in for the win with his left-handed stance and his back to me now that I had switched to the opposite side of the green.

Mickelson did putt in on 18 for the win but I wasn’t completely shut out. My angle had a bit of a profile when Mickelson celebrated with both arms in the air. It wasn’t great but I wasn’t going away empty handed this year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Blog, On Assignment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.