I’ll add my Augusta experience to the mix. I guess what makes mine unique is that I volunteered at The Masters for nine years.
As a “thank you” for working the tournament, the club invites volunteers and vendors back the week before Memorial Day weekend to play a round of golf (Play Day).
You’re given a tee time about a month before Play Day. When you get there the first thing everyone does is go to the main tournament pro shop building (not the real pro shop) where they are selling all the leftover stuff from the tournament for 50% off. Mind you, this was back when the current driving range was still a parking lot so it wasn’t like you had to walk very far to unload everything you just purchased.
You’d check in and then go hit some balls at the range. At this point you could do one of two things, you could go over to the par 3 Course and take a quick spin around before your tee time, or you could get on a list to slide into an open tee time on the main course that was earlier. I always opted for the latter because play stacked up as the day wore on, so the earlier you got out, the better.
There was typically a huge crowd hanging out on the first tee or putting on the practice green which ratcheted up the first tee nerves by a factor of five. When you get on the first tee and you feel like a teenage kid about to get lucky for the very first time. You can’t believe you’re actually doing this. “Just get it out there at least 200 yards.” That was goal. No piss missiles, or dubbed shots. Not in front of all these people.
The tee shot went off without a hitch and away we went. I should add that due to volume this was solely a golf cart affair, a unique experience for Augusta in itself. I’m not a cart guy, but for the volume of golfers, it was an absolute necessity.
I don’t know how fast the greens were relative to the tournament, but I found myself subconsciously hitting every putt a couple of clicks softer than I thought I should and I did fine.
You get done with your round and they have a nice spread for lunch served out near the oak tree. With your round finished you could tour the facilities which I found incredibly interesting. My favorite part was going up into the Crow’s Nest.
You could play the Par three course as much as you wanted, i.e. until you ran out of golf balls. And that’s exactly what I did.
It’s my belief that The Masters is by far the best fan experience in professional sports. It is always interesting to see the incremental improvements made each year. Concession tents becoming structures with fans. Porta potties evolving into buildings with actual plumbing. Upon returning in May? All gone.