No, not what you are thinking. It is a golf tournament. It is held in Augusta every first week of April since the 1930's. It is an amazing event.
On the one hand, it is a golf tournament. They call it a "major" tournament, which means something somewhere, I suppose. It is a very hard course, we are told, and the winner is considered someone special. But, that is not the point for me.
The amazing thing to me is how well this whole thing runs. Every now and then, you get the chance to see something done very, very well. The Masters is one such thing. There are two keys to this, one that is "accidental," you might say, and one that is entirely human.
The accidental fact is that the tournament is at the same place every year. Golf is a vagabond sport. The players go from place to place every week. The other major tournaments (the US Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship) move every year, rotating among various locations. But the Masters is always here. This means that, over the years, they have faced and dealt with almost any situation you can imagine.
The human fact is that the tournament is run by the Augusta National Golf Club, which is a golf club made up of nothing but very successful people. It is not a "local" club, but a national club, made up of people who run multinational corporations and such. They have a lot of money at their disposal and a lot of expertise and pride. They use these abilities and resources to put on the greatest tournament in the world.
For example, the greatest problem in modern sporting events is parking. Parking is everything because people drive to get where they want to go. In recent years, the National has purchased an entire subdivision of homes (nice homes, by the way, not cheap homes) near their land. They removed all the homes. They removed all the pavement. They have planned and carried it out in such a way that multiple acres of land in a heavily developed section of Augusta are now park land (most of the year) and parking for the Masters, for one week.
And the parking is free. Seriously. Where else do you get free parking to a major sporting event? They could easily charge $10.00 a day for parking for everyone (more for close parking), but they make it free.
When you enter the grounds, everything is perfect. The walkways are beautifully maintained and laid out perfectly for the crowds. The stores are crowded, but move quickly and efficiently. The food is simple, excellent, and really cheap. You can eat a meal for $5.00, less than a single soda costs at some ballparks. Why? Because they are not interested in making as much money as they can.
The experience of the Masters is, for that reason alone, totally unique. In every other setting (whether college or pro, team sports or individuals), you are constantly the target of marketing efforts. Everyone wants you to buy some high-priced piece of "memorabilia." Or, perhaps, they just want you to spend $4.00 for some cotton candy. Salesmen hawk their goods in the crowd and in the concourses. But, at the Masters, they have stores and sell things in their stores. Otherwise, no one bothers you. You can go in (if you have a pass) and spend the whole day without ever being asked to spend a dime. Marvelous.
It is, in many ways, a perfect human effort to make things as nice as they can possibly be. The tournament has avoided many of the pitfalls of the modern age, while simultaneously adopting every good thing they can find. Their website is quite good, for example.
A day at the Masters is a day that makes you think that, perhaps, human beings really can make something worth making. When a group of capable people, for whom money is not an object, dedicate themselves to doing something marvelously well, we human beings can, for a moment, produce something wonderful.
On the one hand, it is a golf tournament. They call it a "major" tournament, which means something somewhere, I suppose. It is a very hard course, we are told, and the winner is considered someone special. But, that is not the point for me.
The amazing thing to me is how well this whole thing runs. Every now and then, you get the chance to see something done very, very well. The Masters is one such thing. There are two keys to this, one that is "accidental," you might say, and one that is entirely human.
The accidental fact is that the tournament is at the same place every year. Golf is a vagabond sport. The players go from place to place every week. The other major tournaments (the US Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship) move every year, rotating among various locations. But the Masters is always here. This means that, over the years, they have faced and dealt with almost any situation you can imagine.
The human fact is that the tournament is run by the Augusta National Golf Club, which is a golf club made up of nothing but very successful people. It is not a "local" club, but a national club, made up of people who run multinational corporations and such. They have a lot of money at their disposal and a lot of expertise and pride. They use these abilities and resources to put on the greatest tournament in the world.
For example, the greatest problem in modern sporting events is parking. Parking is everything because people drive to get where they want to go. In recent years, the National has purchased an entire subdivision of homes (nice homes, by the way, not cheap homes) near their land. They removed all the homes. They removed all the pavement. They have planned and carried it out in such a way that multiple acres of land in a heavily developed section of Augusta are now park land (most of the year) and parking for the Masters, for one week.
And the parking is free. Seriously. Where else do you get free parking to a major sporting event? They could easily charge $10.00 a day for parking for everyone (more for close parking), but they make it free.
When you enter the grounds, everything is perfect. The walkways are beautifully maintained and laid out perfectly for the crowds. The stores are crowded, but move quickly and efficiently. The food is simple, excellent, and really cheap. You can eat a meal for $5.00, less than a single soda costs at some ballparks. Why? Because they are not interested in making as much money as they can.
The experience of the Masters is, for that reason alone, totally unique. In every other setting (whether college or pro, team sports or individuals), you are constantly the target of marketing efforts. Everyone wants you to buy some high-priced piece of "memorabilia." Or, perhaps, they just want you to spend $4.00 for some cotton candy. Salesmen hawk their goods in the crowd and in the concourses. But, at the Masters, they have stores and sell things in their stores. Otherwise, no one bothers you. You can go in (if you have a pass) and spend the whole day without ever being asked to spend a dime. Marvelous.
It is, in many ways, a perfect human effort to make things as nice as they can possibly be. The tournament has avoided many of the pitfalls of the modern age, while simultaneously adopting every good thing they can find. Their website is quite good, for example.
A day at the Masters is a day that makes you think that, perhaps, human beings really can make something worth making. When a group of capable people, for whom money is not an object, dedicate themselves to doing something marvelously well, we human beings can, for a moment, produce something wonderful.