Masters 2012 at the Augusta National

Yes, you read that right. Matt and I went to the Masters tournament at the Augusta National! It was AWESOME! The most exclusive sporting event in all of sports, and the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, at the world's nicest golf course. And boy, did we had a blast.

A friend of our's gave us badges (tickets) for Saturday. Just to give you an insight into Masters, our tickets could have been sold to scalpers outside the tournament that day for $4,000! Yeah, $4,000.  It's nuts! We could have made $8,000 from both tickets. A big IF we decided to sell them. Which wouldn't have happened since they were a gift from a friend, and we would have rather gone to the Masters. THANK YOU, SANDI!

It was a great day of feeling like we were very important people. We had valet parking and free meals at a hospitality house a few blocks from the National, starting our days off with a yummy brunch and Bloody Mary's. We wandered around the beautiful course all day, catching glimpses of some of the best golfers in the world. We watched Tiger tee off at the 8th hole, he was just a few feet from us. 

Then we wandered around some more and as the better golfers had a later tee time, we camped out at the tee of the 3rd hole, which is right next to the green on the 2nd hole and the green of the 7th. We were just a few feet from Mickelson, Watson, Oosthuizen, Cabrera, Immelman, McIlroy, and so many more. And I'm sure none of you reading this know any of those names Except Mickelson and Watson ha.

Since Augusta National does not allow electronic devices of ANY kind, we left our cameras at home and phones in the car, and weren't able to take any pictures except for these two photos a photographer on Azalea Drive took for all the patrons for free. 

I got all dressed for golf in some vintage pants I turned into bloomer shorts (post on that later this week), and an Ann Taylor silk blouse. Matt in a cotton polo and shorts, both of us wearing our Toms. We even have matching sunburns! Aren't we just the picture perfect couple here? I love this photo of us. And Matt looks so buff! Hehe.

It was my first time at the tournament; Matt has been several times. Locals Augustans are placed in a lottery to be selected to get tickets, and some families get them every year. Their face value is between $50-75 per day and it's really frowned upon to sell them. Most people rent out their houses, with four week long tickets, as a total package for around $30,000. I can't believe what people pay to come to this tournament. If I had that kind of money to spend in a week, which is close to my yearly salary, I'd spend a week in Fiji or on a beach somewhere! Ticket prices and exclusivity aside, everything at the National is quite inexpensive. Sandwiches still only $1.50-3, beers $3-$3.75.  

Did any of you watch the tournament on TV this weekend? I couldn't believe that Bubba Watson came back to win the tournament. I was pulling for Mickelson, but Bubba is a great golfer and definitely deserved to win. 

Hope you all have a great week! Dress rehearsal for my show is this evening. Lots of work to do today!