While all other major golf tournaments allow fans to carry their mobile devices, the Augusta, Ga., property strictly prohibits cell phones, allowing their use only in the locker room and media center. The property does provide 24 land-line phones for those who need to place a call.
When you walk through the gates of Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., it is a throwback to a different era where cellphones are strictly prohibited, ABC News reported.
More than a decade ago, Scott Feight got one of those coveted opportunities to purchase badges for a practice round. He brought along his father, who forgot he had a mobile phone in the bottom of his bag, having just returned from a two-week trip to Asia. Security officers spotted it at the gate, ABC reported.
He and his father were still allowed to attend the practice round, albeit after checking the phone. A few months later, Feight got a note from the club saying his badge-buying privileges had been revoked, ABC reported.
“I’m cursed for life,” Feight quipped in a telephone interview from Atlanta, where he runs a nonprofit organization that decorates hospitals with artwork.
The ban on mobile devices is a shock to just about everyone who walks through the gates, especially in an era when people use them not just as a means of communicating with one another, but to take pictures and videos, stay connected to the internet, maintain their contacts and schedules, and even something as simple as checking the time, ABC reported.
“My fiancee asked me, ‘How are you going to tell time when you’re out there?'” said Kevin Caskey of Chesterfield, South Carolina, shortly after arriving Saturday for his first Masters. “I had to dig out a watch.”
Augusta National is largely on its own when it comes to banning cellphones. Golf’s other three major championships now allow fans to carry their devices throughout the tournament. Ditto for the PGA Tour and other major tours. The British Open, golf’s oldest major, began installing Wi-Fi routers at each hole a few years ago to make it easier for fans to stay connected. There are specified areas out on the course where people can send texts and make calls. Fans are encouraged to download an app that allows them to keep up with the tournament on their devices, ABC reported.
Even through the tradition-rich Masters has opened up its membership to women and spent tens of millions of dollars to keep up with the times, there’s no sign that the cellphone ban will be lifted anytime soon, ABC reported.
When Billy Payne, Augusta National’s chairman, was queried about it before the start of the tournament, he replied sternly: “You’ll have to ask the next chairman. That’s not going to change while I’m chairman.”
Pressed on why the club continues to ban a device that has become so indispensable in people’s lives, Payne said: “I just don’t think it’s appropriate. The noise is an irritation to not only the players—the dialing, the conversation. It’s a distraction and that’s the way we’ve chosen to deal with it.”
There are a couple of spots where cellphones are allowed. Players can use them in the locker room. They’re also permitted in the media center, though a constantly streaming message on the video board warns reporters not to even think of taking their devices out of the building, ABC reported.
After finishing the third round, Steve Stricker said he’s never had any problems with fans having cellphones on the course, but he’s not pushing for Augusta National to change its rules, ABC reported.
“So much of our world is on that iPhone or iPad,” he said. “It’s kind of refreshing that nobody has them out here. You don’t have to worry about them ringing or people talking on them.”
At the main entrance, not far from the first fairway, there’s a row of 24 land line phones enabling fans to place free calls anywhere in the United States (international cards require a credit card), ABC reported.
Feight knows that Augusta National won’t be asking for his advice anytime soon. But, for what it’s worth, he thinks the Masters should get in step with the times, ABC reported.
“We’re so connected with technology. There are so many cool things you could have at your fingertips while the tournament is going on,” Feight said. “Why would you not let your spectators see what’s going on, as long as they’re not a distraction to the players?”
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