The scene inside the Augusta National clubhouse was rather more muted than Jon Rahm’s celebration.
Darren Riehl
AUGUSTA, Ga. — A inexperienced jacket buys you entry to golf’s most unique membership, the cachet to enter any room with confidence, and a Rolodex full of titans of business and heads of state.
It does not, nonetheless, purchase you a seat on the 18th inexperienced at the conclusion of the Masters. On Sunday at Augusta National, that lesson was realized the onerous means.
The scene inside the Augusta National clubhouse was a muted one as Jon Rahm charged up the 18th fairway with victory in hand on Sunday afternoon. The elegant, archaic construction bustles with exercise throughout match week, however as the Masters got here to a detailed, most of the inexperienced jackets could possibly be discovered some place else.
Many of them had been alongside the ropeline on the 18th fairway. A correctly timed (and positioned) inexperienced chair earns you unfettered entry to that view come Sunday afternoon. Many extra had been out on the veranda, the place the closing preparations had been being ready for the inexperienced jacket ceremony.
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But for one unlucky inexperienced jacket-wearer, neither location was sufficient to safe a vantage level of Rahm as he chased down his second main title. He provided a chuckle with that admission as Rahm closed in on the inexperienced.
“My kids have the seats down on the ropes,” he mentioned. “I went out there but I couldn’t see. So I guess I’m stuck here.”
We had been on the first flooring of an Augusta National clubhouse, a constructing so outdated and so historic the floorboards nonetheless creak while you stroll alongside them. Upstairs, a small crew of inexperienced jackets and their pals had been huddled round a small nook tv in the stately room that hosts the annual Champions Dinner, passing round cocktails and warfare tales. Next door, a bigger group of members sipped pink wine out of massive glass goblets in the Grill Room, sitting in cloth lounge chairs in entrance of a boardroom desk as they did it. But right here, on the first flooring, there have been no televisions nor libations. Just a decade-old Lenovo desktop laptop, an impressively tech-savvy inexperienced jacket, and me.
You may virtually depend the pixels on the laptop display as Jon Rahm eliminated his cap to stroll up the 18th fairway, however neither of us appeared to care a lot. In this second, there was little extra to do, and little else we may do, than introduce ourselves and watch the closing moments of the 2023 Masters in the Augusta National clubhouse collectively.
So we stood there watching quietly as Rahm charged his means up the hill. And then once more as Brooks Koepka dutifully putted out for par in entrance of him. Finally, it was time for Rahm to stare down the six-footer that’d win him the match, and I may sense the rigidity constructing in my new pal.
As he poured in the putt for par, clinching his first profession Masters victory, a wondrous smile unfold throughout the inexperienced jacket’s face.
“That’s fantastic,” he mentioned. “That’s just fantastic.”
Then, as if he wasn’t certain how else to precise his pleasure, he started to clap.
He was alone in the clapping for a number of seconds till somebody opened the hulking clubhouse entrance door, welcoming a tidal wave of noise from the 18th gap celebration into the fundamental room. Soon, Rahm appeared by the entrance home windows, headed in direction of the scorer’s tent.
A couple of minutes glided by and he emerged once more, this time on the again aspect of the Augusta National clubhouse, close to the entrance to Magnolia Lane. Rahm, sometimes an understated (if generally surly) particular person, was overjoyed. He hugged his caddie. He hugged his household. He hugged a couple of individuals who appeared shocked he hugged them.
Finally, a person in a inexperienced jacket and a person in a daily jacket escorted him over to a golf cart, the place the two would experience off to the inexperienced jacket ceremony. As Rahm zipped west, Brooks Koepka headed east, his face in his palms, wanting dejected, as his agent drove him away in a golf cart.
Eventually, Rahm handed the clubhouse, whereas the remaining inexperienced jacket-wearers — in the grill room and the upstairs restaurant with the small nook TV and the Pro Shop and each different constructing adjoining to the golf course — got here out to greet him. There had been roughly 25 of them in all to witness each winner and loser experience by, showering Rahm in his first (of a number of) inexperienced jacket standing ovations.
Rahm, for his half, appeared completely taken again. His smile grew broad as he tried to take care of eye contact with every of his well-wishers, tipping his cap of their course.
And then he was gone into the horizon, off to Butler Cabin and to strive on his inexperienced jacket for the very first time. The Masters had as soon as once more topped a worthy champion, and all of these closest to the membership had been thrilled with the way it’d transpired.
As I turned again for house, I crossed paths yet one more time with my new pal, the inexperienced jacket, who shared one other pleasant smile.
“It was great to see you again, James.”
I may summon just one response.
“Same time next year?”
