MASTERS DAILY REPORT: Sunday, April 12 – African American Golfer’s Digest

Sunday at the Masters

I reported yesterday that the final round would be a dogfight among seven players—and it was, plus two I didn’t see coming, as Henley and Hatton made some noise as well. McIlroy, Young, and Rose each held the lead at one point, and others were quietly moving along.

As usual, you cannot count Scheffler out, as he sent notice that he wanted another green jacket. However, in the final analysis, Rory made the statement of statements with his roller-coaster play on the front nine and more confident ball striking on the back.

I don’t know if any of you attach any significance to the number 13, but he finally broke through on hole 13 with a birdie, taking his score to 13-under. He continued to keep everyone in suspense with his errant drive on hole 18, of all places—then again, fairways in regulation have been his challenge all week. He closed the hole with a bogey and dropped to 12-under, which is the number needed to make him a back-to-back winner. He is the 90th Masters Champion.

He became only the fourth player in Masters history to go back-to-back, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods. Pretty good company.

Rory McIlroy became the first back-to-back winner of the Masters since Tiger Woods

View Final Leaderboard HERE.

View Cash Payouts HERE.

People on The Course

Makayla Clay

Makalyla is from Atlanta with family ties in Augusta. She is completing  her first year at South Carolina University. A very engaged and high energy young lady who was recruited to work at Augusta. She explained that representatives of Augusta National visited the school and presented the various opportunities. If interested, you had to apply online and if selected, take a course on Golf Tourism. Along the way, additional representatives visited the school presenting information on fashion, merchandising and other aspects of the Augusta National experience. She was selected into the program and considers this to have been a great experience. As part of the training, she and others are encouraged to take advantage of the networking opportunities in golf.

She took it seriously and had business cards printed – very savvy.

She plans to major in sports management with an emphasis on operations and logistics. Regarding her views on Augusta, she loves getting to see the people and feel the excitement.

Lloyd Christian

Lloyd is from Suwanee Ga. and is visiting Augusta for his second year. He obtained his Masters tickets from  “A Friend”. He Loves the game and would like to see more of our kids involved in the sport. He loves the fact that youth would learn courtesy, etiquette, decorum, discipline and sportsmanship. He also acknowledges that golf can be lucrative. I asked Lloyd his estimates on attendance and his responses were 30,000 total patrons and  0.5% African Americans.

Debra Graham and Michael Johnson

Debra is from Augusta and  lives in Virginia. She works for the Department of Defense. Her grandfather is Charles Graham a 93-year-old golf superintendent in Augusta. She and her family have “legacy” ticket status. This means her family is allotted a certain number of tickets annually.  Thanks to her family’s legacy status she has been coming to the Masters for over 30 years. She has seen a lot.

I asked her about the improvements that have been made to The Patch, aka Augusta Municipal Golf Course, courtesy of Augusta National. Her concerns were that the course remains affordable, as The Patch is the place where many Black “brothers” and “sisters” play. She does not want to see it priced out of reach of those who have played it for years.

Michael Johnson

Michael is a retired educator who taught in the Columbia County school system. This is his 8^th year at the Masters. He echoed Debra’s sentiments and, added that he would like to see more African Americans attend and participate in the Masters experience. I asked for his estimate on today’s attendance and the percent he thought was African American. His response 30,000 and 2%.

Couple from Houston

This couple wished to remain anonymous and did not want a full interview. They did state that they were enjoying the tournament and had made their dent in the gift shop. They were Brooks.

Note: I always ask people if they want to be interviewed and permission to use their name.

Gift Shop

The wait line was only 20 minutes today, and I am only going in to satisfy last minute requests from friends and family. No Sunday discounts at Augusta.

Usher In the House

Legendary American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor, Usher signs autographs near the tournament practice Area during the final round of the Masters.

Signing Off

Thanks to those who followed me during my time in Augusta. These nine days of covering the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt, and the 90th edition of the Masters Tournament have been both fun and a learning experience.

Whether you read one article or all of them, I send you my thanks. I also want to thank Debert Cook, publisher, for collaborating with me to cover these activities. We wanted to give our readers a unique perspective from the Masters, and we hope we have met your expectations.

I especially want to the thank the sponsors of this series, the Decisive Media Network, Ebony Greens and Tommy Burns Golf Challenge Coins.  Please support them as they have supported me and the magazine.

Special Thanks to the sponsors of this report who are supporting the magazine’s efforts in covering the activities at the  Augusta National Golf Course. DECISIVE MEDIA, EBONY GREENS, TOMMY BURNS GOLF CHALLENGE COINS, LLC

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