Patrons find shade, relaxation under leaderboard

Mel Young was among a small group of patrons who took shelter from the sun under the shade of the leaderboard behind the seventh green.

“I didn’t plan my wardrobe very well,” said Young, of New Smyrna Beach, Fla. The 76-year-old had said even though this was his “seventh or eighth” Masters Tournament, it is always hard to gauge the weather and he doesn’t trust TV forecasters.

“They get paid whether they are right or wrong,” he said.

Young had traveled up with a group of friends for the first round and will be headed back to Florida on Friday.

“We play golf on the way up and on the down, and then we watch it on TV on Sunday,” he said.

Others taking advantage of the leaderboard shade were Vance Forbes and his wife, Wortley. The couple from Wilson, N.C., had staked out the place as a “good meeting spot for lunch,” Vance Forbes said.

They were soon joined by about five others including, Bob Martin, of Atlanta, who said he was attending his 50th Masters. Martin, an Augusta native, said his father started getting tickets in the mid-1960s and he been coming ever since.

Martin said he has a collection of badges to prove it, all framed and hanging on a wall at home.

“We lived in Europe for a while and collected some art, but I’m sure those those are more valuable than any of my paintings,” he said.

David Epstein, a retired attorney from Charlotte, N.C., had decided to take a break in a chair under the leaderboard with his son, Jeff, who at 47 was attending his first tournament. The elder Epstein, who had been to the Augusta National a few times previously was showing his son the ropes.

“The first thing you to learn is that the course is not as flat as it looks on TV,” he said. “But it’s a very special place.”

Jeff Epstein said when he walked in off of Washington Road he was immediately struck by the lack of commercialism on the grounds. He said it was a pleasant surprise not to see corporate logos everywhere, as you might expect at other sporting events.

“Here it’s all about the golf,” he said.