Area Fans Who’ve Seen Augusta

By John Craig

One man teared up. One saw a hole-in-one. One can draw you a map of every blade of grass. Those are just three Capital Area men who have been to Augusta National for Masters Week.

TONY FARINA
“It’ll bring a tear to your eye,” said Tony Farina, who plays at Burden Lake CC. He went to The Masters in 2007 for the practice days and the first day of competition. “It took my friend 15 years to get tickets,” Farina said. If you are lucky enough to go, he says you have to go to the driving range to see all the players and teachers and all that’s going on.

Farina remembers a special net put up specifically for John Daly to keep balls on the driving range so they wouldn’t fly into the neighboring public course over the trees. “Fred Couples and others were trying to go over it,” he said. “But they only got halfway up the netting.”

Farina made sure he walked up Magnolia Lane and he said you can’t believe what Augusta National is like compared to the street running outside, Washington Street, in Augusta. “You think you’re in Latham, that’s how busy it is,” Farina said. “Then you turn in and [the course is] right there. “It’s like you’re on another planet.”

JAN SPAIRANA
Jan Spairana of Troy has gone twice: 2005 and 2008. The first time, he and his brother-in-law had tickets for Sunday’s final round, when Tiger Woods beat Chris DiMarco in a playoff. The second time, he went with his wife Sally and another couple from the Capital Area for Wednesday’s practice round that included the traditional Par-3 Tournament. “It was real muddy and it was my first time ever at the Holy Grail of golf,” Spairana said. “It was real overwhelming because it was jammed and muddy.”

They sat at the 9th hole and watched as the groups came through. Then they tried to get close to 18 but it was tough. “You wanted to see it all,” Spairana said. “It was the Sunday round and it wasn’t a leisurely day. There were all those experienced attendees who knew where to go and what to do.”

In 2008, he was able to stop and smell the flowers, literally. Spairana said everything seemed more in bloom. “It was a whole different experience,” he said. “The flowers were in full bloom. It was a beautiful, bright sunny day, perfect temperature and we had a plan. “We stayed outside of Augusta and drove an hour to get there early in the morning.”

The two couples started at number one and walked all 18 holes. At one point, he just stopped and watched Retief Goosen practice on one of the greens, ball after ball, over and over. “You can’t see the undulations and the lean of the green, that’s what you really can’t see on TV,” he said, “and you can’t get a feel for the speed of it. You see it on TV but it’s just not the same.”

CHUCK STEINER
Chuck Steiner, the President of the Schenectady County Chamber of Commerce, got to last year’s Thursday round of competition. He won a raffle from the Schenectady ARC and flew down Wednesday night on a private plane, spent the day on the grounds and was home in his bed Thursday night. “I wanted to walk the golf course,” he said after last year’s trip. “I was on a different mission for three quarters of the day.”

“The feeling is beyond description,” Steiner said. “Standing there and recognizing the history that has gone on there and then just enjoying the beauty and atmosphere of the day.” Steiner went with longtime friend Fred Caso and they spent most of the time at the 11th hole and in the gift shop, coming home with hats, shirts, a flag for his son, glassware with the Masters logo etched on them, ball markers – three bags full of souvenirs.

JOHN CIULLA
“It was absolutely a fantastic golf course, so, so immensely beautiful.” That’s how John Ciulla, the Saratoga County Public Defender, described his trip to Augusta last year. “You can’t believe how hilly it is,” he said. “The elevation changes are tremendous.”

Ciulla took a few minutes out of his day to talk with capitalareagolf.com and it was like he could draw you a map of where he sat and what he did every second he was on the course. He won his trip from a raffle at Saratoga Bridges.

“A lot of the tees, you don’t even see on TV, there are walkway under those tees,” he said. “You can not believe, until you see it, how little room those pros have to hit to those greens. Where they’re placing those pins is such a small target for them to get close to make birdie, it’s unbelieveable.”

Ciulla, 61, and his wife Linda sat behind the 8th green for a while, watching ten groups of three from the bleachers, directly behind the pin. “I thought they would break right, but they broke left,” he said of some putts. “Most of the players saw it and overplayed the break.”

When Kenny Perry, who would lose in a playoff on Sunday, came through on Thursday, he hit his ball three feet from the 11th pin. “He must have looked at that putt for a good ten minutes,” Ciulla said. “[But] he eventually made it.”

Ciulla couldn’t believe how narrow a chute came out of the 18th tee box. He didn’t realize there was a road running through the golf course and right below the 18th tee, which is still back some 60-70 yards. It was still another 100 yards to the fairway.

STAR STRUCK
Farina’s day was made when he saw the threesome of Arnold, Jack and Tiger walking down the 13th fairway together. He called out to them, tried to get an autograph but they just smiled and kept walking. He took their picture, though. He really liked the 12th and 13th and sat at the par-3 16th for a while.

Farina bought a black jacket for about $200 that had the Masters map logo on the back with flags of all the countries represented. “I’ve still got the jacket,” Farina said.

Spairana remembers Amen Corner and the Pimento cheese sandwiches, of course, but he was tickled by the green wrappers the sandwiches come in, just in case one falls on the grass. It would blend it on television.

At the Par-3 contest, he was at the 8th hole and nothing great had happened…yet. “We thought we were at the wrong hole because we heard [other] roars. …then it happened,” he said. The threesome of Fuzzy, Faldo and Freddy came through. Fred Couples went first. Now, Spairana had seen Couples at Winged Foot at the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot. He said Couples’ tee shot was in the trees, in jail, but he watched as he hit an approach shot through some narrow opening that “couldn’t have been more than three feet wide.”

“He made birdie from the woods and I said, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Spairana said. At Augusta in 2008, Couples sent his shot high in the air…almost like a shot at the netting. “It went, like, past the hole and started to creep down and creep down and creep down and it was a hole-in-one. It was just amazing.” He’s got lots of pictures of his trip, somewhere.

“It’s about the game,” Spairana said. “It’s about people who enjoy the game of golf enjoy the game of golf.” Ciulla said besides the golfers, the course is the real star, and not just the holes. There’s a triangular area near the 9th and 18th fairways that isn’t used, never seen on television and rarely played from. “50 acres and it’s mowed exactly the same as the rest of the golf course,” Ciulla said. “Who would spend the money to keep that the same? It’s so impressive.” Over and over he repeated that you can’t believe the elevation change and the greens. On some holes, he couldn’t see the ball from the other side of the green. “The sixth green is virtually bisected in the middle by a three-foot slope. It’s really two greens in one,” he said.

Ciulla was glad to see Gary Player at his final competitive Masters Tournament. He’s a Phil Mickelson fan so he saw what he could. “We saw all the big names,” Ciulla said. “The thing about the big names is it impossible to follow Tiger or Mickelson around the golf course.” On the fourth hole, there was a swale in the middle of the green. The pin was back left. Most of the players were hitting to the center of the green and letting the ball filter down to collection area.

Steve Stricker hit it over the corner of the bunker. “He’d already thrown down his club into the bag in disgust,” Ciulla recalls. “I said to myself, ‘how could this guy know that the ball was not going to stay on the green from where he hit it?’ It was so doggone perfect.” But it rolled away.

“To have that kind of feel is something I just can’t comprehend,” said Ciulla, who is a member at Mechanicville Country Club. Two memories: “They play it with ease”; “The elevation change. Until you walk on that golf course, you cannot believe how tremendous those elevations changes are.”

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