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Troy Wahlberg waited over 15 years to stroll throughout the meticulously manicured landscapes at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership.
The golf membership, nestled in east Georgia, has hosted the celebrated Masters since 1934. Golf fanatics worldwide journey to the annual match to look at the game’s finest battle for the coveted inexperienced jacket.
Wahlberg managed to snag tickets to the Masters via its lottery system. “It is a lifelong dream come true,” he instructed Enterprise Insider.
When he arrived for the apply rounds at Augusta Nationwide this week, he had a small point-and-shoot digicam in his pocket.
His cellphone, nevertheless, was absent.
Augusta Nationwide/Augusta Nationwide/Getty Pictures
Attendees are prohibited from bringing cellphones onto Augusta Nationwide’s grounds in the course of the match. Different digital gadgets, like laptops, tablets, radios, and TVs, are additionally a no-go on the Masters. Patrons violating these insurance policies may very well be faraway from Augusta Nationwide’s grounds and lose their tickets.
Within the period of ubiquitous screens and nonstop notifications, the Masters retains issues analog.
“It is peaceable,” Wahlberg stated. “It is like tenting. You slowly detach.”
Attending the Masters means disconnecting from the world for typically hours at a time, which might trigger issues for individuals who depend on our super-connected society for work. A Wall Road Journal reporter wrote that some working in finance who attended the match on Wednesday had been unaware, as an example, that President Donald Trump introduced a 90-day pause on many tariffs till he instructed them.
Wahlberg felt a “phantom buzzing” in his pocket for the primary few hours on the Masters however stated the dearth of cellphones is a part of the occasion’s magic.
“You sit subsequent to different patrons, and no person has a face in a display screen, so that you’re compelled to have conversations,” he stated. “I could not inform you the names of anyone we sat by, however I may rehash all of the conversations.”
Patrons on the Masters aren’t utterly off the grid, although. As a substitute, they wait in line to make use of pay telephones supplied by the golf membership.
Richard Heathcote/Getty Pictures
Augusta Nationwide additionally permits patrons to carry cameras in the course of the apply rounds, however they’re prohibited on match days. “It was neat to have a digicam there to seize moments,” Wahlberg stated. “We obtained to get our selfies.”
The anti-cellphone wave has gained traction in recent times. Garth Brooks banned telephones throughout his Las Vegas residency. Many comedians additionally now require company to put their telephones in instances till after the present.
Ben Jared/PGA TOUR
Most performers and athletes, nevertheless, nonetheless carry out for a sea of cameras and smartphones. Wahlberg would not need that on the Masters.
“I feel the patrons and followers of this occasion would appropriately riot in the event that they ever determined to alter,” Wahlberg stated. “I 100% hope we proceed this pattern of no cellphones at occasions.”
Happily, it would not seem Augusta Nationwide will change its coverage anytime quickly.
Masters chairman Fred Ridley mentioned the ban forward of the 2019 match, saying patrons appreciated it.
“I do not imagine that is a coverage that anybody ought to anticipate goes to alter within the close to future, if ever,” Ridley stated. “I am unable to communicate for future chairmen, however talking for myself, I feel we obtained that proper.”