Early birds had to have patience
Web posted 04/12/99
Spectators arrived early Sunday to set up their chairs to see final-round play -- and then they waited hours for the golfers to finally make it around the 72-par course.
Sisters Kay Murphy of St. Louis and Jeanne Atkins of Indianapolis spent all day camped out on the front row beneath the No. 18 scoreboard while their husbands -- both named Tom -- cruised the course.
The position put the sisters in exactly the right spot to see Jose Maria Olazabal's par putt to win his second green jacket. But things were pretty dull there the first half of the day.
To pass the long hours from 8 a.m., when they found their seats, until around 2:30 p.m. when golf balls began flying at No. 18, the women planned a baby shower for a niece and caught up on sisterly gossip. A few years ago, they spent their spare time at the green addressing wedding invitations for Atkins' daughter.
``We have a good time visiting,'' Atkins said. ``We're not only sisters. We're very best friends.''
A few rows back and farther up the hill on No. 18, Joan Lineberry of Galax, Va., wiled away Sunday morning in the pages of Where Shadows Go, the second book in author Eugenia Price's Georgia trilogy.
``Somebody will play in by the time I finish this,'' Lineberry said around 11 a.m., with 59 pages to go.
Lineberry's husband, Charles, tagged after some of his favorite golfers Sunday before rejoining his wife at the 18th in late afternoon. While he tries to keep up with the action, his wife is content to wait for it to come to her.
`I've learned that this is my best spot, and I wait for him,'' she said.
Sitting about 20 rows back from the ropes on the eastern side of Hole 18, Betty Fox nursed an ailing back Sunday morning. She used a pair of high-powered binoculars to watch golfers tee off at No. 1 and putt at No. 9 as she waited for players to finish the final round of the Masters.
``I just wish somebody would come and sit beside me and talk to me,'' the Atlanta woman said.
On the other side of No. 18, Peg Robinson was content to sit alone, keeping her eyes on the crowd and the nearby leaderboard.
``I just like to watch the people and what they wear,'' said Robinson, who has been attending the Masters since 1973.
Robinson and her husband, Greg, who are from Aiken, arrived at Augusta National Golf Club around 8 a.m. Sunday, staked out their spot beneath the 18th green photographers' tower, then walked the course.
By midmorning, though, she had returned to her seat to wait for the leaders. What golf Robinson missed by staying close to Hole 18 all day, she saw later Sunday night on television.
``We're taping it, so I'll go home and watch it,'' she said.
