Augusta National's beach feels more like Cape Cod than Tahiti this morning.

The hill under the sixth tee gives patrons a look at the sixth and 16th greens and, usually, a nice spot in the sun. It was still packed Friday morning, though there wasn't much heat to be found. (Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff)

Skin is scarce. Teeth chatter. Couples and families huddle together. The squatters drink coffee instead of beer.

The sloping hillside in front of the No. 6 tee box is typically a sunbather's paradise during the Masters. Patrons lounge here. They rest back on their elbows and feel the sun on their face, arms and legs.

Add sand and the steady rise and fall of waves, and the spot would rival the finest tropical beaches. Then again, you wouldn't be able to watch the world's top golfers putt from the sands of the South Pacific or Mediterranean.

But Friday dawned chilly, with temperatures in the 40s, and even the beach is taking a few hours to warm up.

"You look warm," an envious security guard says to a group outfitted in fleece pullovers. "You're probably the only ones in the whole place."

The hillside is popular anyway. The first group of golfers hasn't reached No. 16, and the shade-lovers who sit in chairs beneath the Georgia pines that surround the 16th green a hundred feet down the hill trespass on the beach.

No one minds. The more bodies, the more body heat. And Tiger Woods is about to play No. 6. He will walk down the path on the edge of the hill in a few minutes, and the gallery grows by the second.

The sun finally burns through the clouds as Woods and his group hit their tee shots over the heads of the hillside patrons. As Woods' traveling gallery walks down the hill, shadowing his every shot, quite a few comment on how good a spot the hillside is and make plans to return once Woods completes his round.

Temperatures should be more beachlike by then, the hillside awash in afternoon sunshine. Take the fleece to the car, and bring back shades and tanning lotion. An afternoon at the beach is in order.