Masters moving day is gloriously old school
Use your eyes and ears. Trust your senses. Steve Carroll is all for a world without digital. Masters moving day is like stepping back in time
Follow the noise. Max Homa and Bryson DeChambeau have yet to take a practice swish but they know from the roar. Some 450 yards away on the 1st green, Scottie Scheffler has chipped in for a 3.
Moving Day is one of the marvels of a major championship – all about jostling for position, a chance to dominate, to watch the golf course bombarded with birdies and beset by bogeys.
But it just hits differently at Augusta National.
Here you must trust your senses. Use your eyes and ears. Look and listen. Masters Moving Day is gloriously old school.
There’s not a phone to ring, and not a big screen in sight.
Inside the giant leaderboards, you can just catch a glimpse of the back of the nameplates – the chalked in, and rubbed out names, reminding the automatons who is who.
Masters Moving Day: Ignorance can be bliss
I’ll call them such because the process is almost mechanical. For them and us. But these are the most important people on the golf course.
Hear a roar, turn to the leaderboard, watch the numbers turn.
Shots are struck and names move up and down. Turns out we didn’t really need that weather forecast, or that player’s scores on par 4s after all.
At Augusta, ignorance – if we can brand being bereft of digital data as such – is bliss, bringing a frisson of extra drama to the excitement.
What was that cheer? Morikawa is on a charge. What was that groan? It must be Bryson DeChambeau. Is that a birdie roar or an eagle?
The whispering starts until the rotor wheels begin to move.
It brings touch more mystery for a tournament that revels in mystique. For one week a year, we can savour that too.
Now have your say
What did you make of Masters moving day? Would you like to see less technology at golf tournaments? Why not let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment on X.
Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; Caley 01T irons 4-PW; TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedges, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
