My First Masters: Covering Augusta — and the Camera That Didn’t Work

By Stan Olenik. Editor, Publisher The Golf Club

It is Masters week, and like a lot of golf fans, I’ll be firmly planted in front of the TV.

There will be egg salad, a rotation of appropriate beverages depending on the time of day, and a full appreciation for one of the great weeks in sports.

It also always brings back memories — not of the shots as much as the stories around them — from the years I spent covering the tournament in Augusta.

This is one of those.

In 1977, I was a brand-new sports director at WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, getting ready to cover my first Masters.

Before I left for Augusta, I got called into the office of the station owner, Walter Brown — known around the building simply as “the old man,” even though now I’m a few years older than he was at the time.

When word came down, it wasn’t exactly formal.

“Get that boy in sports up here.”

I walked into his second-floor office with no idea what to expect. He sat me down and explained what he wanted out of our Masters coverage — and it didn’t have much to do with golf.

“A lot of our bidness people are down there,” he said — and yes, it was always bidness. “I want you to interview them about the tournament. Ask them who they want to win. And you ain’t ever been there, so make sure you get plenty of pictures of the flowers.”

He also had one more request.

His family home was in Thomson, Georgia, and he planned to be there all week.

“Before you come down, you check with Miss Sutherland, get my mail, bring it with you, and leave it at the clubhouse.”

Somehow, even though he wasn’t a member at Augusta National, he got them to hold his mail for pick up.

So those were my instructions.

Cover the Masters — but not necessarily the golf — and don’t forget the mail.

Being new, I checked with a couple of veteran photographers at the station to figure out how this had worked in the past.

One of them told me the standard approach was to stand under the big tree near the clubhouse, set up the camera, and do interviews. In those days, there was no wall-to-wall coverage, no live scoring apps, no constant highlights. If you stayed in one spot, you really had no idea what was happening out on the course.

He also told me something else.

“I don’t think Mr. Brown ever followed up on what we actually aired,” he said. “He just wanted to see his boys near the clubhouse.”

That helped me form a plan.

Before we left, I found an old, non-working camera at the station — one with big WSPA markings on the side — and loaded it onto a tripod.

We packed that, along with a working camera… and Mr. Brown’s mail.

If you’ve never been to Augusta National, it will take your breath away. Even 50 years ago, before it became the polished presentation it is today, it stood alone.

At the press check-in, they made sure you had real equipment — not something you picked up at a department store.

We had two cameras.

One of them just didn’t happen to work.

Once inside, we made our way up the hill on the clubhouse side and set up under that big tree.

We put the non-working camera on the tripod, right where everyone could see it.

Then we took the real camera and went out onto the course to actually cover the tournament.

When we came back from shooting practice-round footage, Mr. Brown spotted us back under the tree.

He called us over, told us what a great job we were doing, and said he had already heard from some of his “bidness friends” that they were glad we were there.

Plan confirmed. He saw the camera and his station call letters and was happy.

We kept the boss happy — and still managed to get real coverage.

Our routine that week was simple.

It was about a two-hour drive from Spartanburg to Augusta. We would get there early, stay through the round — or at least until things looked decided — then head back, process the film, and get it on the 11 o’clock news.

We did that every day.

For the time, it was pretty solid coverage. Nothing like today.

The tournament itself turned into a memorable one.

A young Tom Watson was looking for his first Masters win and he was going head-to-head with Jack Nicklaus.

It was close until the 17th hole in the final round when Nicklaus bogeyed . Watson seized the moment and went on to win his first Masters.

And in a twist, our spot under the tree turned out to be the perfect place to be.

After the round, the champion would come down from the clubhouse following the green jacket ceremony and go to a press conference with the print reporters. The winner would stop along the way to do interviews with the small group of TV stations on hand, again nothing like today.

In 1977, that group included two stations from Augusta, one from Columbia, one from Atlanta… and us.

Watson stopped at each camera for a couple of minutes.

At one point, another reporter asked him if he was finally out of Nicklaus’ shadow.

You could see the look on Watson’s face before he answered. He handled it professionally, but it was clear he didn’t appreciate the question.

Over the next several years, Masters coverage changed dramatically.

Television access expanded, network coverage grew, and the need for a two-camera “decoy system” disappeared.

Mr. Brown slowed down, and things eventually settled into a more normal routine.

At the end of that first year, the news director called me into his office.

He told me Mr. Brown had reviewed the coverage.

His final evaluation?

“That new boy in sports did OK.”

I went on to cover 15 more Masters after that.

Each one had its own stories — many of them having very little to do with who won.

And since it’s Masters week…

I’ll probably share a few more of those memories along the way.

We hope you enjoy our coverage of Carolinas Golf

We’ll be sharing more stories from Augusta — from behind-the-scenes moments to local players on golf’s biggest stage. and we will not forget about the many interesting local golf stories we cover every day on line and monthly in The Golf Club Newspaper.

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