Grandma and the Masters

My grandparents loved golf.

I knew that any weekend we made the 70 mile trip to visit them, there was going to be golf on.

I hated golf. I find it boring. Incredibly challenging and difficult to master, yes. But boring nonetheless.

A few years after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother won the lottery. Ok, not the actual "Mega Millions" lottery, but something almost as good. She won the right to buy Masters badges (tickets) every year. This right can not be transferred to anyone else and can't be passed on after you die.

Each year, my grandmother would let one of her eight children have control, for lack of a better word, of the badges, meaning they could go and take their spouse or kids. The only rule was the tickets were for family members only.

Being that neither of my parents or my brothers were all that interested in golf, we fell pretty far down the list when it came to the order in which each family got to go.

When it was finally our turn, my brother and I went together and while we still find the game boring to watch, we knew that strolling the grounds at Augusta National to watch the world's finest golfers was akin to being in Carnegie Hall to watch the world's finest musicians perform. We didn't have to have a deep appreciation for the game to have a deep appreciation for where we were and what we were able to witness.

Because we lived relatively close by, we also got to go whenever someone couldn't make it, usually for the Thursday or Friday rounds.

This year is our year to go again. Or, it was supposed to be. My grandmother passed away this past September. So no Masters tickets for us this year, or any other year unless we win the lottery.

CBS has been running Masters commercials over the past few weeks. It makes me realize how fortunate I was to get the opportunity to go to the Masters a few times. It also makes me miss my grandmother.