I couldn’t stay asleep past 5am this morning,
possibly due to excitement but also due to my body clock being all over the
place.

I know that my head was all over the place
yesterday as I made a couple of glaring errors in my daily report, specifically
thinking that the Par 3 Tournament was starting yesterday afternoon rather than
today. Apologies for that but it turned out to be an incredible affair when it
did kick off this afternoon.

So, at 5am, as every good Rules Official
should, I was reviewing my diagrams for TIOs (Temporary Immovable Obstructions)
with no sides. Unlike many venues around the world, the home of The Masters has
purpose built TV and laser platforms on the course both on the sides of
specific fairways and close to the putting green. The vast majority of them
have no sides, unlike the TV towers that are constructed from scaffolding, and
so it is essential to be fully aware of relief procedures from these
situations. We use what we call a drip line to establish the outside margins of
the towers and calculate the points of relief from there.

I left home at 6.30am to attend our Rules
Committee meeting which was scheduled for 7.30am. These meetings at all
Championships are highly informative and also provide all officials, including
newcomers like myself, the opportunity to introduce yourself to the Committee
and hence make some contact with new colleagues that you may be stationed with
on a particular day.

Our meeting was followed by a TIO seminar,
conducted by the PGA of America, which is always worth attending whether you
think you know all the procedures or not.  I always find that I can pick up some tips
from these on how best to describe the procedures to fellow officials so it
becomes a real peer review situation.

Once this was completed I headed out on to
the back-9 with good friends from the PGA Tour to assess possible scenarios on
each hole.

While out there I was fortunate enough to
meet up with Scotty and Steve Williams who were practicing with Danny Lee and
Hideki Matsuyama. Every player that I have spoken to has been hugely
complimentary about the course and it is obvious to see why. Every aspect of
the course looks spectacular and will make for incredible television viewing.

After a quick bite to eat I returned to hole
6 to completely review all my hole by hole notes as I will be stationed there
on Saturday. As mentioned yesterday, we receive a list of every movable
obstruction, immovable obstruction, TIO and water hazard on each hole so that
we can familiarize ourselves with their location. This is extremely helpful
preparation before you head out onto any section of the golf course.

While walking back from hole 6 I took another
stroll down hole 17 as this will be my position for the first day.

Having secured as much information as I could
from both the course and my notes I headed back to the clubhouse and met with
my fellow official covering our area tomorrow. This was really helpful as we
now know each other and can work as a team right from the start.

Tonight I had the privilege and pleasure of
attending the official function at Augusta National. This was one of those
truly special and memorable evenings held outside for invited guests.

As with any Rules Assignment at a Major Championship
I am both excited and a little nervous. This is a healthy state to be in as it
certainly keeps you on your toes and ready for any situation that may arise.

Tomorrow will be a great day and, if the
number of hole-in-ones recorded in the Par 3 Tournament is anything to go by; we
should see some spectacular golf.