Stop the coup in the United States! Vote! Resist! Persist!

I love the Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course. Every year, I eagerly watch and listen to Jim Nance describe “a tradition unlike any other.” I scramble to find some pimento cheese for my “Masters pimento cheese” sandwich and pull out my worn 2010 Masters plastic glass for my beer. Then I sit back and enjoy the golf.

When the action reaches the eighth green, one of the announcers will share “Bruce Devlin made a double eagle on this hole in 1967.” I shout back at the TV “I was there. I saw it go in. I was there.”

“Bruce Devlin scored the second double eagle in Masters history here in 1967.”

And I have no proof whatsoever. Just the rantings of an old man. But I was there.

From The Augusta Chronicle:

It took more than 30 years after Sarazen’s feat for another to be recorded. That came in the first round in 1967 by Aus­tralian Bruce Devlin, who called it a “perfect golf shot.”

“It hit on the front of the green, rolled right around the corner and went right in the hole,” said Devlin, who used a 4-wood from 248 yards on No. 8. “I could understand it if the flag was in the middle of the green, but it’s almost impossible to get a wedge up there.”

But Devlin never saw the ball hit the green or roll into the cup. He was 200 yards back down the fairway below the top of the hill. What he described was accurate. There were only 10 of us standing around the green as it was early in the day. We saw this ball come from out of nowhere, hit at the front of the green and it was like the ball had radar. It rolled in an arc and rolled and rolled and slowed, hit the flag and plopped into the hole.

Because it is the Masters where no electronic devices are allowed and no patron cameras are allowed, we didn’t know who hit the ball. We also didn’t know if it was their second or third shot. And we didn’t know it was a double eagle until 10 minutes later when the manual scoreboards were changed to show Devlin’s score. The other golfers congratulated Bruce, but nobody made a big deal out of it.

I was there, but I didn’t know what I had seen.

There were no TV cameras trained on the green so there was no proof that it happened. Ten of us saw it. But nobody knew what we saw.

We saw Bruce Devlin on the scoreboards gain the three shots of the double eagle. And then we watched him bogey the next four holes giving all the shots right back.

I was there. And I have no way to prove the memory.

That memory was 57 years ago. I was with my dad and he saw it as well. But he died 30 years ago so he can’t confirm the memory.

I am of an age where I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I can remember that double eagle by Bruce Devlin on the Par 5 eighth hole at the Augusta National Golf Course.

While I have many memories of the Masters tournament, at least I have proof of another great day at the Masters. At the 2004 Masters we had the great fortune to attend with one of the members of Augusta National who offered to put our chairs on the 18th green for us for the Sunday finale. As a member he got to stay in one of the “cabins” (in reality a 4000 square foot six bedroom home) behind the Butler cabin. He said he would get up at 6am and place our chairs by the green.

In the photo below, I’ve circled the location of my brother and me in the first row. We were in the process of leaping to celebrate Phil Mickelson’s made putt to win his first green jacket in 2004.

Thanks to a photographer from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the publishing of the photo on the first page of the Monday paper, I have a record of this Masters memory. I can prove it.

But I’ll never be able to prove the memory of seeing Bruce Devlin getting a double eagle on the eighth hole at the 1967 Masters.

Fortunately, I will always have the memory of that beautiful spring day amongst the azaleas of Georgia.