Every year in early April, people tune in to the Masters for a dose of familiarity. The golf course is instantly recognizable. The color of the fairways and the flora always seem the same. The greens, and their unique features, are like old friends. From the plantation-style clubhouse to the famed stone bridges, golf fans feel they know Augusta National Youth Golf Movement In Masters Golf Club. As much as television viewers might feel they know the place, there is so much they never see. And as hard as the club tries to make every detail meticulously uniform year to year, new things happen. Take, for example, the deer that ran across the eighth green Wednesday. The club is surrounded by high fencing and other protective barriers. No one gets in without approval or a credential — or both — and that includes certain kinds of wildlife.
People who have been coming to the Masters since the 1950s said they had never seen a deer on the course. Spectators gasped and pointed as if a polar bear had climbed out of one of the bunkers. It so shocked Phil Mickelson, who was on the eighth hole, that he stopped playing. The deer that crashed the 2011 Masters party was such a sensation that The Augusta Chronicle ran its picture and used four paragraphs to explain its tour during what was just a practice round. The newspaper reported that the deer made it off the grounds out a back gate.
