AUGUSTA, Ga. — The best factor about Augusta Nationwide and The Masters Match has nothing to do with Amen Nook, Pimento Cheese sandwiches, or the Azaleas that completely blossom throughout.
It’s their most sacred rule as a substitute.
No cell telephones.
As all of us have change into hooked on checking our little screens, posting or watching TikToks, searching for that dopamine rush from getting a like or remark from some faraway stranger, or always messaging our pals. We have now misplaced part of what makes humanity so particular: having correct social interactions, making eye contact, and interesting with one another.
Over the previous 5 years, particularly because the top of the pandemic, actually, I’ve confronted numerous conditions the place I’m sitting in a room with family and friends and every little thing rapidly turns into silence. Why? Everybody turns to their telephones to examine who is aware of what. And no matter they’re pales compared to the significance of the relationships inside the room. They don’t seem to be asking about their day-to-day actions, issues that they face, or triumphs they’ve achieved. As an alternative, they’re staring blankly into their screens, receiving an onslaught of content material and knowledge that won’t be remembered a mere 24 hours later. And is that content material and knowledge even factual? Are you able to problem it? That’s a complete separate dialogue in and of itself. Nonetheless, our society surrounded by screens is probably a part of what George Orwell warned about in his well-known novel, 1984, which I think about essentially the most essential piece of literature any highschool scholar will learn. (Do excessive schoolers even learn bodily books anymore? Or is all of it on screens?)
But, no person appears notably bothered by this actuality. We’re all dwelling by way of these screens, with the typical grownup spending 4 to 5 hours a day on their smartphones, staring. Multiply that by three hundred and sixty five days per yr, divide that complete by 24 hours, and you’re spending 68.5 days collectively in your telephone — greater than two months’ value!
Why is that this not talked about extra?
As I traverse the grounds at Augusta Nationwide, this troubling actuality is eons away. You speak to everybody you sit subsequent to and instantly make a connection. Perhaps you and the patron sitting subsequent to you bond over a emblem you’re carrying. This occurred to me. I fortunately wore a lightweight blue quarter zip with a small crimson Dayton Flyers crest emblazoned on my entrance left chest. My youthful sister is a scholar there, and I struck up a dialog with a person who despatched their kids to the College of Dayton as properly.
Different conversations usually stem from a easy, “The place are you from!?”
As a local of Rochester, New York, somebody I met stated they hailed from close by Buffalo, and knew of somebody who attended my highschool alma mater, McQuaid Jesuit, as a result of, after all.
And naturally — after all — these conversations all the time flip to golf, a sport that everybody on this holy cathedral holds close to and pricey to their coronary heart. Who’s going to win this week? Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy? Or possibly it’s Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, or Collin Morikawa? Everybody right here appears to be rooting for McIlroy to finish the profession Grand Slam, however all of us need to see the 89th enjoying of The Masters Match ship a terrific end down the stretch.
How in regards to the younger phenom Ludvig Åberg, who completed solo second in his Masters debut final yr? He has the sport to win the Inexperienced Jacket, little question.
However what impressed me essentially the most about Åberg’s session with the media on Tuesday had nothing to do together with his technicality, recollections of final yr, or his victory earlier this season on the Genesis Invitational.
Like me, his favourite half about Augusta Nationwide is that no person can enter the property with their cellphone.
“One factor that’s very underrated about Augusta — it’s not underrated, however I feel simply due to the truth that the patrons don’t have their telephones out, it really makes it really feel like they’re a lot extra engaged,” Åberg stated.
“It’s much more eye contact with the followers. It’s much more — you possibly can actually inform that they watch and recognize good golf. The truth that nobody is on their telephone, nobody is taking photos, nobody is doing that, it appears like they’re much more engaged, which I, as a participant, actually recognize. I feel that’s very cool.”
Extra eye contact. Extra engaged.
The world outdoors of Augusta Nationwide wants extra of that.
However these lucky sufficient to enter these heavenly gates enter a sphere with out display screen time, social media, or 24/7 communication. As an alternative, everybody converses with one another, shares tales, pertains to each other, and most significantly, stays within the current. It’s a slice of utopia, actually, particularly when evaluating it to the dystopia that social media, smartphones, and the 24-hour newscycle have finished to our society.
Maybe that is a particularly cynical outlook on the place we stand in 2025. But when we fail to debate this problem, received’t it worsen? Isn’t that what occurred in Orwell’s 1984?
So cheers to Ludvig Åberg, one of many youthful gamers on this subject, for recognizing the essence, the importance, and the great thing about Augusta Nationwide turning again the clock and bringing collectively individuals from everywhere in the world to speak with one another — however by no means by way of a display screen.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. Observe him on X @jack_milko.