AUGUSTA, Ga. — The best factor about Augusta Nationwide and The Masters Event has nothing to do with Amen Nook, Pimento Cheese sandwiches, or the Azaleas that completely blossom throughout.
It’s their most sacred rule as an alternative.
No cell telephones.
As all of us have grow to be 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 consistently messaging our mates. 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 thing rapidly turns into silence. Why? Everybody turns to their telephones to examine who is aware of what. And no matter they’re taking a look at 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 data that won’t be remembered a mere 24 hours later. And is that content material and data even factual? Are you able to problem it? That’s an entire separate dialogue in and of itself. Nonetheless, our society surrounded by screens is maybe a part of what George Orwell warned about in his well-known novel, 1984, which I contemplate essentially the most essential piece of literature any highschool pupil will learn. (Do excessive schoolers even learn bodily books anymore? Or is all of it on screens?)
But, no one appears notably bothered by this actuality. We’re all residing via these screens, with the typical grownup spending 4 to 5 hours a day on their smartphones, staring. Multiply that by one year per yr, divide that complete by 24 hours, and you might be spending 68.5 days collectively in your telephone — greater than two months’ price!
Why is that this not talked about extra?
As I traverse the grounds at Augusta Nationwide, this troubling actuality is eons away. You discuss to everybody you sit subsequent to and instantly make a connection. Perhaps you and the patron sitting subsequent to you bond over a brand you might be 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 pupil there, and I struck up a dialog with a person who despatched their youngsters to the College of Dayton as nicely.
Different conversations typically stem from a easy, “The place are you from!?”
As a local of Rochester, New York, somebody I met mentioned 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 at all times flip to golf, a sport that everybody on this holy cathedral holds close to and expensive 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 Event ship a terrific end down the stretch.
How concerning 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 doubt.
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 one can enter the property with their mobile phone.
“One factor that’s very underrated about Augusta — it’s not underrated, however I believe simply due to the truth that the patrons don’t have their telephones out, it truly makes it really feel like they’re a lot extra engaged,” Åberg mentioned.
“It’s much more eye contact with the followers. It’s much more — you’ll be able to actually inform that they watch and admire good golf. The truth that nobody is on their telephone, nobody is taking footage, nobody is doing that, it seems like they’re much more engaged, which I, as a participant, actually admire. I believe 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 performed to our society.
Maybe that is a particularly cynical outlook on the place we stand in 2025. But when we fail to debate this subject, gained’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 fantastic 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 via a display screen.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
