I started this blog for a handful of friends at the 2010 Masters, but really did it just for my love of writing and covering such an incredible sporting event. This continued on until the 2014 Ryder Cup, at Gleneagles in Scotland, where it really took on the face it has now. My father was selected by Tom Watson to be an assistant captain that year, and I was able to travel over to Scotland with the team and have pretty special access to the event and the US Squad. That’s when my blog reached more readers and people were impressed with my writing skills, my unique perspective, and urged me to do a blog for The Masters the following spring. It has grown to a point where I simply cannot send it by email anymore, hence the creation of this web page for sharing the Back9Blog.
The Masters and the Floyd Family
As the son of a Masters champion, there is no sporting event on the planet that means more to my family. I have attended every Masters tournament since birth, and still to this day I spend some quality time at The Masters with Dad and my family. I’ve even had my daughters down there to caddie for my dad in the par 3. This was my late mother’s favorite place. As my brother, sister, and I became grown adults (loosely speaking) this was the one place we would always have a family reunion.
I have broken down my life at The Masters into 4 parts – The 1st being the “non-memory years” which was 1975-1984 (I was born in 1974) – this is pretty self-explanatory as most of us cannot remember much from our first 9 years on earth.
The second phase — and by far the most fun and exciting — was the “competitive years.” These years spanned 1985-1995 and marked the time when a 10 year old boy looked at his Dad as a hero, coupled with playing competitive golf myself, these were golden years. My brother and I walked all 18 holes every round for these 11 years and in that span Dad’s performance looked like this — 3 runner ups, 2 missed cuts, an 11th a 38th, a 17th, and then 3 top 20 finishes, including a top 10 after the age of 50, plus an absolutely heart-wrenching moment, losing to Faldo in a playoff in 1990. Very exciting times to say the least!
The 3rd phase was “the make the cut phase” which spanned from 1996-2009 which was the last year Dad played. In that phase Dad making the cut at that age was like winning The Masters. He made it twice in 1996 and 1999 and both times I caddied for him which was an incredible experience and honor. I continued to have the good fortune to caddie for him every year subsequent to his last tournament in 2009 with a couple of one-shot misses.
The last phase, and current one , is the “non-competing phase.” Dad has not teed it up on the big course in 10 years, and every time I step foot on the hallowed grounds I definitely get a twang of sadness, but then I am immediately overcome with the positive nostalgia that Augusta National has provided my family over the course of my 43 years on this planet. Now I find so much joy in sharing that experience with others, the best I can, through this blog.
Please click on our sponsor’s logo to visit their website:
Back9Blog 