The Masters and rules go together like pimento cheese and white bread. No running, no phones, no cash. Heck, there’s even a rule for where swing coaches stand while working with their player on the driving range… oh, and don’t under any circumstances call it the “driving range”.
That’s according to Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, who chatted with the Foreplay Pod this week about a few of things broadcasters are strongly encouraged (read: expressly forbidden) from saying while on the air at the Masters. As he explains, while these guidelines may seem pedantic, they’re all part of what makes the Masters a tradition unlike any other.
Broadcasters aren't allowed to say "fan", "driving range", "back nine" & more on air at The Masters @ForePlayPod pic.twitter.com/czicE7LE24
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 8, 2025
We all know fans at Augusta National are referred to as “patrons,” that’s not news. The reasoning, however, is curious. According to Chamblee, the word “fan” comes from “fanatical” and the Masters organisers don’t want the public to think of their fans as “fanatics.” This is a little silly for two reasons:
1. It presumes golf fans are more worried about root words during the Masters broadcast than their parlays.
2. Masters fandom is about as fanatical as it gets in the sports world.
Then there’s the Masters “driving range,” which Augusta National advises broadcasters to refer to as the “tournament practice facility.” Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? Finally, there’s the term “back nine”, which Chamblee says you would get a reprimand for saying on the air. At practically every other golf course in our solar system, no one would bat an eye if you referred to holes 10-18 as the “back nine”. At Augusta National, however, it’s the “second nine” because the connotation of the “back nine” being the “backside” of the golf course is far too colloquial (same goes for the “rough”, which is infamously referred to as the “first cut”.)
Maybe you love this sort of thing, maybe you don’t, but as Chamblee explains, it is part of what makes the Masters not only the greatest tournament in golf, but quite possibly the best standalone event in sports. There is truly nothing else like it, and if the price we pay for that is a pocket thesaurus and a few quarters for a pay phone, then that’s fine by us.
