Kevin Connelly | It doesn’t get any better than The Masters

April 11, 2014 at 12:08a.m.

When you think of great American sporting events, surely the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the Daytona 500, the Kentucky Derby and the Rose Bowl all come to mind.

The list goes on and they’re all great.

I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing two Super Bowls — one as a fan from the upper deck, the other as a runner for Associated Press photographers on the field — as well as a Final Four from the second-to-last row in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself as fortunate as anyone to have witnessed those events in person — especially with how astronomical ticket prices have become.

However above all those great events, this week in particular holds a special place in my heart.

It’s Masters week.

For someone who grew up in a house where weekends were reserved for family time, and that meant my television restrictions were harsher than the FCC’s, there was always one exception.

Saturday and — especially — Sunday afternoon during The Masters.

There’s something special about the tournament that, even at a young age, had me giddy with excitement.

So you can only imagine my buzz during this week last year when I finally got to replace my couch and TV with the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club.

What made it even more special was that I experienced it with the same two people I grew up watching it next to — my parents. Plus one very lucky friend from college, who is forever indebted to me.

Golf isn’t for everyone, especially on TV. But I defy any human being, sports fan or not, to walk around the more than 80-year-old club and not feel a slight tingle inside them.

Does it have the flair and build-up of the Super Bowl? Nope. Can you feel the passion and excitement the Final Four provides? Not really.

What about the intensity of the Daytona 500, the anticipation of the Kentucky Derby or the pageantry of the Rose Bowl? My guess would be no.

It doesn’t need any of that stuff.

The Masters is one of the rare events in which the players competing take a back seat to the stage they’re playing on.

Don’t believe me? Just ask 19-year old amateur Matthew Fitzpatrick, who is playing in his first Masters this week.

“It’s just amazing,” Fitzpatrick, a native of England said Tuesday. “When I first came a couple of weeks ago — and you first walk in through the tunnel, and inside the pro shop, and seeing the whole course that you can see from the top — I was in just absolute awe.

“It’s such an amazing place. Much more amazing than I ever thought it would be.”

He ain’t kidding, either. One of the first things that jumps out at you, after you move past the “awe” as Fitzpatrick accurately described, is how perfectly placed everything is. There isn’t a blade of dead grass, a pine needle out of place, or a flower not blooming on the entire 7,435-yard course.

It’s spectacular.

There also isn’t a bad view anywhere, unlike the binoculars needed for barely affordable seats at Monday’s NCAA basketball championship.

Whether you plant yourself at Amen Corner where you can watch the approach shots at the 11th, the tee shots on the par-3 12th, and then off the tee again at 13, or find your own best-kept secret (mine’s under a shade tree behind the 10th green), every sight line is jaw-dropping.

So while the 78th Masters Tournament hosts a field without the sport’s most polarizing figure, Tiger Woods, I say for the next four days, who cares?

It was, is, and always will be a tradition unlike any other.

It’s The Masters.

Kevin Connelly is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at kconnelly@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @Connelly_Vindy.