AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Attending the Masters for the first time was a new experience for Thomas Abraham, and it wasn\u2019t just about the golf.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old from Houston had the rare opportunity to use a public telephone for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of cool,\u201d said Abraham, who phoned a friend while attending the Masters Par 3 competition on Wednesday with his father, Sid. \u201cI\u2019ve never used one before. I figured it out. If I had to use one of those (rotary) phones I probably would\u2019ve had to ask my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augusta National requires its patrons to leave their cellphones and other electronic devices behind. In place of those security blankets, there are several public telephone banks of those throwback devices from days gone by. They are a foreign sight for many in the younger generation who\u2019ve never seen a phone with an attached cord.<\/p>\n
Abraham is not unlike most teenagers \u2014 or adults, for that matter \u2014 who are very much attached to the world through their cellphones.<\/p>\n
At some point, chances are, patrons check for their phone \u2014 patting their pockets, reaching for the clip on their belts, wherever it usually is.<\/p>\n
And when they can\u2019t find it, well\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of panic mode,\u201d Abraham said. \u201cWe were at 18th (hole) and I went to reach in my pocket and it wasn\u2019t there. Then I remembered it\u2019s in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve checked my pockets for my phone no less than 10 times today,\u201d said Ryan O\u2019Connor from Little Rock, Arkansas. \u201cI was sitting in the bleachers on the 16th green and someone dropped a water bottle and it made a loud noise and I instinctively reached for my phone. Not there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line at the public phone bank can stretch up to 10 people deep at the height of the Masters. And while they provide an outlet for those looking to touch base with the world outside of Augusta National\u2019s gates, there are some issues that come with them.<\/p>\n
Like, remembering phone numbers.<\/p>\n
Bill Kehoe, 50, from Raleigh, North Carolina came prepared.<\/p>\n
As he approached the public phones, Kehoe whipped out a sheet of paper with a handful of names and numbers written on them with a black Sharpie. He picked up the receiver on the phone, punched in the number \u201c1\u201d to start the call and then looked down at the paper and entered the remaining numbers to complete the free call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even remember my own phone number, let alone anyone else\u2019s number,\u201d Kehoe joked. \u201cThey\u2019re all saved in my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the calls he made was to his 14-year-old son Connor, who was on a school fieldtrip to Washington. D.C.<\/p>\n
Connor had asked his dad to call at a prearranged time while he was on a bus, and his 8th grade classmates were shocked when his caller ID popped popped up as \u201cAugusta National Golf Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could hear all of the kids like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s so cool!,\u201d Kehoe said with a laugh. \u201cBut then they all started asking for merchandise so I had to hang up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reasons patrons disrupt their round of watching professional golf to make a call.<\/p>\n
One person was calling to hear about the day\u2019s dramatic movement in the stock market. Another said he was checking in with work. And several others were simply touching base with family or loved ones.<\/p>\n
Tyler Johnson and his wife Lauren called home to Roswell, Georgia to check on their 5-year-old son, who is staying with his grandparents, \u201cjust to make sure there\u2019s no blood,\u201d Tyler said with a laugh. As mom and dad alternated talking to their son, they took pictures of each other talking on the odd-looking black public phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the last time I used one of these was 1999, before Y2K, I think,\u201d Tyler joked.<\/p>\n
While not having a cellphone is an inconvenience for some, others have come to relish the liberating feeling of being disconnected from the world for a little while.<\/p>\n
Fletcher Lord from Little Rock texted his wife after he arrived at the course around 6 a.m. and reminded her not to expect to hear from him all day. He then set out to enjoy a few refreshments on a sunny, 70-degree day amid the serene backdrop of blooming azaleas and tall pines.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get over the anxiety of not having your phone, it\u2019s a very freeing feeling because it forces you to just be here in the moment,\u201d Lord said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor agreed.<\/p>\n
He phoned one of his old friends from high school just to see if he\u2019d pick up. He did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t recognize the number obviously, but when he saw Augusta National pop up he said I better pick this one up,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
Then it was off to enjoy the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs not having a phone a pain?\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cNo, I think it\u2019s actually good for me. Those emails will be there when I get back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: April 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Attending the Masters for the first time was a new experience for Thomas Abraham, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3159],"tags":[2826,2843,547,79,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-8633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114314941931994001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}