Just when you thought the Masters had thought of everything when it comes to marketing and merchandise, Monday’s solar eclipse brought the annual tournament to another level.
For all patrons arriving to the course on Monday, the first official day of practice rounds open to spectators, the tournament gave out solar eclipse glasses to everyone with the Masters tournament logo on them.
A patron uses special protective glasses to observe a total solar eclipse during a practice round. REUTERS
Eric Cole of the U.S. uses special protective glasses to observe a total solar eclipse during a practice round. REUTERS“I found a couple of Masters eclipse glasses, which I will be keeping those for absolutely the rest of my life,’’ said Will Zalatoris, one of the competitors this week.
“Those will be some collectables that will be in my office forever.’’
There isn’t anywhere Zalatoris would rather be than Augusta, but he’s from Texas, which means he missed the eclipse’s path of totality.
“Texas is right in the middle of it all, and so I was telling some of my buddies in Dallas that I was going to be at Augusta the day the eclipse and they were like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s the coolest thing ever,’ ’’ Zalatoris said.
“They gave us some cool glasses,’’ Luke List said. “I was talking to my daughter and you can make [a viewer] out of cereal box, so she’ll probably use that over the cool Masters glasses.’’
Will Zalatoris said he will keeping his solar eclipse glasses. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY NetworkPeter Malnati said, “My 4-year old came home from school on Friday and I guess they had talked about the eclipse, and he was so distraught that we didn’t have our eclipse glasses. So, of course with Amazon, you can have anything you want in a day or two. So, we got our eclipse glasses.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the ‘24 eclipse happened on Monday at the Masters, my first Masters, so the two memories will be connected.’’
