Sugar Loaf The Old Course General Manager Kris Wakeman had an experience of a lifetime earlier this month when he attended the 89th Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
The local golf legend finally took his chance and visited the hallowed grounds of The Masters.
Wakeman attended the practice rounds where no cell phones were allowed throughout the entire tournament. His daughter gave him a camera to soak in a few of the scenes of the Masters.
“The TV does not do it justice for the undulations of that golf course. It about killed me walking it. I walked the whole course on Wednesday just taking pictures and by the time my wife Catherine picked me up, I collapsed into the car because I was sore,” Wakeman said. “It was great. It’s interesting watching the players because they don’t play to the pin that’s on the greens. On practice round days, they just point and put to the areas of the green that they think might be the placements for the tournament and they’re really getting the feel.”
Wakeman took Thursday off before spending all day watching the best golfers on the planet compete in the most illustrious golfing tournament in the wind.
Instead of walking the entire course again, Wakeman found his spot at “Amen Corner” to watch the first round of the tournament.
Besides the tens of millions of dollars that separate the budget of Augusta National Golf Course and Sugar Loaf The Old Course, Wakeman appreciated the attention to detail.
“We try to keep things cleaned and maintained. Attention to detail is probably the biggest thing. They even have people in their restaurant rooms directing traffic. It’s like a well oiled machine,” Wakeman said. “Probably the biggest thing I feel that we already do is focus on good customer service. (At the Masters) they are right spot on with the customer service aspect.
“Everybody is a patron, they’re not a customer, so that’s probably the biggest thing that I feel we do well and that we will continue to do,” he said.
Sugar Loaf The Old Course is opening this weekend to kick off the spring golf season.
The course is in the process of first mowing cuts and course prep for the opening.
“Everything came through the winter good, as far as the greens are concerned,” Wakeman reports.
The course wants to keep the momentum of the past couple of years going in terms of increasing golfer rounds and outings.
“Last year, we once again went over the previous year in the amount of rounds we were over 20,000 rounds last year, which for the short season and everything that we have up here, I’m pretty happy with.”
Wakeman says since COVID, there has been an uptick in rounds at Sugar Loaf and that business has been good. The course had 13,000 to 14,000 rounds a year before COVID. In 2023, the course calculated over 19,000 rounds at the affordable course.
Sugar Loaf hosts a two-person tournament on Memorial Day along with dozens of other community and non-profit outings throughout the summer.
Wakeman is entering his 43rd year at the golf course after coming on board back in 1982.
Wakeman graduated from Michigan State University Turf program in the early 1980s and has been a Sugar Loafer since at the golf course that is steeped in tradition.
For Wakeman, if he and his wife Catherine ever get the chance again to go to the Masters again, they might take the shot.
“My wife has been in the lottery, if she were to get a ticket again then I would definitely go. Maybe once I retire, I can talk her into taking me down there because without her support it wouldn’t have happened. She’s the one that really pushed me to make the decision to go,” Wakeman said.
Sugar Loaf The Old Course general Manager Kris Wakeman stand on the hallowed grounds of The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia earlier this month. Courtesy photo
