Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most exclusive golf courses in the entire world.
So I wonder how it makes golfers and golf fans feel to know that the notoriously ill-equipped golfer known as Charles Barkley has gotten to play the track that hosts the prestigious and historic Masters tournament? I’ll speak for everyone and say that it’s a feeling that mixes together jealously and outrage… but at least “Chuck” was willing to share how his experience at the renowned golf course went.
While speaking to Altitude Sports Radio this week, Barkley was asked how he think he would fair playing at Augusta – where pro golfers are currently battling it out for the coveted green jacket. It was funny that the sports commentator was asked that question, because Barkley revealed that he had actually just played the course rather recently, as he explained:
“I’m probably going to get in trouble with Peyton Manning, but I gotta tell you this. So Peyton Manning called me a few months back. And he said, ‘Chuck, I got a proposition for you. I want to take you to Augusta for a couple days and we’re gonna stay there.’ I said, ‘Oh I’m in.’ He says ‘Well, let me finish.’ I said, ‘No you’re finished there’s nothing you can say to me.’
If he had said, ‘Hey, you got to cut my grass for the next two weeks,’ I’m (ready to say), ‘I’m gonna cut your damn grass.’ He took me, Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill down there and we stayed. It was right before March Madness. It was two of the best days of my life… Getting to play a month before the Masters and stay on the property. It was unbelievable.”
Not only did Charles get to play Augusta National… he got to stay on the grounds. That’s what you call a golfer’s dream.
And though that was a surprise in itself for the 62-year-old Barkley, there was one thing that happened while he was there that really stood out. As Chuck went on to say, the weather was iffy during their trip, but the extremely advanced irrigation system that the Major-championship-level golf course boasts made the rain that came through a non-issue:
“The first day was perfect. The second day, it rained like crazy. We play the first hole, it’s raining like a mother. We play the second hole, it stops raining. Then we hear this (humming) noise. We were like, ‘Peyton what the hell is that?’ He’s like, ‘That’s the SubAir system, they have it under all the fairways and under all the green. It makes this loud humming sound.’
Guys, it had been raining hard for three hours. I mean, as hard as it can rain. And Peyton says, ‘Within 15 minutes, you ain’t even going to be able to tell it was raining.’ Guys, it hummed for like 15, 20 minutes. You could not even tell it had rained. It was crazy. I’d never seen anything (like it).”
That’s a testament to how special (and how much moolah has been invested in) Augusta National truly is. The weather looks to be pretty clear for the rest of the 2025 Masters, but rest assured that if a random, unexpected weather cell were to move through Augusta, Georgia… it probably wouldn’t affect the course for very long.
You can hear Charles Barkley talk more about the advanced SubAir system in the interview below:
