Security guards grab banned items
Some Masters Tournament spectators can't get totally free of the office, and bring cellular phones to the course to conduct business, though the devices are prohibited by Augusta National. Other fans sneak on the course with cameras, which are allowed only during the three days of practice rounds.
But the fans don't keep their contraband for long.
Every day, Pinkerton security guards confiscate hundreds of cellular phones and dozens of cameras from fans who are either unaware of the rules or ignore them.
Just like parents of sneaky teen-agers, these security guards know all the tricks.
``They hide in the bushes to use them and that's how they get caught,'' said one security officer who didn't want her name used. ``And others get caught because the phone rings in their pocket.''
``Sorry about that. I didn't know,'' a remorseful Masahiro Yamamoto said as he came to collect his mobile telephone Thursday evening. ``I haven't used it. I was just carrying it. I didn't know.''
Yamamoto's phone got snagged on the walk from the 10th green to the 11th tee ``just after Jumbo (Ozaki) made the eagle,'' he said.
``It was off,'' said Yamamoto, who planned to use the phone only to return calls to his pager. ``I know if it's on and somebody calls and it rang, it would disturb the players.''
That's precisely the reason for the ban on phones, cameras and other electronic devices.
``Could you imagine doing a $50,000 putt and the phone rings?'' asked one guard, who confiscated three on Thursday.
Many ticketholders who got caught with phones and cameras were too embarrassed or ashamed to give their names for this article. But many said they had the phones off and planned to use them only for outgoing calls.
``I wasn't using it to receive calls,'' said one spectator from San Francisco, who declined to give his name. He needed to make a call to the office, but didn't want to wait for 30 or 45 minutes in line for a pay phone, so he pulled out his cell phone and used it near the bank of phones.
``I had the phone turned off totally all day,'' he said.
Rich Wrightson's boss got him in trouble Thursday. Wrightson, who has homes in Jupiter, Fla., and Cape Cod, Mass., had stepped away from the action near the seventh hole to return a page from the chairman of his Fortune 400 company when a security guard spotted him with the cell phone.
``The guy was very nice. He waited until I finished getting my messages,'' said Wrightson, who agrees with the no-phones policy.
``I've watched it on TV when I've heard phones ring,'' he said.
James Daniel of Greenville, S.C., got caught with a disposable camera near the 18th hole as he was taking a photograph of his 12-year-old son, Michael. That was the first and only picture Daniel took at the opening round of the Masters Tournament.
``I guess I did,'' Daniel said when asked if he was aware of the restrictions. ``I wasn't taking pictures of the players.''
But many spectators with the red claim tickets said they were not aware of Augusta National's prohibition on phones.
``We were just lying there on the ground -- no camouflage,'' said one golf fan. ``We didn't know you couldn't use them.''
A list of Masters dos-and-don'ts is widely publicized during the tournament, and signs are posted at Augusta National entrances. When patrons receive their tickets in the mail, they also get a list of course rules.
For the record, cameras, portable radios and televisions, cellular phones, walkie-talkies, audible beepers and other electronic devices are prohibited on the course during tournament days.
