91Èȱ¬

"It's . An unwritten code," says 78-year-old Charles Barreras, from , who has been to 44 Masters tournaments.

By 0915 Friday morning there were 10 rows of vacant seats already in place . Only seven groups had teed off.

Cheryl Roht, who has been coming to the Masters since 1992 through tickets that her father bought in 1964, was five rows back. "You can't get the front ones. The members get kids to rush in and put their seats down for them," she said.

Down at Amen Corner, behind , the scene was the same.

"The gates opened at 0730 - we were six rows back - and we got the second row here. It's called speed walking," said Steve Soechtig, of Denver.

"It's the greatest spot in golf. The wind swirls around here, it's crazy."

I told them how amazed I was with the whole seat thing. A guy behind butted in. "It's a bit like watching football in the UK, right?" he said. "Er, not so much," I laughed.

Moving on, was lined with chairs, like the most stunning doctor's waiting room you've ever seen. The seats themselves - you can bring your own but no arm rests allowed - cost $29. And there are thousands of them. They have a little clear pocket on the back in which you put your business card.

Wading into the thicket of chairs behind , I met Charles, patiently waiting for play to reach him. He came to and had brought his great-grandson along. Christian is only 10 but is already on his third visit to Augusta.

"I've seen a lot of changes and got a lot of memories of this place," said Charles, who has only missed one Masters in 45 years.

"The stands change and they've lengthened some holes, but some of the changes are quite subtle. Like people in the front row of the sitting areas used to hang their tee-time sheet over the rope so they could see who was coming next. You're not allowed to do that now."

Charles recalled seeing Arnold Palmer hit a tee shot which landed in a lady's handbag, and was also sat a few seats away in 2005 . "That chip won him the tournament. The roar was amazing," he said. Of course, you can still stand behind the seating, but when the action hots up you have to be tall.

Charles told me of , and recounted tales of Tony Lema, of Chi Chi Rodriguez, of and of his favourite player Lee Trevino.

I asked him about Tiger Woods, who he described as "phenomenal". "But I don't like his negative attitude," he said. "He's so doggarn good, he doesn't need to throw clubs or beat on bushes like I've seen him do down on 13."

To be perfectly honest, I was very tempted to blow off this blog and spend the day watching golf with Charles. But duty called.

There's a big crop of chairs on the hill down the left side of the 16th fairway, too, next to the lake. From here you can see the tee and green of the 16th, the second shots and green on 15, and the .

There I met Brad Blankenship and father-in-law Mike Connolly, from Colorado. It was their first time at the Masters, with tickets that belong to Brad's aunt. So Brad gets Mike's daughter and Mike gets Masters tickets. Seems like a fair swap.

"This is a cool spot," said Brad. "You can see six things from here. And there's water. When they hit it in, we can... laugh. And there's turtles." And he was right, four of them crawling out of the lake and having a munch on the first cut, like semi-aquatic sheep.

"It's heaven," said Brad.

"Well, not quite heaven. Maybe golfing heaven," Mike interjected.

"It's heaven," said Brad again.

"But you got to have a chair."