Martin Dempster's Masters 2024 diary: Lowdown from Mr Masters, Rice does Scot proud, Bob MacIntyre's caddie and gnome craze

Our golf correspondent gives you the lowdown on what’s happening at Augusta National

What has changed on course?

One of the bonuses of sitting next to Scott Michaux, Mr Masters, in the plush Media Building in Augusta National is that you soon get to know what has changed around the place for the latest edition and what is being planned by the so-called Green Jackets. It had already been known that a new tee at the par-5 second will be used for the 88th staging and, located ten yards back and to the left, it has been stretched to 585 yards. That’s it as far as course changes are concerned this year, but there are other changes around the plush property. Due to a patron’s hub between the eighth and 18th holes having been upgraded since last year, the Masters Record Fountain, which appeared in 1959 to commemorate the event’s 25th anniversary, has been relocated to the main pathway used by patrons as they head down to the course. The move has also coincided with it now being transformed into a water-bottle filling station. As for what lies ahead, Mr Masters is hearing that the driving range is being ripped up and an underground car park for players will be situated underneath it in 12 months’ time!

Nice shot, Condoleezza

It is being rumoured that a car park for players will be built underneath the driving range at Augusta National in time for next year's Masters. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.

Kathryn Imrie would have been very proud if she’d been the one standing behind the ninth green around 4pm on Sunday afternoon and not this correspondent. Out playing in her capacity as an Augusta National member – one of the first, in fact, along with Darla Moore – with Sepp Straka and J.T. Poston, Condoleezza Rice had gone through the back with her approach and was faced with a treacherous shot down the steep slope. Helped by her caddie’s advice about where it needed to be hit and also in terms of its pace, the former US Secretary of State went with a utility club instead of a putter and judged it close to perfection. Rice, who was taught by Imrie through a Stanford University link and has had her on the bag in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, duly rolled in a three-footer from below the hole and a knuckle bump with her caddie was definitely in order.

MacIntyre’s caddie gets down to work

Bob MacIntyre may not be at Augusta National after being unable to break into the world’s top 50 in order to be here – but his caddie is working this week. Mike Burrows, who picked up the Scot’s bag for the start of his PGA Tour campaign this season, is linking up with 2016 winner Danny Willett as the Englishman makes his first appearance since the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last September after undergoing shoulder surgery. It’s understood that the pair were always going to be reunited once Willett was back playing and MacIntyre will have a replacement for Burrows when he returns to PGA Tour action, probably in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at the end of this month.

Gnome still popular

The Masters Drinking Fountaion has been relocated and is also now a water-bottle filling station. Picture: Jeff Haynes/AFP via Getty Images.

A garden gnome - yes, you heard that right - is once again the hottest item when it comes to the huge range of merchandise on sale in the main shop at Augusta National. The craze for the bearded figure began in 2016, when he appeared on the shelves wearing a cardigan and last year he resembled a Masters patron in a blue shirt and carrying a stack of green and white cups. Carrying a bag of clubs, the 2024 version is wearing a blue jumper with plaid trousers and has a bucket hat and one patron even turned up for the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in the identical outfit and also looked like him facially.