Gate 9 at Augusta National Golf Club swings open at 8 a.m. Dennis Palmer arrives two hours early, in the dark, often sleep-deprived but never short of ambition.
Palmer and his Tucson companions carry collapsible chairs and an edge over all others: Over 30 years, Palmer has developed the shortest route to the 16th green, at which the most treasured seats in golf await.
Seating at the Masters is decided strictly on a first-come basis. For 30 years, Palmer has almost always been first in line at Gate 9, first to the 16th green, first with a view of some of the enduring moments in Masters history.
As with all things Augusta National, Palmer gives the process due reverence.
“One year a woman wearing track shoes lined up next to me at Gate 9; she looked like she was coming off the Olympics 800-meter final,” says Palmer, a UA and Salpointe Catholic grad who is general manager of Arizona National Golf Club. “She beat me to the 16th. I was so winded I almost passed out.”
No one in golf keeps statistics of the so-called Masters “patrons,” but Palmer would surely be at the top of the leaderboard.
This is his 30th consecutive year at the Masters. He has become a Patron’s Whisperer, a five-tool spectator who has mastered the housing, ticket, seating, entertainment and parking markets.
If you watch Saturday’s competition on CBS, you are almost sure to catch a glimpse of Palmer and a dozen of his closest friends, most of them Tucsonans, who without fail occupy front row seats at the No. 1 tee.
“That’s our tradition; on Saturdays, we sit at the first tee,” says Palmer. “We watch every golfer tee off. We arrive at the first tee within moments of the main gate’s opening. Once you place your folding chair at the tee, that spot is yours, better than a reservation.”
This year Palmer is renting three houses in Augusta.
He stays nearby, about two miles from Gate 9, with seven others. The house rents for $2,500 over five nights. He has access to six badges — tickets — and studies the StubHub and TicketCity websites the way a stockbroker follows the market.
His greatest feat has nothing to do with watching Tiger Woods or getting Arnold Palmer’s autograph. It was at the 2014 Masters during which the Tucsonan carried a spoon with his collapsible chair to the No. 16 green.
Once there, he stealthily dug a hole about a foot deep and buried the ashes of his mother, Catherine, while others were watching Rory McIroy and Phil Mickelson line up birdie putts.
Palmer was an age-group golf standout as a kid, growing up on the Tucson muni courses, earning his way onto the UA squad, graduating with a history degree and finding work as an assistant pro in Chicago and Hawaii while working to obtain the coveted PGA of America Class A card.
Relocated to Florida, he finally got that Class A card in 1987, which became his 30-year gateway to Augusta. There are 27,000 pros in the PGA of America system, all with a Class A card. That card is good for admittance to the Masters.
“I had hoped to go to the Masters in 1988 but initially was told I couldn’t go,” Palmer remembers. “Then my old boss, Rich Lamb of Fort Myers, Florida, phoned from Augusta and told me to get the company checkbook and book a flight from Fort Myers to Augusta. I still remember that it cost $1,013.”
That company checkbook sparked Palmer’s 30-year streak, a connection he continued when he moved back to Tucson to become the first pro at the old Golf Links at Continental Ranch 17 years ago. He has since been the pro/GM at Tubac Golf Club, Forty Niner Country Club and now Arizona National.
His streak was almost extinguished just as it got started, in 1992, when the members at the Punta Gorda Country Club in Florida took up a collection and gave him a thick envelope with $1,500 in cash. Enjoy the Masters, kid.
“I decided to buy a framed print at the Masters’ merchandise shop and bring it back to the members as a show of my appreciation,” Palmer recalls. “I was standing near the clubhouse and saw Arnold Palmer, wearing his green jacket, holding court. I said ‘Mr. Palmer, would you be so kind as to sign a painting for the members at Punta Gorda.’”
Arnie said yes.
But Dennis had to first retrieve the painting from the enormous merchandising plant several hundreds yards away. It took him almost 30 minutes to wait in line, get processed and obtain the painting.
“I hurried back to where Arnie had been, fearing I’d blown it,” Dennis says now. “But he was standing there, waiting for me.”
Over the years, Palmer has gained access to six yearly badges for the Masters. He has taken more than 100 Tucsonans on his annual journey to Augusta; his Class of 2017 includes Tucson pros Landyn Lewis, Danny Medina and former UA All-American shortstop Eddie Leon.
At the 1989 Masters, Palmer worked the back-markets and obtained a clubhouse pass for the Sunday round. As he took a self-guided tour of the hallowed golf property, he bumped into his old Arizona teammate, Dan Pohl, who played in seven Masters.
Pohl looked at Palmer as if to say “how did you get in here?”
Now, all these years later, Dennis Palmer has a tattoo of the Masters logo on his calf. You can say he belongs.
