Welcome to Masters week

Before I moved to Augusta a friend showed me a tiny patch of grass surrounded by a little fence in his back yard.

"That's from the Augusta National," he said with a hush in his voice. It was from a divot at a Masters Tournament that he had attended. He had grabbed the piece of turf, stuffed it in a bag and smuggled it home to Charlotte where he turned it into a living shrine.

When he asked if I would get him another piece of Augusta turf I tried to get away as fast as I could because I thought he had lost his mind. Now, as I approach my 20th Masters Tournament, I understand the obsession, if not my friend's actions.

The Masters is one of the best events in sports, arguably the best because of all its history and tradition. The week of the tournament is the best week of the year for the staff of The Augusta Chronicle. We work all year to get ready for this.

It starts with the Masters special section in today's newspaper and online at augusta.com. The 80 pages are packed with information about this year's competitors and the history of the tournament. The cover story about last year's winner, Phil Mickelson, runs for three pages, written by our award-winning columnist Scott Michaux.

Other highlights are an in-depth look at new Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne, a four-page pullout that takes you inside the Augusta National clubhouse, tips on how to shoot photos on the golf course and profile boxes of every golfer in the tournament.

Mr. Michaux and David Westin went to California in January to interview golfers and prepare for the tournament. Photographer Chris Thelen went to California to get the photo for the section cover and on pages 10 and 11 a stunning silhouette of Tiger Woods hitting a shot with the ocean in the background.

Then Mr. Michaux, Mr. Westin and photographer Rainier Ehrhardt spent two weeks in March in Florida, wrapping up our Masters preparations.

Everyone on the staff of The Chronicle works during Masters week. No vacations. Not that anyone would want to be off that week.

"It's the best week of the year, and the most fun," said sports editor John Boyette, who has been covering the tournament since 1986. Mr. Michaux has covered 10 Masters, and golf writer David Westin is closing in on 30 tournaments. He also has won many awards for his golf writing.

"My job is to keep our great coverage on track," said Mr. Boyette. "We've got a tradition of being the leader in Masters coverage."

That tradition is kept strong by keeping the things that work and introducing new coverage. In case the veterans are ever tempted to coast and merely repeat last year's work, we always have new people who look at the tournament with a fresh perspective.

Several years ago we pulled all of our daily coverage into section that wraps around the paper each day. That section starts Monday and runs through the Monday after the tournament.

News editor John Gogick, who has been working on Masters coverage since 1996, now works all year with Mr. Boyette to make sure our coverage and presentation is first rate. They carefully plan special pages in the Sunday section and throughout the week.

To top it all, we put everything on our website, updating the news throughout the day. We also put things online you can't find in the newspaper, such as interviews with the players, extra photos and slide shows. We also invite you to share your Masters photos on our Spotted site.

So on behalf of the dozens of newsroom people and the hundreds of others in other Chronicle departments working on Masters coverage this week, welcome to the best week of the year. If you want to keep up with how we cover the tournament, you can read the paper, read it online or read my blog at http://blogs.augusta.com. It's going to be a great week.