Masters 2015: Secrets and traditions from Augusta National Golf Club (photos) - cleveland.com

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- My family won the golden ticket of sports: passes to the Monday practice round at the Masters.

I come from a golf family, but I wouldn't call myself a fan. Nevertheless, I headed to Augusta National Golf Club this year for the rare chance to witness one of the world's most storied sporting spectacles.

I was there to see the pink azaleas, the carpet-like fairways and the Carribean-white sand. I wanted to stare at the green-jacketed members, eat a pimento cheese sandwich and shop in the massive, yet somehow orderly, gift shop.

• Follow Saturday's third round in a live blog featuring commentary from Northeast Ohio Media Group sports columnist Bud Shaw.

Yes, the course, founded by golf legend Bobby Jones in the 1930s, is even more beautiful than what you see on TV. It's like a green utopia staffed with discreet, polite and incredibly efficient workers. There's not an empty beer can, a white hospitality tent or a long line in sight. Even the coffee is good.

Everything is perfect at Augusta National. Except the no cell phone rule. That was a bummer.

This magical Georgian land is so pristine and otherworldly it naturally prompts questions. And answers are as hard to find as a piece of trash. These are some of the things I learned about Augusta National and some of the secrets the private club holds tight:

The landscape: I was at the 2014 Masters for approximately two hours before the day's round was rained out. Augusta National gave us a refund, of course, because that's the classy thing to do, and the Masters is all about class.

There was a cold spell before last year's tournament and it was one of the few times Augusta's landscaping tricks couldn't make the azaleas bloom. The fuchsia blossoms were everywhere this year, even while bushes outside the gates were still bare.

There's a rumor Augusta National uses ice to keep the flowers from blooming too soon and heat lamps to speed growing. One worker swears there's temperature-controlled vents in the ground you can hear blowing in the early morning hours.

"Willy Wonka" was another volunteer's best guess.

The food: The food is simple and cheap. Sandwiches made on white bread are wrapped in green plastic bags and stacked neatly on a refrigerated rack. Lines are rare.

We bought a chicken sandwich, a blueberry muffin, a Diet Coke and a coffee for a whopping $7. I had the famed pimento cheese, but my favorite was the egg salad.

The members: When you see a green jacket at Augusta National you know someone important is wearing it. Most of the green jackets I saw were gathered under green-and-white-striped umbrellas in a roped-off area by the clubhouse.

A guard told me club members -- there's approximately 300 -- have to wear their jackets at all times while they're on the grounds. Even when it's 100 degrees.

Members also have to be invited into the ultra-exclusive club. Augusta National does not take applications, and they only give out new invitations if someone dies or leaves, according to the guard. And they try to have geographic diversity. So if a member from California dies, Augusta tries to find someone else from the state, allegedly.

Only in 2012 did the club allow its first female members -- Condoleeza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty joined as the third in November.

• Check out this Bloomberg list of 111 rich and powerful people who are members at Augusta National.

The Eisenhower Tree: Augusta is stubborn. The club wouldn't let Bill Gates in for years because he talked publicly about wanting to be a member. Women had to wait almost a century to get in, and Augusta repeatedly denied President Dwight Eisenhower's request to remove a tree that got in the way of his tee shot. The pine was about 120 yards down the 17th fairway.

A storm took the tree down in 2014, and Chairman Billy Payne's hilariously dramatic reaction is emblematic of club's unofficial motto: Every blade of grass has its place at Augusta.

"The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept," he said in a statement. "We have begun deliberations of the best way to address the future of the 17th hole and pay tribute to this iconic symbol of our history -- rest assured, we will do both appropriately."

A piece of the tree in an 8-foot-tall display is headed to the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Payne announced during his annual "State of the Masters" address Wednesday.