Originally published in The Augusta Chronicle, April 3, 2006. Original URL: https://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/2006/04/03/met_75595.shtml
By Jeremy Craig
Posted April 3, 2006
For Beth Newman and her family, this Masters Week is the last time for a decades-long tradition.
Since she was 5, the Augusta native has been angling cars onto her parents’ Heath Drive yard near Augusta National Golf Club, allowing tournament patrons to park for a charge.
When it began years ago, things were simpler, Mrs. Newman said. She stood in her little red wagon, holding a hand-painted sign offering to give patrons a place to park for 25 cents.
“I just remember at that age, I was probably just looking for something to do,” she said. “I remember my mom’s suggestion, why not make a sign and park some of the cars?”
The first year wasn’t a swinging success.
“I remember sitting out there, day after day, holding up that sign,” she said. “But a car pulled into a neighbor’s yard, and I asked, ‘Why don’t you park with me?’ They said, ‘Oh, I’ll park with you next time.’ And it progressed from there.”
It helped business when the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office started enforcing the “no parking” signs along Berckmans Road, forcing patrons to find other parking options around the course. And the increased popularity of the practice rounds held early in the week helped drive more people to the Morris home.
And as the years went by, the mere quarter she asked for increased to whole dollars.
Children in the neighborhood longed for the chance, she said, to get in on the parking action with her – or without her.
Mrs. Newman’s husband, Derrell, who was raised in the same neighborhood, was once one of her youthful competitors.
Through their parking enterprise, the family has had a chance to get to meet famous and interesting people, including the late Lewis Grizzard and Sonny Seiler, the Savannah lawyer who owns University of Georgia mascot Uga VI.
Augusta National, which has been purchasing properties along Berckmans Road, bought the home her parents, Kathryn and Harry Morris, have lived in for years.
The club, which bought the house in November, has allowed the Morrises to stay there, so Beth and her family can park cars one last time.
“It’s very difficult,” Mrs. Newman said. “I dread it. You work, never sit down and you’re just exhausted … but by the end of the week, you hate to see it go.”