At first glance this story appears to be a bad April Fool's joke. There's no way a dog could eat a guy's Masters tickets, right? RIGHT?!?
Wrong. In one of the most bizarre stories I've seen in a long, long time, Russ Berkman of Seattle, Wash., came home from a trip to the store to find his dog, Sierra, had devoured all four of his Masters practice round tickets.
Berkman, who won the tickets in the Masters lottery, had already booked tee times and rooms in Myrtle Beach, S.C, the days leading up, and then planned to head to Augusta with his buddies to check out Wednesday's practice round and the Par-3 Contest.
But his dog had other plans, leaving only the strings from the tickets as evidence when he got home. According to
sports radio station KJR in Seattle -- listen to the station's interview with Berkman -- things got serious when he realized that without the tickets, he'd have to call off the trip.
So he did what any golf fan would do: He poured Hydrogen peroxide -- it's safe for animals to ingest -- into his dog's mouth and waited for the remains of the tickets to come back up. They did. Along with a bunch of other things.
But wait, there's more! Berkman not only went through the puke to find the pieces of the tickets, he also took the time to piece the tickets (or what was left of them) together, in one final attempt to keep the trip alive.
As you
can see from the photos, the puke-stained tickets look pretty worthless. But they were good enough to get Berkman a new set. After taking the photos, he called Augusta National, told them his story -- seriously, I would kill to hear that audio -- and officials decided to reissue the tickets.
I guess even Augusta National has a sense of humor. The good news for Berkman is he and his buddies will be at the Masters tomorrow for Wednesday's practice round. And after everything he went through, you have to believe the time spent at the course will be that much sweeter.
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