We had fun following Ernie Els around, especially because we were hanging out with fellow South Africaner Lester Lombard, superintendent at Grand Island Club, Albany, Ga. Lombard’s brother played on the same golf team, the Springboks, in 1983. And the Big Easy posted a nice score on Thursday, as he currently sits in a tie for second place.

Got to love it when you’ve been on the grounds of Augusta National for all of 10 minutes, you’re strolling up No. 1 fairway, and you immediately run into this group watching golf. L to R are Lester Lombard (superintendent, Grand Isle Club, Albany, Ga.); Lance Rogers (CGCS, Colonia CC, Colonia, N.J.); Mike Weber (superintendent, Ash Brook GC, Scotch Plains, N.J.); Mike the Pilot; Jeremy Batz (superintendent, Trump National GC, Colts Neck, N.J.); Jim Rattigan (Plant Food Co.); Rich Sweeney (CGCS, Plant Food Co.); and Anthony Ursino (Golf Pro, Trump National GC, Colts Neck, N.J.)

Rory McIlroy lines up a putt. At 1-under, he’s currently tied for 18th. But you know what the say – no one has ever won the Masters on a Thursday, but guys have certainly lost it…

(L to R) Andy Staples (ASGCA, Staples Golf); Bill Agler (Golf Pro, Fayetteville CC, Fayetteville, Ark.); Jay Randolph (CGCS, Fianna Hills CC, Fort Smith, Ark.); and his brother Chris Randolph (CGCS, The Trails GC, Norman, Okla.) take time for a photo under the big oak tree at Augusta National’s clubhouse.

Beautiful No. 13 at Augusta National, a classic risk/reward hole, is in full bloom.

A crew member hustles to his next stop in his Toro Workman on Wednesday.

Getting some Wednesday afternoon fairway mowing done at Augusta National in the Toro Reelmaster 35500.

A steady hand operates this Jacobsen Greens King, getting in a double (or is that quadruple?) cut on Wednesday afternoon.

Plenty of Augusta National Green Jackets were on-hand to survey green speeds on No. 2 green Wednesday afternoon.

Talk about attention to detail. A crew member at Augusta National uses a paint brush to dust in a little mix into a ballmark.

We saw these futuristic tires at the GIS on some John Deere equipment. At Augusta National, the Tweel was drawing attention on one E-Z-Go Freedom RXV.

The flying V of fairway mowers make their way up No. 2 fairway. At one point the train of Toro fairway mowers was 14 mowers strong.

The heat got everyone out of their green jackets, but it wasn’t slowing down the math calculations one bit. What was that green measuring at? How about FAST.

People always ask me about the tennis balls in the fairway mowers. It’s my understanding that, should the guy in the back spot a hydraulic leak on a machine in front of him, he grabs that tennis ball and throws it in front of the operator as a way of alerting him immediately.

With rain falling on the course on Tuesday, the SubAir was working overtime on Wednesday.

With this many mowers going at once, things move pretty quickly at Augusta National.

More crew members on their way to do some detail work.

Backpack blowing some pine straw back to its proper place.

Though Jack is about to hit his hole-in-one on the Par Three Course, plenty of Masters patrons still mill about to see the maintenance crew at work early Wednesday afternoon.