This Event Banned Phones—and Everyone Loves It

The Privilege of Putting Your Phone Away

Zoom in on this photo. Look at every single face in the crowd. What do you see?

Pure joy. Elation. Excitement.

And then there’s this guy:

The photo is from last Sunday at The Masters in Augusta, Georgia. 2025.

If I hadn't mentioned that, you'd probably think this scene was straight out of an old movie. Caddyshack, Happy Gilmore, or something.

But no, that's just a group of people being present in 2025, celebrating sports history.

Charles Robinson put it perfectly:

"One of the coolest parts of this moment is seeing a crowd watch it completely through their eyeballs rather than through their phone camera."

Famously, The Masters bans cell phones at the tournament.

Fans have no choice but to focus on the golf, eat $1.50 sandwiches, and track scores the old-fashioned way on a manually updated scoreboard.

Ask anyone who’s attended, and they'll say something like: The Masters is the greatest sports event I’ve ever been to.

Compare that to the scene when LeBron broke Kareem’s NBA scoring record in February 2023:

A historic moment, reduced to an Instagram story.

Zoom in, and you'll notice nearly everyone experiencing history through their phones.

Zoom in again at the LeBron photo, and you'll notice one exception to the sea of phones: a guy watching through his own eyes.

His name? Phil Knight, founder of Nike.

Maybe the Shoe Dog knows something the rest of us don’t.

We need more spaces like The Masters, and not just in sports.

Team meetings, dinners with friends, date nights, concerts, holidays, time with your kids.

Places where putting your phone away and being present feels like a privilege.