Charles Barkley talks ‘unbelievable’ Augusta trip with Peyton Manning before Masters

Charles Barkley said he had the time of his life during a golf trip with Peyton Manning, Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill at Augusta National last month.

During a Wednesday appearance on Altitude Sports Radio, the TNT personality recalled getting a call from Manning with a “proposition” to play and stay at the famous course, which is home to the Masters tournament every year in April.

“I’m probably going to get in trouble with Peyton Manning, but I gotta tell you this,” Barkley, 62, began. “So Peyton Manning called me a few months back. And he said ‘Chuck, I got a proposition for you… I want to take you to Augusta for a couple days and we’re gonna stay there.’ I said, ‘Oh I’m in.’

“He says ‘well, let me finish.’ I said, ‘no you’re finished there’s nothing you can say to me.’ … If he had said, ‘Hey, you got to cut my grass for the next two weeks,’ I’m like I’m gonna cut your damn grass.

“He took me and Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill down there and we stayed. It was right before March Madness. It was two of the best days of my life… Getting to play a month before the Masters and stay on the property… It was unbelievable.”

Barkley, who said he had played one other time at Augusta National, went on to explain that he was impressed by the technology, which included a SubAir system underground for ventilation when it rains.

“The first day was perfect, the second day … it rained like crazy… We play the first hole, it’s raining like a mother. We play the second hole, it stops raining. Then we hear this noise,” Barkley said while making a humming sound. “We were like, Peyton what the hell is that?

“He’s like, ‘That’s the SubAir system, they have it under all the fairways and under all the green. It makes this loud humming sound.’ Guys, it had been raining hard for three hours. I mean, as hard as it can rain,” Barkley recalled. “And Peyton says, within 15 minutes, you ain’t even going to be able to tell it was raining. Guys, it hummed for like 15, 20 minutes. You could not even tell it had rained. It was crazy. I’d never seen anything [like it].

“… It was two of the greatest days of my life,” Barkley said. “Shoutout to the great Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill, but thanks Peyton Manning for taking us there.”