Masters Tournament

The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week in April, the Masters is the first major golf tournament of the year. Unlike the other major tournaments which change host venues with each tournament, the Masters is always held at the same host venue: Augusta National Golf Club, a private course in the city of Augusta, Georgia.

Amateur golf champion Bobby Jones and investment banker Clifford Roberts founded the tournament. After his grand slam in 1930, Jones acquired a former plant nursery and co-designed Augusta National with course architect Alister MacKenzie. First played in 1934 as the "Augusta National Invitation Tournament", the Masters is an official money event on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, and the Japan Golf Tour. The field of players is smaller than those of the other major championships because it is an invitational event, held by the Augusta National Golf Club.

The tournament has a number of traditions. Since the 1949 Masters, a green jacket (specifically Pantone 342C, "Augusta Green") has been awarded to the champion, who must return it to the clubhouse one year after his victory, although it remains his personal property and is stored with other champions' jackets in a specially designated cloakroom. In most instances, only a first-time and reigning champion may remove his jacket from the club grounds. A golfer who wins the event multiple times uses the same green jacket awarded upon his initial win unless he needs to be re-fitted with a new jacket. The Champions Dinner, inaugurated by Ben Hogan at the 1952 Masters, is held on the Tuesday before each Masters and is open only to past champions and certain board members of the Augusta National Golf Club. Beginning in 1963, distinguished golfers, usually past champions, have hit an honorary tee shot on the morning of the first round to commence play. These have included Fred McLeod, Jock Hutchinson, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Elder, and Tom Watson. Since 1960, a semi-social contest on the Par3 course has been played on Wednesday, the day before the first round.

Nicklaus has the most Masters wins, with six between 1963 and 1986. Tiger Woods won five between 1997 and 2019. Palmer won four between 1958 and 1964. Five have won three titles at Augusta: Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Nick Faldo, and Phil Mickelson. Gary Player, from South Africa, was the first non-American player to win the tournament, in 1961; the second was Seve Ballesteros of Spain, the champion in 1980 and 1983.

The Augusta National course first opened in 1933 and has been modified many times by different architects. Among the changes: greens have been reshaped and, on occasion, entirely re-designed, bunkers have been added, water hazards have been extended, new tee boxes have been built, hundreds of trees have been planted, and several mounds have been installed.

History

Augusta National Golf Club

The idea for Augusta National originated with Bobby Jones, who wanted to build a golf course after his retirement from the game. He sought advice from Clifford Roberts, who later became the chairman of the club. They came across a piece of land in Augusta, Georgia, of which Jones said: "Perfect! And to think this ground has been lying here all these years waiting for someone to come along and lay a golf course upon it." The land had been an indigo plantation in the early nineteenth century and a plant nursery since 1857. Jones hired Alister MacKenzie to help design the course, and work began in 1931. The course formally opened in 1933, but MacKenzie died before the first Masters Tournament was played.

Early tournament years After Clifford Roberts invited then-USGA tournament committee chairman Prescott Bush to ANGC in early 1933, Jones and Roberts strenuously petitioned the USGA to hold the U.S.Open at Augusta in 1934, but the USGA denied the petition, noting that the hot Georgia summers would create difficult playing conditions. Indeed, the professional golf schedule would have needed to change, and to date no golf major had been held in the south. The club was deeply disappointed and had been seeking publicity as it was struggling financially and in debt, but Roberts took the rejection as an opportunity to found his own annual tournament.

Roberts told the PGA of his plan for a new tournament in late 1933. The official PGA schedule, in a small endnote, mentioned Augusta's tournament alongside three others: the 1934 Tournament of the Gardens Open, the 1934 North and South Open, and a tournament in Columbus, Georgia. The fact that the new tournament would bring Jones out of retirement made the idea attractive to both Augusta and the PGA, which itself was facing hard times financially; Grantland Rice announced the news in a syndicated column.

Due to Augusta National's financial hardships, the tournament was set to feature a small contingent of players. Initially the Augusta National Invitation field was composed largely of Bobby Jones' close associates. Due to the early calendar date of the Masters, it was not uncommon for professional golfers to be unable to attend because of jobs and prior commitments.

The first "Augusta National Invitation Tournament", as the Masters was originally known, began on March22, 1934, and was won by Horton Smith, who took the first prize of $1,500. (The club could not afford to pay the winnings, so 17Augusta National members personally chipped in instead.) Roberts had borrowed chairs for spectators to use from two local funeral homes, and the printed program included advertisements given for free to the club's creditors. Tournament passes cost $2.00. The tournament was played with current holes 10 through 18 played as the first nine, and 1 through 9 as the second nine,Although front and back are the terms more commonly used, for the Masters they are called the "first" and "second" nines then reversed permanently to its present layout for the 1935 tournament. After the first tournament, around 20 new members joined ANGC, giving the club a much-needed financial lifeline.

The present name, Masters Tournament, was officially adopted in 1939, but had been in use since the first tournament (newspapers sometimes called it the "Masters Open").

Gene Sarazen hit the "shot heard 'round the world" in 1935, holing a shot from the fairway on the par 5 15th for a double eagle (albatross). This tied Sarazen with Craig Wood, and in the ensuing 36-hole playoff, Sarazen was the victor by five strokes. Roberts would later contend that Sarazen's shot had "put the Masters in business", but attendance fell in 1935 and 1936. Throughout the rest of the 1930s, the numbers of players who accepted tournament invitations fell despite an increase in sent invitations, falling to a nadir of 42 golfers at the 1938 Masters. The club was in an inconvenient location and the effects of the Depression were still lingering.

The gallery for Sunday's final two rounds at the 1939Masters was estimated at 10,000spectators.

In 1940, Roberts stated that the Masters was one of the top tournaments in the United States, if not the biggest. He stated, "I am told that the Masters has outdistanced in attendance both the U.S. Amateur and the PGA." The tournament was not played from 1943 to 1945, due to World War II. To assist the war effort, cattle and turkeys were raised on the Augusta National grounds.

After the war, ticket sales were still a struggle: club member Jerry Franklin would plead with Augusta Chronicle owner William MorrisJr. to buy a group of tickets.

Byron Nelson won the first of two Masters titles in 1937. Jimmy Demaret won three times as did Sam Snead in the 1940s and 1950s. Ben Hogan won the 1951 and 1953 Masters and was runner-up on four occasions.

The club raised ticket prices to $10 for the 1951tournament; spectators were not pleased.

1960s–1970s Through the 50s and into the 60s, the Masters was still not widely attended. Locals were able to buy tickets at the gate on the day of each round. The city held a "Masters hospitality week", featuring a parade, from 1957 through 1967.

In 1967, series badge prices rose to $15; by 1975, they were $30.

The "Big Three" of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus dominated the Masters from 1960 through 1978, winning the event 11 times between them during that span. After winning by one stroke in 1958, Palmer won by one stroke again in 1960 in memorable circumstances. Trailing Ken Venturi by one shot in the 1960 event, Palmer made birdies on the last two holes to prevail. Palmer would go on to win another two Masters in 1962 and 1964. Palmer's caddie at Augusta each time was Nathaniel "Iron Man" Avery.

Nicklaus emerged in the early 1960s and served as a rival to the popular Palmer. Nicklaus won his first green jacket in 1963, defeating Tony Lema by one stroke. Two years later, he shot a then-course record of 271 (17 under par) for his second Masters win, leading Bobby Jones to say that Nicklaus played "a game with which I am not familiar." The next year, Nicklaus won his third green jacket in a grueling 18-hole playoff against Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer. This made Nicklaus the first player to win consecutive Masters. He won again in 1972 by three strokes. In 1975, Nicklaus won by one stroke in a close contest with Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller in one of the most exciting Masters to date.

Player became the first non-American to win the Masters in 1961, beating Palmer, the defending champion, by one stroke when Palmer double-bogeyed the final hole. In 1974, he won again by two strokes. After not winning a tournament on the U.S. PGA tour for nearly four years, and at the age of 42, Player won his third and final Masters in 1978 by one stroke over three players. Player is second in consecutive cuts made with 23 straight (tied with Fred Couples), and has played in a record 52 Masters.

A controversial ending to the Masters occurred in 1968. Argentine champion Roberto De Vicenzo signed his scorecard (attested by playing partner Tommy Aaron) incorrectly recording him as making a par 4 instead of a birdie 3 on the 17th hole of the final round. According to the rules of golf, if a player signs a scorecard (thereby attesting to its veracity) that records a score on a hole higher than what he actually made on the hole, the player receives the higher score for that hole. This extra stroke cost De Vicenzo a chance to be in an 18-hole Monday playoff with Bob Goalby, who won the green jacket. De Vicenzo's mistake led to the famous quote, "What a stupid I am."

In 1975, Lee Elder became the first African American to play in the Masters, doing so 15 years before Augusta National admitted its first black member, Ron Townsend, as a result of the Shoal Creek Controversy.

1980s–2000s

Non-Americans collected 11 victories in 20years in the 1980s and 1990s, by far the strongest run they have had in any of the three majors played in the United States since the early days of the U.S. Open. The first European to win the Masters was Seve Ballesteros in 1980; badges at that point were $48. Nicklaus became the oldest player to win the Masters in 1986 when he won for the sixth time at age 46.