(Editor’s Note: It’s become something of an annual tradition here at JEP to run this homage to The Masters, which we humbly consider to be one of the premier sporting events in the world. It isn’t great every year, but when it’s good, it’s very, very good. As they say, there’s nothing like the back 9 on a Sunday afternoon at The Masters.)
1. A Sense of Place
The Masters has been held in the same spot, every year, since it began in 1934. There are other tournaments that have a fixed home, but none of them are Majors and none have the history, the personality, or the lore of Augusta National. Over the years, the familiarity with the place builds, yet every year it feels new. It’s a thrilling mixture. To a great extent, though, Augusta National is an enclave with very little cultural affinity with the surrounding neighborhood. To get a sense of the real Augusta, check out this fascinating piece about James Brown, who led a hard-scrabble life in Augusta until he invented modern funk and became even more famous than The Masters.
2. Tradition
The Masters has lots of tradition, from the green jacket and the Crow’s Nest to the honorary starters, the Champions Dinner, the caddie uniforms, the “skipping contest” at the 16th hole on Tuesdays, and the sweet and charming Par 3 Contest. But not all the traditions have been that great, frankly, including Augusta’s abysmal record on race and gender. The club’s board didn’t extend an invitation to a Black competitor until 1975. It didn’t admit its first Black member until 1990 and didn’t offer membership to women until 2012 (an offer that Condoleeza Rice accepted with alacrity). In 2020, the club announced it would fund a women’s golf program at Paine College, a historically Black college in Augusta, and endow two scholarships there in honor of Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to compete at The Masters. So yes, traditions are good, but so is changing them when needed. And even the good traditions can stand a little poke now and then, as Will Farrell does here.
3. Beauty
They say that even the trees are power-washed at Augusta. I once heard that the head groundskeeper had a standing $100 bet for anyone who could find a weed anywhere on the property; it may be apocryphal, but having walked the course dozens of times, I wouldn’t take the bet. The azaleas are perfectly clipped and the quartz-filled bunkers are gleaming white. But it’s not just the pruning and polishing. The natural layout of the course is stunning, particularly the bobsled run from the 10th tee box down to Amen Corner, the cozy little hollow down by the 16th green, and the long sightlines you can get from one side of the course to the other. On a perfect day, with the towering green pines set off against a bright blue sky, you just might think you’re in heaven,
4. The Course
All the beauty of Augusta disguises the beast that lurks below. The course, designed by Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie in the early 1930s, is truly a test of champions. It looks pretty, there’s no rough, the pine straw looks benign, but this course will roar and bark and bite. Is there a greater risk/reward hole than the second shot on the 15th? OK, maybe the tee shot on 12 or the second shot on 13. To counteract the power of the new generation of golfers, Augusta lengthened the course in 2022 to 7,510 yards, which I could probably navigate in about 150 strokes. If the length doesn’t get you, then the greens certainly will. When Augusta went to bentgrass, they might as well have put down linoleum. Some of the pin placements can induce vertigo or worse. All of these elements combine to consistently produce some of the most dramatic moments of any Major. Check out these highlights.
5. The “Patrons”
That’s right. They’re not called fans, of which you are reminded when you read the guidebook. They’re called patrons and they live up to the name. To a person, people who come to The Masters are knowledgeable, passionate, polite, affable and helpful. Boundaries are respected – put a chair anywhere on the course, return five hours later, and it’s still there. Empty. Of course, there are rules that help that — no cell phones, no running, no heckling. But the patrons don’t hold back when things heat up. There’s nothing quite like the roar that rises from Amen Corner when someone hits a good shot. It’s guttural and you can hear it all the way up on the 18th green. David Feherty once said during such a roar that the broadcast tower was “vibrating like a tuning fork.”
6. Logistics
Attendance is capped, but probably runs about 40,000 per day (50,000 on practice days). Rumor has it that Augusta at one point brought in some logistics experts from Disney – and it shows. Things run quickly and smoothly. Lines are minimized. (Secret fact: line monitors in the men’s restrooms listen to spotters inside yelling “Shaker at stall 27” and direct the next person in line to the open latrine.) When I was there in 2014, a big storm rolled through on Tuesday night, felling a huge pine tree that cut through the men’s restroom at the 16th hole like a hot knife through butter. It was literally rebuilt in 24 hours, up and running by Thursday morning.
7. The Cuisine
Oh, those egg salad sandwiches. They still come wrapped in green paper and they go down like little fluffy clouds. With beer and a bag of chips, it'll set you back $5. It’s sort of an oxymoron that at one of the most elite golf clubs in the world, where daily tickets are scalped for a minimum of more than $2,000, the food is cheap. “We take certain things very, very seriously — like the cost of a pimento cheese sandwich is just as important as how high the second cut is going to be,” said former club Chairman Billy Payne. And here’s an experience worthy of a Michelin star: a Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwich with a glass of pink lemonade enjoyed beside the 16th green. Boom.
My very favorite event 🏌️♂️🏆💚