Masters Tournament
The Masters Tournament 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, the Masters is always held at the same location: 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 the 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 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 par-3 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
The first "Augusta National Invitation Tournament", as the Masters was originally known, began on March 22, 1934, and was won by Horton Smith, who took the first prize of $1,500. The present name was adopted in 1939. The first tournament was played with current holes 10 through 18 played as the first nine, and 1 through 9 as the second nine then reversed permanently to its present layout for the 1935 tournament.Initially the Augusta National Invitation field was composed of Bobby Jones' close associates. Jones had petitioned the USGA to hold the U.S. Open at Augusta but the USGA denied the petition, noting that the hot Georgia summers would create difficult playing conditions.
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. This tied Sarazen with Craig Wood, and in the ensuing 36-hole playoff, Sarazen was the victor by five strokes.
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.
In 1940, Clifford Roberts, chairman of the Masters, 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.
1960s–1970s
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.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 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, 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 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 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 20 years 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. Nicklaus became the oldest player to win the Masters in 1986 when he won for the sixth time at age 46.During this period, no golfer suffered more disappointment at the Masters than Greg Norman. In his first appearance at Augusta in 1981, he led during the second nine but ended up finishing fourth. In 1986, after birdieing holes 14 through 17 to tie Nicklaus for the lead, he badly pushed his 4-iron approach on 18 into the patrons surrounding the green and missed his par putt for a closing bogey. In 1987, Norman lost a sudden-death playoff when Larry Mize holed out a remarkable 45-yard pitch shot to birdie the second playoff hole. Mize thus became the first Augusta native to win the Masters. In 1996, Norman tied the course record with an opening-round 63 and had a six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo entering the final round. However, he stumbled to a closing 78 while Faldo, his playing partner that day, carded a 67 to win by five shots for his third Masters championship. Norman also led the 1999 Masters on the second nine of the final round, only to falter again and finish third behind winner José María Olazábal, who won his second green jacket. Norman finished in the top five at the Masters eight times, but never won.
Two-time champion Ben Crenshaw captured an emotional Masters win in 1995, just days after the death of his lifelong teacher and mentor Harvey Penick. After making his final putt to win, he broke down sobbing at the hole and was consoled and embraced by his caddie Carl Jackson. In the post-tournament interview, Crenshaw said: "I had a 15th club in my bag," a reference to Penick. Crenshaw first won at Augusta in 1984.
In 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest champion in Masters history, winning by 12 shots with an 18-under par 270 which broke the 72-hole record that had stood for 32 years. In 2001, Woods completed his "Tiger Slam" by winning his fourth straight major championship at the Masters by two shots over David Duval. He won again the following year, making him only the third player in history to win the tournament in consecutive years, as well as in 2005 when he defeated Chris DiMarco in a playoff for his first major championship win in almost three years.
In 2003, the Augusta National Golf Club was targeted by Martha Burk, who organized a failed protest at that year's Masters to pressure the club into accepting female members. Burk planned to protest at the front gates of Augusta National during the third day of the tournament, but her application for a permit to do so was denied. A court appeal was dismissed. In 2004, Burk stated that she had no further plans to protest against the club. The club admitted its first two women members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore, in 2012.
Augusta National chairman Billy Payne himself made headlines in April 2010 when he commented at the annual pre-Masters press conference on Tiger Woods' off-the-course behavior. "It's not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here," Payne said, in his opening speech. "It is the fact he disappointed all of us and more importantly our kids and grandkids."
In 2003, Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win a men's major championship and the first left-hander to win the Masters when he defeated Len Mattiace in a playoff. The following year another left-hander, Phil Mickelson, won his first major championship by making a birdie on the final hole to beat Ernie Els by a stroke. Mickelson also won the tournament in 2006 and 2010. In 2011, unheralded South African Charl Schwartzel birdied the final four holes to win by two strokes. In 2012, Bubba Watson won the tournament on the second playoff hole over Louis Oosthuizen. In 2013 Adam Scott won the Masters in a playoff over 2009 champion Ángel Cabrera, making him the first Australian to win the tournament. Watson won the 2014 Masters by three strokes over Jordan Spieth and Jonas Blixt, his second Masters title in three years and the sixth for a left-hander in 12 years. In 2015, Spieth would become the second-youngest winner in just his second Masters, equaling Woods' 72-hole scoring record. In 2017, Sergio García beat Justin Rose in a playoff for his long-awaited first major title. In 2019, Tiger Woods captured his fifth Masters, his first win at Augusta National in 14 years and his first major title since 2008.
The 2020 Masters Tournament, originally scheduled to be played April 9–12, was postponed until November due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Dustin Johnson won the tournament by five strokes.
In 2025, a monument in Augusta, Georgia was erected by artist Baruti Tucker to honor the black caddies at Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters Tournament. Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters and completed the sixth grand slam in a playoff over Justin Rose.