The Masters Tournament: A Nostalgic Look Back
By Sam Adams
For most of us the Masters Tournament signals the arrival of spring and the real beginning of the golf season. For those of you fortunate enough to be there in person for the first time, it is an experience you will not forget. For those less fortunate, it will mean settling for HDTV on a large flat screen and the ability to see every critical shot of every round. As wonderful as the television coverage is, it doesn’t compare with actually being there. For one thing you cannot see the true changes in elevation or feel the excitement. Once you have been there you will understand why a player picks a line fifty or sixty degrees away from the hole while trying to get the putt or chip close and why they all say there is nothing quite like it.
More from Pro Golf Now
- Golf Rumors: LIV set to sign Masters Champion in stunning deal
- Fantasy Golf: Grant Thornton Invitational DFS Player Selections
- Brutal return leaves Will Zalatoris looking towards 2024
- Stars You Know at World Champions Cup Starts Thursday at Concession
- Fantasy Golf: An Early Look at the 2024 Masters Tournament
One of the biggest changes is that when Jack Nicklaus won his first Masters Tournament in 1963 he received a winner’s check for $20,000.00. This year’s winner will receive $1,620,000. Another difference is that when Nicklaus won in 1963 the course measured 6,980 yards. This year it is almost 7,450 yards. If you watched it on television in 1960 it wasn’t broadcast in color and you only got to see a few holes on the back nine on Saturday and Sunday.
I have have had the wonderful good fortune to have attended both the US Open and the PGA Championship and as wonderful as the experience is, the Masters Tournament is just different. It’s in a class all by itself. There is no venue in golf quite like Augusta National, especially during Masters Week and the fact that it is held there every year has something to do with the unique ethos of Masters Week. It’s American golf’s annual homecoming.
I was fortunate enough to start attending as a teenager in the early sixties. My cousin and I would go down to Augusta and stay with some relatives and would get there when the gates opened in the morning and stay until they made us leave.
This was a time before the Masters became what it is today. The Par Three Tournament wasn’t held until 1960. The number of tickets sold wasn’t limited until 1963 and people could still walk up to the gate and purchase a practice round ticket anytime. The lottery didn’t start until much later. They didn’t start dyeing the water blue until 1964. There was no television studio in Butler cabin until 1965 and all the pink dogwoods (500 of them) were planted in 1967.
I will always remember my first impression of the golf course. My cousin and I went through the main gate and walked up to the gallery rope lining what turned out to be the first fairway. I stood there for a moment looking both ways and finally asked my cousin, “Where the heck is the flag stick?” I thought I was looking at the putting surface – not the fairway. By this time I had played a lot of junior tournaments on a lot of great courses in North and South Carolina, including Pinehurst No.2, but I had never seen anything like this.
“There’s no doubt that the Masters established me.”- Arnold Plamer
This was the era of the “Big Three” in golf. From 1960 through 1965 nobody won the Masters except
Arnold Palmer
,
Jack Nicklaus
, and
Gary Player
. In the 1960’s and 70’s the three of them combined to win it eleven times. Here’s a link to a wonderful video on the
about the three of them.
One of the things I clearly remember as member of “Arnie’s Army” was when the young twenty-something Nicklaus started to threaten our hero’s dominance at Augusta. Back in those days there were no bleachers. People brought chairs and blankets to sit on. The gallery would sit behind the 15th green and when Palmer went for it in two the gallery would act as a backstop. The ball would one hop into the gallery and come slowly trickling back. When Nicklaus would go for it in two the gallery would part like the Red Sea and let the ball roll over the green and down the slope. Nobody sits back there today.
Now that even the practice round tickets are awarded by lottery it’s harder to get in to see the tournament. Today, tickets for Wednesday, the day of the Par 3 Tournament, and one of the best days to be there, go for around $500.00 or more each on eBay which is a statement of how the law of supply and demand works. In many ways I hate that this has happened, but one of the greatest things to come about recently is when Chairman Billy Payne introduced the “Junior Pass Program.” Each Masters Tournament badge holder is allowed to bring one child, age 8 to 16, free of charge.
If you are fortunate enough to receive a badge in your name, please take a child. I can tell from firsthand experience it is something they will never forget and what you will get from watching them is priceless as they build their memories. There are countless stories of parents saying this is how their children became interested in golf.