Ranking the top ten traditions in The Masters Tournament history

Ivan Pavlov, the famed Russian psychologist, is known for his work in the field of “classical conditioning”. The most well-known of his experiments has to do with teaching his dogs the connection between a stimulus – a bell – and food. In simple terms (my favorite), they learned that when they heard the bell, food had to be near, and they started drooling.

Now, for a moment, listen to the first ten seconds of this:

I don’t care if it’s the first week of April, or the dead of winter. If you hear this sound, your mind immediately goes down Magnolia Lane and straight to the Masters.

The song, known simply as “Augusta” was written by Dave Loggins (yes, Kenny’s third cousin) in 1981, and it became the theme of the Masters on CBS in 1982. You can read a fantastic history of how that came to be in this 2012 piece on Deadspin. A chance meeting between the songwriter and CBS producer Frank Chirkinian led to more than three decades – and counting – of the classic piano opener.

The song has become so connected to the tournament itself that it’s impossible to imagine them ever changing it. And thankfully, it’s Augusta National. They’re not really known for being big on change, are they?