This past weekend, the 21-year-old Jordan Spieth decimated the competition en route to a four-stroke victory at the Masters Tournament. The contest, however, never seemed that close. The Texan tied a course record with a final score of 18 under par after shooting eight under on the first day to set the tone. The only other person to boast such an impressive scorecard by the fourth day of Tournament play was Tiger Woods in 1997. (Woods also holds the title as the youngest player to win a Masters, with Spieth behind him). The rise of Spieth gives way to a ripe, yet unintended, potential rivalry with 25-year-old Irish phenom Rory McIlroy as well.
The new generation of stars such as Spieth, McIlroy, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama brings promise to a game that seemed to be treading water after Woods’s post-2009 fall from grace. Nevertheless, Augusta National Golf Club reminded us this past weekend that it has retained its place as golf’s true star and that the Masters endures as America’s single best pure sporting event.
The Masters marks an annual rite of spring, one that is steeped in tradition. Its preeminence as America’s premier sporting event only becomes more clear when compared to its highly touted peers. The Super Bowl, for example, has turned into a national holiday through its cultural significance but has become watered down for several reasons.
The NFL’s recent concussion issues and player conduct scandals have cast a shadow over a league that is generally recognized as America’s most popular. Furthermore, the immense commercialization of the Super Bowl arguably outpaces even the Masters since frequent commercial breaks seem to have become a point of interest over the game itself for many.
Every other major event on the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour changes scenery yearly, as does almost every other major American sporting championship. Although some would assume the fact that the Masters occurs every year at Augusta National would bore fans, quite the opposite occurs.
Augusta itself has become an institution within the sport since the first Masters in 1934, generating name recognition and earning its place in the hearts of young golfers everywhere. It remains natural for every player, from the junior level to young professionals, to dream of playing (and possibly winning) on a course where greats such as Woods, Nicklaus, Palmer and Player have competed. What Wimbledon represents for tennis and the Kentucky Derby represents for horse racing, the Masters represents for golf.
Augusta is a hallowed ground where legends have formed and future icons will emerge, and it also captures the average sports fan’s attention through its sheer beauty. Even people who are not avid golf fans can sit down on Championship Sunday and enjoy watching the pros finish their rounds while moving from hole to hole under the massive pines and magnolias. The course’s beauty does not mean that it is undemanding. The 12th hole, known fondly as part of Amen Corner, proves itself year after year as one of the toughest par-threes on the pro tour. This combination of difficulty and splendor demonstrates why Augusta persists as a top-five ranked course according to a bevy of golfing sources.
With such prestige and tradition comes exclusivity, both for those who are able to attend the event and in the Winner’s Circle itself. Fans rely on a combination of money, connections and luck to acquire tickets. Those that have the patience can wait years on a waitlist, and others just go to ridiculous ends to find tickets because the Masters is the perhaps most difficult ticket to acquire in all of sports. Those golfers among the select few to win the Masters are rewarded with the best trophy in sports (with apologies to the Stanley Cup): the Green Jacket.
The exclusivity and quirks of Augusta pervade even into the society of champions as a Masters winner can don the jacket at his pleasure only for one year after his victory. After the year is over, he must return the jacket to the club to be worn only during Tournament weekend and the Wednesday night Masters Champions Dinner before the Thursday tee-off. The tightly knit and elite group of Masters winners earns a handful of other perks aside from the glory of winning the title. The brotherhood and mutual respect between Masters champions speaks for itself and is particularly visible during the awards ceremony where the Tournament’s previous winner clothes his successor with the jacket.
The exclusivity of the Masters carries a darker past as well. The club’s history is permeated by racism and misogyny as a bastion of intolerance in the Deep South. Absurdly enough, it did not admit an African-American member until 1990 (most likely under PGA pressure) or a woman until 2012. The first chairman of Augusta National, Clifford Roberts, had a reputation as a racist, presiding over a policy that persisted until the 1950s that demanded all caddies be black.
When acknowledging the Masters as America’s best sporting event, one must carefully separate its bleak sociocultural history from the Tournament itself. On the basis of its elite competitors, location and golf tradition alone, the Masters still towers above any other contest.
