Things You Didn't Know About The Masters

Golf Monthly

Transcript

00:00The US Masters is one of the most closely followed events in the golfing calendar, but

00:04if you think you know everything about Augusta National, think again. Here are some things

00:09that even the most seasoned US Masters watchers may not already know.

00:15All of the hole yardages at Augusta either end with a zero or a five, which is odd. The

00:2012th measures 155 yards, the 13th is 510 yards, the 18th is 465 and so on. Did you know that

00:28the Masters started out as the Augusta National Invitational Tournament? It only got its current

00:33name in 1939, five years after that first invitational event. The course used to be a plant nursery

00:40and the club purchased the land from a hotel chain that bought the old plant nursery but

00:45ran out of money. The inaugural Invitational Tournament was held in 1934 with Augusta City

00:50Council stumping up $10,000. Horton Smith won $1,500, more than both the US Open and PGA

00:57Championship first place prizes at that time.

01:01The winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship earns an invite to play at the Masters. Hideki

01:06Matsuyama won the inaugural Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2010 and went on to win the Low Amateur

01:12at the 2011 Masters before, of course, winning the Green Jacket in 2021. The fans, or patrons

01:19as they are known at the Masters, aren't allowed to bring their mobile phones onto the golf course.

01:24So, when you watch the big moment at this year's tournament, you'll notice the fans watching

01:29without holding their phones up in front of them. It makes a nice change.

01:33The current Augusta National Chairman, Fred Ridley, won the 1975 US Amateur Championship.

01:38He also represented the USA at the Walker Cup and played in three Masters tournaments

01:43as an amateur. He's the only Augusta National Chairman to have also played in the tournament.

01:48The first and second round TV coverage of the Masters only began in 1982. Previously, armchair

01:54fans had no way of watching the first two days play. And, not only that, 18-hole coverage

02:00on Sunday only started in 2002 and the Par 3 contest only started being televised in 2008.

02:06Moving on to the caddies. Players were only given the option of using their own caddies during

02:10the Masters in 1983. Before that, they were allocated one of the club's own caddies to use during

02:16the tournament week. The front nine actually used to be the back nine. The nines were reversed

02:20in 1935, a year after the inaugural Augusta National Tournament. I think it's fair to

02:25say that move was a very good idea.

02:28The hardest hole in the history of the Masters is the Par 4 tenth, which averages 4.3. The

02:33easiest is the Par 5 thirteenth, with an average of 4.77. The Masters is by far the hardest

02:39men's major to qualify for because it has the smallest field of the four majors. In 2018, it had

02:45just 87 players, the lowest in its history. Last year, the Open had a field of 156 competitors.

02:53The Masters Trophy, a model of the clubhouse, was introduced in 1961. It was made in England

02:58and features 90 separate pieces of silver. And finally, the now famous Wednesday Par 3 contest

03:04started in 1960 and since then, nobody has won that and the green jacket in the same week. The Par 3 course

03:11measures 1060 yards, with holes ranging from 70 to 140 yards.

03:17So there you have it. That completes our look at some of those things about Augusta National

03:21that you may not already have known.

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