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.
00:14All 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. The winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur
01:02Championship earns an invite to play at the Masters. Hideki Matsuyama won the inaugural
01:08Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2010 and went on to win the Low Amateur at the 2011 Masters before,
01:14of course, winning the Green Jacket in 2021. The fans, or patrons as they are known at the Masters,
01:21aren't allowed to bring their mobile phones onto the golf course. So when you watch the big moment at this
01:26year's tournament, you'll notice the fans watching without holding their phones up in front of them.
01:31It makes a nice change. The current Augusta National Chairman,
01:35Fred Ridley, won the 1975 US Amateur Championship. He also represented the USA at the Walker Cup
01:40and played in three Masters tournaments as an amateur. He's the only Augusta National Chairman
01:46to have also played in the tournament. The first and second round TV coverage of the Masters only began
01:52in 1982. Previously, armchair fans had no way of watching the first two days play. And, not only
01:58that, 18-hole coverage on Sunday only started in 2002 and the Par 3 contest only started being televised
02:05in 2008. Moving on to the caddies. Players were only given the option of using their own caddies
02:10during the 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 in 1935,
02:21a year after the inaugural Augusta National Tournament. I think it's fair to say that move
02:26was a very good idea. The hardest hole in the history of the Masters is the Par 4 tenth which
02:32averages 4.3. The easiest is the Par 5 thirteenth with an average of 4.77. The Masters is by
02:39far the
02:39hardest men'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. The Masters
02:53trophy, a model of the clubhouse, was introduced in 1961. It was made in England and features 90 separate
02:59pieces of silver. And finally, the now famous Wednesday Par 3 contest started in 1960 and since then, nobody
03:07has won that and the green jacket in the same week. The Par 3 course measures 1,060 yards with
03:13holes
03:14ranging from 70 to 140 yards. So there you have it, that completes our look at some of those things
03:20about Augusta National that you may not already have known.
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