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,

00:04but if you think you know everything about Augusta National, think again.

00:08Here are some things that 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.

00:20The 12th measures 155 yards, the 13th is 510 yards, the 18th is 465, and so on.

00:27Did you know that the Masters started out as the Augusta National Invitational Tournament?

00:32It only got its current name in 1939, five years after that first invitational event.

00:38The course used to be a plant nursery, and the club purchased the land from a hotel chain

00:43that bought the old plant nursery but ran out of money.

00:45The inaugural Invitational Tournament was held in 1934,

00:49with Augusta City Council stumping up $10,000.

00:52Horton Smith won $1,500, more than both the US Open

00:56and PGA Championship first place prizes at that time.

01:00The winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship earns an invite to play at the Masters.

01:06Hideki Matsuyama won the inaugural Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2010,

01:10and went on to win the Low Amateur at the 2011 Masters before,

01:14of course, winning the Green Jacket in 2021.

01:17The fans, or patrons as they are known at the Masters,

01:21aren'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

01:28watching without holding their phones up in front of them.

01:31It 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,

01:41and played in three Masters tournaments as an amateur.

01:44He'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.

01:53Previously, armchair fans had no way of watching the first two days play.

01:57And, not only that, 18-hole coverage on Sunday only started in 2002,

02:02and the Par 3 contest only started being televised in 2008.

02:06Moving on to the caddies.

02:07Players were only given the option of using their own caddies during the Masters in 1983.

02:12Before that, they were allocated one of the club's own caddies to use during the tournament week.

02:17The front nine actually used to be the back nine.

02:19The nines were reversed in 1935, a year after the inaugural Augusta National tournament.

02:24I think it's fair to say that move was a very good idea.

02:28The hardest hole in the history of the Masters is the Par 4 10th, which averages 4.3.

02:33The easiest is the Par 5 13th, with an average of 4.77.

02:37The Masters is by far the hardest men's major to qualify for,

02:41because it has the smallest field of the four majors.

02:44In 2018, it had just 87 players, the lowest in its history.

02:48Last year, the Open had a field of 156 competitors.

02:52The Masters trophy, a model of the clubhouse, was introduced in 1961.

02:57It was made in England and features 90 separate pieces of silver.

03:01And finally, the now-famous Wednesday Par 3 contest started in 1960,

03:06and since then, nobody has won that and the green jacket in the same week.

03:10The Par 3 course measures 1,060 yards, with holes ranging from 70 to 140 yards.

03:17So there you have it.

03:18That completes our look at some of those things about Augusta National

03:21that you may not already have known.

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