The first event of the 2016 Grand Slam is just around the corner. Augusta National once again presents its best clothes to become one more year the great diva of world golf with the best players on the planet fighting tooth and nail for the coveted green jacket that adorns the Masters champions.
Since its first edition was held in 1934, the ancient tournament has been the scene of the most exciting duels between the most brilliant stars of the golf galaxy, with the brightest light shining on Jack Nicklaus, the only winner of six Masters, two more than the second in this particular ranking of victories: Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. With a trio of triumphs are Jimmy Departe, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson, while those who won twice were Horton Smith, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, José María Olazábal and Bubba Watson.
In its 82 years of existence and 79 editions (it was not played from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II), the Masters has accumulated a lot of facts and figures for history. The biggest victory was that of Tiger Woods in 1997, when he took a twelve-stroke lead over the runner-up. Also striking is the case of the Masters winners who led the tournament from start to finish: Craig Wood in 1941, Arnold Palmer in 1960, Jack Nicklaus in 1972 and Raymond Floyd in 1976.
Comebacks are another striking aspect of any tournament, and even more so if it is the Masters. The most spectacular was that of Jack Burke in the 1956 edition, when in the last round he came from nine strokes behind the then leader. Gary Player won in 1978 when he was eight strokes behind the leader on the last day, and Faldo did the same, although in his case by six strokes, in 1996.
Do you want to know who won the Masters in his first participation in the tournament? There were three: obviously the one who won the first edition, 1934, Horton Smith, the one who triumphed in the second edition, 1935, Gene Sarazen, and the one who won in 1979, Fuzzy Zoeller.
On the opposite side, Mark O’Meara played the most Masters until his triumph in 1998, in his fifteenth participation in the tournament. It also took Billy Casper (fourteenth), Ben Crenshaw (thirteenth) and Adam Scott, Raymond Floyd and Phil Mickelson (all three in their twelfth). Tiger Woods won in his third Masters, Seve Ballesteros, in his fourth participation, and Jack Nicklaus, in his fifth.
As for the repeat winners of the tournament, the one who took the shortest time to achieve his second victory was Horton Smith, who won it in his third year. The longest gap between the first and second was that of Ben Crenshaw: no less than twenty-four years between the two triumphs.
Amateur hour
Augusta National is not only reserved for professionals during the week of the Masters: five amateurs will have the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the best golfers in the world and dreaming of the possibility of wearing the famous green jacket of the champions. There are a total of eighteen categories through which an invitation to participate in the tournament is obtained. Four of them correspond to amateur players: the winners of the British, Asia-Pacific, US Mid and US Amateur championships. In the latter tournament, the runner-up is also invited.
The youngest of the six amateurs who will compete in this year’s Masters is the winner of the Latin American championship, Costa Rican Paul Chaplet. The qualifier for winning the Asia-Pacific tournament is China’s Cheng Jin, 17. The reigning British champion is Romain Langasque, 20, the third Frenchman to win the title in the tournament’s history. Californian Bryson DeChambeau, 20, is the US Amateur champion, and US-Mid Sammy Schmitz, 35, from Minnesota. New York’s Derek Bard, 21, is the runner-up in the US Amateur, so he also has a place in the Masters.
As for the invited professionals, this includes the winners of the four majors (those of the Masters, have the right to play it for life; those of the other three, for a period of five years from their triumph), the top twelve finishers of the Masters of the previous year, the top four of the other three majors, the winner of The Players Championship, the winners of PGA Tour tournaments that qualify for the Tour Championship, the top fifty of the World Ranking at the end of the year prior to the Masters and the top 50 of the World Ranking in the week prior to the current Masters.
As for the favorites for this edition, it is clear that the defending champion, Jordan Spieth, occupies the first position of the candidates for the victory, and that Rory McIlroy is also in most of the media spotlight.
Tickets for millionaires
By the way, if you are one of those who are not lucky enough to have a ticket or a weekly pass for the Masters, which is most likely given how difficult it is to get them, you have no choice but to go to the resellers that populate the surroundings of Augusta National during those days. Of course, bring your wallet full of bills because the joke is going to be very expensive. Last year, more than $10,000 was paid for a weekly pass (the official price is just over $300). If you settle for a ticket for one of the training days prior to the tournament itself, you would have to cough up ‘only’ about $600 (its official price, $65). Anyway, this is America and this is one of the greatest golf spectacles in the world: the Augusta Masters.
It has one consolation: tickets to the Super Bowl, the grand finale of rugby or American soccer, cost much more. The nominal price for this year ranged from $850 to $1,800, although boxes with additional services reached $3,000. However, the average resale price this year was $5,178, higher than the average ticket price paid for the boxing match between Mayweather and Pacquiao last year: $4,672.
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