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USA Today
13-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Why do Masters winners and members get green jackets? The tradition, explained
Why do Masters winners and members get green jackets? The tradition, explained Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Watching the Masters on Sunday and suddenly wondering why all the members and winners of the tournament at Augusta National wear those same green jackets and the origin story behind it? We've got you covered. Editor's note: A version of this post was originally published 2022. The green jacket might be one of the best non-trophy trophies in all of sports, right? It's wearable bragging rights, one that you can put on for any event, from a day at Wimbledon (Sergio Garcia) to heading to a local Chick-fil-a (thanks, Patrick Reed). But what's up with the whole green jackets thing? Let's help you out and dive in all things green jackets: Why have Augusta National members wear green jackets at all? There's an origin story here, via The first story is Augusta National co-founder and one of golf's greatest champions, Bobby Jones, attended a dinner at 12-time Open Championship venue Royal Liverpool in England where club captains were wearing matching jackets to denote their position. Jones liked that. The other story is that Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts figured it was a way to identify club members as 'reliable sources of information' to visiting non-members — and to let waiters know who got the check at dinner. In 1937, that's when the green jackets started rolling in. Why are the jackets green at Augusta? Specifically, the color is Pantone 342 per Golfweek. The story I found behind this came from Today's Golfer: So when Augusta National opened in January 1933, [Bobby] Jones floated the idea to business partner Clifford Roberts. The only issue was the colour. Red, yellow and even 'Georgia peach' were all considered but quickly dismissed. Then, while out walking Roberts' eye was taken by the leaves underpinning the many azalea bushes found on the former Fruitland Nursery site. Known as verdant green, the choice was made and a legend was born. When did the Masters winners start getting green jackets? Back in 1949, Sam Snead got one when he won his first Masters at Augusta. How do the golfers get jackets in their exact sizes? They get a temporary one that's approximately their size before they're given a customized fitting after their win. Do you get more than one green jacket if you win multiple Masters? Nope! Back in 2019, when Tiger Woods won, we learned this one. You can bring the green jacket home for a year after your win, but then it has to be brought back and worn only at Augusta. And if you win again, you get your same jacket to put on after your victory.
Axios
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
At the Masters, a $1.50 pimento cheese sandwich steals the show
When is a pimento cheese sandwich a ritual? When it's at the Masters. Why it matters: Golf fans who are lucky enough to score a badge to the Masters don't just rave about the drives and putts. They love the absurdly affordable food that has become legend. Catch up quick: Augusta National is one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world, but its menu at the Masters is priced for the masses. At the very top of the pyramid of culinary excellence: the $1.50 pimento cheese sandwich that comes with its own green jacket (a green plastic wrapper). How it works: The tradition of affordable food at the VIP event dates back decades and is fairly simple, Clifford Roberts, a former Augusta National chairman, wrote in his 1976 history of the club. "We believe that one of the reasons the Masters is popular with patrons of the game is because they can obtain good food and drink at reasonable prices." Fun fact: When Augusta National changed caterers in the early 2010s, the new vendor needed six months to finally recreate the closely guarded original recipe, Golf Digest reported in 2022. The other side: Not everyone's a fan. The AJC's Ken Sugiura, who's covering the tournament all week, likened the rarified experience to "eating mushy cheddar cheese." Make it at home: Unfortunately, the tournament's official packages that include pimento cheese, egg salad and other foods to host your own Masters party are sold out. However, the internet has plenty of recipes mimicking the famous sandwich. Give it your best shot while watching the tournament at home — and use Duke's Mayonnaise.
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Augusta provides a president-free oasis amid the Trump maelstrom
Augusta National must be the only known corner of the western world where you can't buy a Coca-Cola. The company has its worldwide headquarters a couple of hours' drive down the I-20 in Atlanta, its chief executives seem to receive a standing invitation to join the membership, and the club's co-founders Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones made their money running a chain of bottling plants. But still, there's no Coke. Or Sprite, or Powerade, let alone, God forbid in this part of the world, any Pepsi if that happens to be your preference. Instead, the concession stands around the grounds pump 'Lemon-Lime', 'Sports Drink', and good old generic 'Cola'. There's no Bud, Coors, or Miller Lite, only 'Domestic', either, no Heineken or Corona, only 'Imported'. Outside of what's written on the players' own kit, there's only one brand allowed at Augusta National, and it's the club's own map and flag logo. Which might be why the one brand that's bigger than Coca-Cola's right now doesn't have a lot of a whole cut-through here. The odd thing about the atmosphere at Augusta National this week is that it seems to be the one place on earth where no one is talking about the one thing everyone is talking about. So that on the newstands on Wednesday morning, the New York Times front page lead was 'Brushing off Concerns, Trump Pushes Forward with His Steep Tariffs', the Wall Street Journal's was 'U.S. Sets China Tariffs at 104%, Beijing Vows 'Fight to the End'', and the Augusta Chronicle's was 'Renovations by Augusta National bring in golf's biggest name'. Which is Tiger Woods, if you were wondering. But the sad fact is that Donald Trump might just be the second-most famous player on the planet. The biggest golf story in the sport last week wasn't Brian Harman's win at the Valero Texas Open, but Trump's decision to skip the ceremony to mark the return of four US soldiers who had died in a training exercise in Lithuania so that he could meet with a group of executives from LIV and play in his club championship at Jupiter. He, ahem, finished in an unlikely tie for first place. Again. Trump has inveigled himself into every aspect of the sport. He is entangled with LIV and has been busy trying to broker a deal between them and the PGA. Even Woods, who, like just about every other famous player on the Tour, has played plenty of rounds with the president, has just announced that he's dating his former daughter-in-law. But Trump is mercifully absent from Augusta. 'A colder than usual January has been conducive to a near-perfect early spring bloom of azaleas,' opined chairman Fred Ridley at the start of his annual press conference, like a man reading the crop report for flowering ornamentals. Ridley roamed over a range of topics, slow play, driving distance, the club's stance on domestic violence and whether or not they were right to invite former champion Ángel Cabrera, but Trump's name didn't come up once. The fire may be ranging out on the other side of the pine trees that surround the grounds, but apparently the air's sweet as Georgia Peach ice cream sandwiches here inside them. You wonder if it's the same in the clubhouse. If you want to know the gossip on Wall Street right now, Augusta National's about the best place you could be. The membership is a who's who of corporate America, Warren Buffett's one, so is Bill Gates, so are the CEOs of Amazon, Delta, and Santander, the former CEOs of Bank of America, American Express and IBM, Condoleezza Rice is here, and so is Rex Tillerson, and those are only the ones you know, there are hundreds more you don't, Dirk Ziff, Vanderbilt polo shirt, Horseflesh Meanstreak VII (the exact list is kept top secret so some of these names may or may not be quite exactly right). Trump isn't thought to be one himself. It's impossible to formally confirm one way or the other, but you know it the same way you do that someone's just become a vegan, you can be sure they'll tell you themselves. Augusta's president is, and always will be, Dwight Eisenhower. I like Ike, You Like Ike, around here they all like Ike. He has a driveway named after him outside the grounds, his own cabin by the 10th tee, they even keep preserved slices of the old oak tree that he always used to hit with his drives up the 17th. The same Eisenhower who argued so forcefully for both foreign aid and free trade, and who signed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act, which has shaped US economic policy around the world for the past 70 years, less the past seven days. Eisenhower's policies were the antithesis of Trump's, and Augusta's attitude towards the game is the obverse of his, too. Not that they'd ever say it publicly. How many millions have the members here lost between them in the past week? How many of the thousands of who travelled here from around the world felt uneasy crossing the border? How do the four Canadians in the field feel about the prospect of becoming the 51st state? And yet all anyone wants to talk about is the weather out. You notice Trump most by his ringing absence from the conversation and to be honest that's something of a sweet relief. Augusta National's always been an oasis, but this year's tournament feels a bit like the final scene of attending the dinner party at the end of the world.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Masters 2025: Augusta National had plans for a '19th hole' ... what happened?
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Any Masters fan can play through the sweep of Augusta National's holes in their sleep: the wide left swing of No. 2, the steep dive of No. 10, the bold and tantalizing challenge of No. 13. But only the true magnolia aficionados know that there was almost a 19th hole on the world-famous golf course. It's true. In the initial designs for Augusta National, Dr. Alister MacKenzie created a short, 19th hole at the request of the club's co-founders, Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones. The plan was in keeping with many golf courses of the day. The 19th hole isn't just an easy nickname for the post-round bar; what the Scots dubbed the 'bye hole' is a popular feature of many courses, particularly in Europe. Advertisement 'Clifford Roberts, Grantland Rice and some of the other governors thought it might be interesting to have a real nineteenth hole, so that the loser could have the opportunity of getting his money back by playing double or quits,' MacKenzie wrote of his designs. 'This nineteenth hole will be an attractive plateau green, narrow at one end, where the flag will usually be placed, but wide at the other end so as to give a safety route to the player who has not the courage or skill to pitch to the narrow end of the green.' Augusta National's 19th — named 'Double or Quits,' the British version of 'double or nothing' — would have run about 90 yards, with a tee box between what's now the 9th and 18th greens, running roughly parallel to the clubhouse. The green would have been what's now Augusta National's putting green. (Taylar Sievert/Yahoo Sports illustration) So what scotched the 19th hole? The aesthetic reason was that a 19th hole would have impeded the view of the course from the clubhouse; the real reason was money, or the lack thereof. In sharp contrast to the vast financial resources available to the club now, the early days of Augusta National were marked by financial concerns that bordered on desperation. Advertisement 'They definitely wanted to do it. They were going to build two golf courses,' says David Owen, Augusta National historian and author of The Making of The Masters. 'They were going to have big (clubhouse) windows looking out over that part of the course, and then they couldn't build that either. Everybody was for it, they wanted to do it, and they didn't have the dough.' The lost 19th hole was emblematic of the larger financial challenges that faced Augusta National in its earliest, pre-World War II days. Initial plans for the club, which opened in December 1932, included riding trails and tennis courts, as well as two dozen real estate lots around the property. 'It's amazing. They tried for 20 years to sell real estate next to the golf course, and they never could,' Owen says. 'The only customer was a guy who was a member, and he bought two lots, just above the first green.' One of Roberts' last acts was to buy that property and tear down the house, which was clearly visible from the first tee. Want to feel even more regret? Consider that in Augusta National's earliest days, initiation fees were $350 — about $7,000 in today's dollars — and annual dues were $60. Augusta National actively sought out members — Roberts' initial goal was a membership base of 1,800, approximately twice what the number is today — and the application was an index card. Few were returned, and after three years of drives, Augusta National's membership stood at … 76. Advertisement 'After the war, finances gradually improved,' Owen says. 'It really shows you what it was like to try to build a golf club during the Great Depression.' It's fortunate from a logistics standpoint that the 19th wasn't built. The tee box became the first driving range for the club, out across the massive area now bracketed by the 18th and 9th fairways and 2nd green. In place of the 19th's prospective green, the National built the putting green, which is both a perfect place to watch the players up close, and the site of the annual green jacket ceremony that concludes the Masters. In any case, the 19th — like that prospective second course — is literally just a dream hole. And for the patrons and players at Augusta National, that's just fine. 'Augusta doesn't need a 19th hole,' Shane Lowry says. 'It's perfect just like it is.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Food and drink at 2025 Masters: Concession prices at Augusta still a huge bargain
Food and drink at 2025 Masters: Concession prices at Augusta still a huge bargain It's hard to compile a list of everything that makes the Masters tournament special. But one thing that's bound to be at or near the top of everyone's list is the abundance of inexpensively priced food and drink selections. It's a Masters tradition unlike at any other high-profile sporting event. Advertisement A trip to the Masters isn't complete without sampling one of the famous egg salad or pimento cheese sandwiches sold at concession stands throughout the grounds. And if the weather gets warm, a signature Georgia peach ice cream sandwich really hits the spot. But how much will patrons have to pay this year to enjoy those culinary treats as they cheer on the competitors at the 2025 season's first major championship? Let's take a look. Masters concession prices 2025 The traditional Augusta National staples will all cost the same as they did last year. In fact, the price of the egg salad and pimento cheese sandwiches hasn't gone up since 2002. Advertisement Egg Salad: $1.50 Pimento Cheese: $1.50 Masters Club: $3.00 Pork Bar-B-Que: $3.00 Georgia Peach Ice Cream Sandwich: $3.00 A menu hangs in a concession area along the eighth hole during the final round of the 2025 Augusta National Women's Amateur golf tournament on April 5. Beverages, too, remain the same as last year. Soft drinks: $2.00 Iced tea/bottled water: $2.00 Beer/wine: $6.00 Augusta National also serves a special wheat ale called "Crow's Nest," which replaced Blue Moon ale in 2021 and also sells for $6.00. What's new on the Masters menu in 2025? While most everything sold at the Masters concession stands remains unchanged, there is one major addition. Making its debut at this year's tournament: a savory tomato pie. The handheld turnover has been announced as a limited-time addition to the menu, so we'll have to see what kind of reception it gets from Augusta National patrons. The tomato pie will sell for $3.00 as well. Why is food so cheap at the Masters? Every year fans in attendance share their favorite treats and rave about how the prices are a throwback to decades earlier. And they're right, it's all intentional. Advertisement 'We believe that one of the reasons the Masters is popular with patrons of the game is because they can obtain good food and drink at reasonable prices,' former Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts wrote in his 1976 book, 'The Story of Augusta National Golf Club.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2025 Masters concessions prices: Sandwiches still a huge bargain
