MASTERS' WEEK...

Hole #12 ("Golden Bell"). The course is not as pretty as it shows on TV...
It is prettier! This looks like a painting, but it is merely a picture I took
last year while visiting on Tuesday.

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY! The Masters has arrived. Three more days and the first round will start. The only thing we know is that the defending champion, Bubba Watson, will be playing the first round with the U.S. Amateur champion, Gunn Yang, from South Korea.

Phil Mickelson's tee shot on #1,
Par 3 Event, 2014

I am a "majors" guy. I watch all of the majors, men and women, even if the women's majors keep changing names. I also watch the tennis majors, football and basketball playoffs, NCAA playoffs, Final Four, Indy 500 and the three major horse races. I seldom watch the weekly tournament unless one of my favorites is in contention.

On Sunday, I split my time between the Shell Houston Open, the former Dina Shore, now named after a Japanese airline (don't get me started) and the Masters' Drive, Chip & Putt, with this last one taking most of my interest, and last night, of course I watched the final game of NCAA basketball. I was sure happy that the younger kids did better than the older ones.

Last night, I was rooting for Duke -my favorite teams being out -NC and NC State- being out, I had to choose a team to keep the interest. At the Shell, I was rooting for Jordan Spieth, but he lost. In the Nabisco, I was rooting for Stacy Lewis and she got beat by Britney Lincicome. And, at the Drive, Chip & Putt, I was rooting for all the kids, and really did not have a "horse in the race", but it truly made me cry a bit. Tears of joy, of course. In some ways, I thought this competition is 25 years too late, and at least 15 as I have two daughters who would have had a chance in getting there. One of them almost a lock. Also, my mother, "Mama Cuy", would be so very happy, it would be like a validation to all of her efforts in starting the "Grasshoppers" junior group in the 60's (long story there, but it was the truly first junior program at our club).

Bubba Watson, twice winner
Defending Champion

But, it is what it is and here we are.... and the Masters, the USGA and the PGA of America, have done a great job in promoting this competition. Let's everyone in Elk City agree that we should have the goal to have one or two of our kids go there in the next three years!

Anyway, let's get to the tournament itself and the "big boys" because that is where the interest truly rests. The tournament for all practical purposes is most players' favorite for many reasons, and it has the allure of being the first major of the year. Why did it become a major since it does not have the "championship label" in its name? (it is called the Masters Tournament, not the Masters Championship). It has to do entirely with its founder, Bobby Jones and the way he and his friend, and eventual club chairman, Clifford Roberts, handled the tournament since the beginning.

Ben Crenshaw, Champion 1984, 1995
His last Masters will be 2015.

First, Jones, after being eliminated in the 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, he was invited to play the also famed, but private, Cypress Point, a course designed by the famous Alister MacKenzie. Jones loved the design so much, that he asked MacKenzie to help him design the course at Augusta, GA. Augusta National began construction in an old plantation in 1930, and was finished in 1932.

To inaugurate the club, already with several prominent people of the time as members, but not enough to make it profitable, Jones and Roberts thought about bringing a "big" tournament there, so they contacted the USGA, who thought it would be very difficult to go in and out of Augusta in those days, plus the summer months would be horrific for their premiere events, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur, which Jones had won multiple times among his 13 major championships.

The King, Arnold Palmer
Champion 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964

There was also another factor. Jones, who had never entered a tournament as a professional, was now at odds with the USGA, who considered him a professional because he "dared" to share his golf swing secrets in Sports Illustrated for a fee. The USGA also considered this: "if we play the U.S. Amateur and at Jones' course, he will want to play in it to promote his course, and we cannot allow him to play because he is now a "professional". So, on all those accounts, they refused.

Gary Player, The Black Knight
Champion 1961, 1974, 1978

Bobby Jones was not quitter, and saw this as an opportunity, not an obstacle. So he and Roberts decided to have a spring tournament called the Augusta National Invitational. This tournament's invitees would be the best players in the game, players that had played against Jones and who had beaten him, and players whom Jones had beaten: the best professional and amateurs of the time, new and "old". The first Augusta National Invitational Tournament was played in 1934, and was won by Horton Smith, a professional who won this tournament again in 1936. Horton Smith was no "lucky guy", he won 32 tour events, and four more wins around the world.

Jack Nicklaus - The Golden Bear
Champion: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986

In between, it was Gene Sarazen who began putting the tournament in the map when he won in 1935. By the time Gene won in 1935, he had already won 6 other majors: 2 U.S. Opens, 1 British Open and 3 PGA Championships, but all of that was not as noticeable as the "Shot Heard Around The World" that helped him to his win in 1935. Gene was three back of Craig Wood (Craig won 2 majors and 27 times on tour during his career) when he arrived at the par-5 15th. Craig was already in the clubhouse. Gene would have to finish 3 under par the last four holes to catch him, but three birdies on those last four holes that day were tough... so he made a 2 on the par-5 15th by holing out a 4 wood from 235 yards. He parred in and beat Craig Wood in a 36 holes playoff the next day.

Meanwhile, the press made reference that "the masters of the game" were all playing in this invitational tournament. Clifford Roberts suggested to Bobby Jones to rename the tournament "The Masters", but Jones was not so favorable of it. He thought it was too presumptuous. Somehow, Roberts got his way (he was a tough chairman who always got his way), so, the tournament was renamed as The Masters sometime before 1938. Tradition made it a major because, as Herbert Warren Wind, the great golf writer said, the best players made the field every time. Proven players, not "one day wonders" (in those days, you could qualify for the U.S. Open or the British Open with one good round on qualifying day, but to be invited to The Masters, you had to had won on tour, or won an important amateur event).

Kids, welcome to the Par-3 Party...
I mean, Par-3 Tournament!

Many things have changed since. You now have a Tuesday Champions dinner; the champions have their own locker room; champions are invited for life, but, they can, of course, decline the invitation (Ben Crenshaw will play his last Masters this year); starting in 1960, there is a nine hole Par-3 event for the field with some additions, like former major winners, former U.S. Amateur winners. Kids are allowed to caddy and/or putt for their dads (they are dressed in official caddy attire) and, for the record, no winner of the Par-3 event has ever won the "Main Event", so, many of the good players, the "hot" players, usually throw their ball in the pond of #9 if they have a chance to win... they don't want to "jinx" themselves.

The last few years, in addition to being honorary starters, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer have the last tee time in the Par-3 tournament, sharing the passion and raising the interest among the visitors. Last year, I spent two and a half hours waiting about 50 feet in front of the 1st tee, next to the gallery rope, so I would take a pictures of every participant in the Par-3 tournament, hoping, of course, to take a picture of the "Big-3" when they came in.

"The Big-3", possibly playing the par 3 tournament for the last time
together (Arnold Palmer has announced that he will not play this
yearly event in 2015). Time goes by quickly... it was only "yesterday" when
I saw these three great players in the 1967 World Cup and
got hooked to golf! (Note: I have named this photograph, "Thirty Four
Major Memories" for their 34 majors together).

As it turned out, they were never together on the tee, but I was able to take individual shots, and my favorite, shown here, when they walked to their tee shots: Jack, about three feet from the hole (Gary said, "another lucky shot from Jack!"), Gary to the right of the green, and The King, walking to a short shoot that hit by the green and spun way down the hill.

As of today, Arnold Palmer has announced that he will not play the Par-3 Tournament this year due to a shoulder injury, but that he will be a starter (one tee shot). I hope this is not the last time anyone has the chance of taking a picture of these three greats of the game playing together. I know I was a lucky man!