What is the Masters Golf Tournament?
The Masters Golf Tournament is an annual golf tournament held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. A personal invitation is required to compete in the Masters Golf Tournament, which is one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world (Britannica.com). It is one of the four major championships in men's golf. The Masters is also the only major tournament that never changes venue; therefore, golf's greatest names have played more major championship golf there then anywhere else in the world (Sowell).
History of the Masters Golf Tournament
The abounding history makes Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Golf Tournament much more than tee shots and greens. Golf-legend Bobby Jones and Wall Street investment banker Clifford Roberts founded the Club in December 1932. Bobby Jones was renown for winning nine major titles from 1923 to 1929 and then capturing the Grand Slam in 1930 -- winning the British Amateur, British Open, United States Open and United States Amateur (Sowell). Jones with the help of Scottish golf course architect Alister MacKenzie designed and built the golf course on 356 acres of land purchased from Fruitland Nurseries (masters.org).
The golf course was formally opened January 1933, and Jones and Roberts scheduled the first tournament to be played in 1934. Roberts wanted to call the tournament the Masters, but Jones wouldn't allow it because it was too presumptuous. The tournament was titled Augusta National Invitational until 1938 when Jones relented (Sowell). The tournament played at Augusta National has been titled the Masters ever since and is played the first full week in April.
Past Winners of the Masters Golf Tournament
There have been 70 Masters champions since the tournament's inception. The winner's list is filled with some of the greatest names in golf history. Below are the players with the most victories at the Masters.
Most Victories (masters.org)
6 - Jack Nicklaus (1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986)
4 - Arnold Palmer (1958, 1960, 1962, 1964)
4 - Tiger Woods (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005)
3 - Jimmy Demaret (1940, 1947, 1950)
3 - Sam Snead (1949, 1952, 1954)
3 - Gary Player (1961, 1974, 1978)
3 - Nick Faldo (1989, 1990, 1996)
2 - Horton Smith (1934, 1936)
2 - Byron Nelson,1937, 1942
2 - Ben Hogan (1951,1953)
2 - Tom Watson (1977,1981)
2 - Seve Ballesteros (1980, 1983)
2 - Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993)
2 - Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995)
2 - Jose Maria Olazabal (1994, 1999)
How to get Tickets to the Masters Golf Tournament:
The Masters Golf Tournament is watched by millions of Americans each year, yet only a few get to see it in person (Sowell). Practice Round tickets are sold in advance by application only, and applicants receive tickets on a random selection basis. Tickets for the actual tournament, also called badges, are only sold to members of the Augusta National Club, and the waiting list is so long that it has been closed since 2000. However, for the right price you can see the Masters in person. Numerous Web sites sell tickets and badges. For example, if you were looking for tickets to the 2005 Masters Golf Tournament, a practice round ticked would have cost about $222 to $351, a one-day tournament badge about $832 to $1,664 and a four-day badge about $3,301 (SportsEye).
If your pockets are as deep as your love of golf, you may get to see the next page of golf history being written. But for the majority of golfers, the Masters Golf Tournament can be enjoyed in front of a TV screen.