Every year during the first week of April, the Masters Tournament, a notable competition in golf history, is held. Over the course of 72 holes, a select group of talented players compete to claim the coveted Green Jacket and leave their stamp on Masters history. The Masters encourages you to explore the rich history of golf through its legendary customs like Magnolia Lane and Amen Corner.
The renowned investment banker Clifford Roberts and amateur golf champion Bobby Jones founded the Augusta National Golf Club, the site of the Masters Tournament. Jones and Roberts agreed to construct a golf course in Augusta, Georgia, after Jones stopped playing competitive golf in 1930. The club was established in December 1932 after they paid $70,000 for the 365 acres that made up Fruitland Nurseries.
The first Masters Tournament, formerly known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, was created in 1934 by Jones and Roberts. Since its inception on March 22, 1934, the competition has always taken place during the first full week of April. Despite Jones’ concerns, the competition’s name was subsequently changed to the Masters Tournament.
Bobby Jones, who was born in Atlanta in 1902, was one of the greatest amateur golfers of the 1920s, winning 13 major tournaments, including four U.S. Opens, five U.S. Amateur Championships, one British Amateur Championship, and three British Opens. In the same year that he stopped playing competitive golf, in 1930, he completed the Grand Slam by winning all four major tournaments. In addition to continuing to compete in the Masters on a yearly basis, Jones presided over Augusta National Golf Club from 1971 to 1974 and was later admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Clifford Roberts, a famous investment banker on Wall Street, was born in Morning Sun, Iowa, in 1894. He and Jones co-founded Augusta National Golf Club, where he presided from 1931 to 1976. During his tenure at the Masters Tournament, Roberts introduced a number of improvements to the game of golf, including the use of Leader Boards and perimeter mounds. He was President Eisenhower’s political and financial advisor and played a significant part in the 1956 broadcast of the first Masters game on television. Roberts was appointed to the PGA Advisory Committee and the USGA Bob Jones Award Selection Committee, among other distinctions, throughout his lifetime. He died in 1977 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame the following year.
