Why Augusta’s Masters golf tournament is best ever
Ask yourself: What makes a sporting event one of the best in the world? And you just might conclude it’s Augusta’s Masters golf tournament.
First, of course, is the magnitude of it – the caliber of players, the importance of it to the sport. And, of course, the excitement, anticipation, atmosphere, camaraderie, festoonery – and most of all the chance to see and celebrate the world’s best athletes perform in front of you.
These are what can make sporting events the best, from the World Series to the Super Bowl to soccer’s World Cup, the Olympics, NCAA championships, Wimbledon, Le Mans and more.
But one word – one very unusual, unexpected word – makes Augusta’s Masters golf tournament stand out from the rest of the best:
Reverence.
It’s the Masters’ secret sauce. It’s what distinguishes the storied tournament from every one of the other top athletic contests in the world. It’s why the Masters ranks No. 1 on TopEndSports.com’s “100 Sporting Events you must see live.” (Here’s a rundown of how to enjoy it live, from TripSavvy.com.)
It’s reverence – first and foremost for the fabled grounds. It’s nigh impossible to describe the dignity that wafts through the air at the famed Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia year-round, but most fragrantly during the first full week of April. All the best golf courses are stirring reminders of mankind’s meager and tenuous dominion over nature; that alone is something to revere. But nowhere on Earth is our dominion’s tender province more breathtaking than at Augusta National.
I’m hard-pressed to think of a more beautiful patch of earth anywhere.
Then there’s the reverence that the game of golf has scratched out for itself through the centuries. If you do it right – not necessarily well, just with the right spirit – golf imposes reverence for the game upon you.
The only four-letter word you can use there
Those of us who’ve tried to play it know it’s arguably the toughest sport to master. That’s why it’s a four-letter word. You battle not just the elements, as with other outdoor sports, but you contend with nearly every bump, every slope, every contour, every foreign object on the ground across thousands of yards of terrain, not to mention sand traps and water hazards and stands of trees purposely meant to confound. Moreover, your stance, your rhythm, your grace, your focus and your mood help make every swing of the club, and every reaction of the ball, different.
If you don’t have reverence for all that, just pay closer attention and you will.
Especially if you’ve tried the sport, but even if you haven’t, you’ll surely have reverence for the best players in the game, and the best in history. Their home away from home, and usually their favorite event, is the Masters. The best of the best simply think it’s the best.
And, of course, there’s the Masters traditions. The familiar Sunday pin placements. The lighthearted Par 3 contest. The exclusive champions’ dinner. The honorary starters. The Pimento Cheese sandwiches. Even the roars that echo through the gentle hills at each fabulous shot are nearly copyrighted.
And nowhere other than the Masters do traditions of the past and innovations for the future mix so harmoniously without one inhibiting the other. Indeed, Jack Nicklaus, arguably the Greatest of All Time, posted on Facebook that, “My three words to describe Augusta National: Tradition. Mystique. Memories (great ones!).”
That’s not to say the Masters is completely buttoned down. While it certainly makes you want to dress as stylishly as the weather allows, the hill by the 16th green is an especially inviting spot to sit on the grass, enjoy a famously inexpensive barbecue sandwich and beer, and eagerly await the occasional exhilarating hole in one.
It also helps that the Masters is one of the only top sporting events, and the only golfing major, that takes place at the same location each year.
The iconic moment reverence was captured on camera
But maybe the best Masters tradition is its understated, yet overwhelming, sense of decorum. Where else, in this anything-goes world, are manners so obligatory? You can’t heckle, nor would a decent sort even ponder it amid this elegance. You can’t break into a jog without being asked to kindly walk. And please don’t lie prone on the grass; this isn’t the beach, sir.
Can one command reverence? The Masters surely does, by requiring propriety – but first by simply expecting it. It’s a throwback to days of old when parents drilled etiquette into their children, and other adults readily helped enforce it in public. The result is a gentle climate that’s quaint, soothing and refreshing.
Of course, decorum is a staple of golf the world over. The Masters has merely perfected it.
Even so, a moment of pure reverence at the Masters was so awe-inspiring that it made international headlines in 2021.
In the chaotic moments after Hideki Matsuyama became the first Asian native to win the Masters, and the first Japanese man to win one of golf’s four prestigious major tournaments, his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, walked over to replace the pin in the 18th hole – then, looking out over the now-deserted course, removed his cap and bowed to it respectfully.
The image of his humble, gracious act, captured by a CBS camera, instantly surged across television screens worldwide and blew through social media at hurricane force. And for one reason: It was the very picture of reverence.
BestEverBuzz is all about finding and sharing the best of everything. Well, all of this is why Augusta’s Masters golf tournament is at the top of many lists of the best sporting events ever, and at the very top of ours. And really, it comes down to one word.
Reverence.
