One of the reasons masters make people feel "tall" is that there are many "traditions" in this place.
Such as green jackets, such as the championship dinner, such as Magnolia Road is only allowed to enter the players, such as fans are not allowed to bring mobile phone cameras to enter, and even on the 12th hole can be a one-shot attack can take the putter to walk on the Hogan Bridge... Many traditions are not only pure rules and precepts, even to the point of "out of step" with the times, but it is the existence of traditions that makes the first Grand Slam of the year more noble and sexy.
But there is another tradition that is known only to Masters officials, Augusta members, and championship-winning players.
Even some champions don't know about this tradition...
That is, everyone who wins the Masters championship has to donate a club to Augusta National Golf Club.
And, this rod is best used in the week of the championship.
So Scotty Schoffler's next mission was to choose one of the 14 guys in his bag and put it in the hands of Augusta's staff.
Hand over the clubs, starting from the first session
These "champion clubs" will be displayed in the Augusta Clubhouse. The clubs used by the champions in 1934-54 were in the trophy room, and from 1955 to the present day, in a restaurant.
In a game known for its tradition, the tradition of "champion donating clubs" is actually longer than the green jacket worn on Sunday. The most prominent place in the trophy room is the putter used by Horton Smith when he won the inaugural Masters in 1934.
Inaugural Masters champion Horton Smith
In the beginning, anyone who won once at Augusta had to donate a club. Since 1954, however, multiple champions have only had to donate their first-time clubs — with the exception of Jose Maria Olazabal, who donated the putters from his second victory in 1999, rather than the one that first crowned Augusta in 1994.
As for Tiger Woods, the 5th green jacket winner we know best, he donated the serve stick he won for the first time in 1997 – a King Cobra Deep Face No. 1 wood with a 9-degree tilt and a True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft.
King Cobra No. 1 wood that Tiger used that year
Two weeks before this year's Masters, at an online press conference dedicated to defending champion Hideki Matsuyama, the first question asked to the Japanese was what club he had donated to Augusta.
The answer for the 2021 champion is: dig up the bar at 56 degrees.
According to the data, the model of this pole should be the Cleveland RTX 4 Forged Prototype, and the pole is True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100.
The digging rod used when Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters
"At the Masters, I used that 56-degree often." Hideki Matsuyama explains, "This club is doing really well and was one of the big reasons I was able to win last year. ”
One shot and one legend
Although Augusta asked for one of the 14 heels, there were also champions who handed over not clubs.
In the trophy room, for example, there is the golf ball that Gene Sarazen played as an albatross on the 15th hole, which helped him win the 2nd Masters in 1935.
Sarazen albatross's golf ball
One of the most famous "champion clubs" in the clubhouse was Larry Mize's 1987 digging club. Maez used its 11th hole in the second extra hole to cut straight into the birdie from 46 yards away to beat Greg Norman and Severe Ballestero (the latter of whom had been out of the previous hole) in one fell swoop, becoming the only Augusta "landlord" player to win the Masters in his hometown (his celebration of jumping into the air was also a Masters classic).
At the time, the digging rod was almost brand new. Because the dessert area of the previous one was so worn out, Maz replaced it on the eve of the Masters.
"When Augusta asked me for a club, she was very kind." Maez said. "They understand how important the club that wins the championship is to the players. But I didn't hesitate too much – what better place to go than here? ”
Some champions donated replicas or spare rods, but Mads didn't.
'At least for me, that win and the significance of that cut made me think it was important to give them the clubs. He said, "What they got was the original, the rod I cut the bird with." ”
The Mezgar Hole Cut Bird victory was one of the most classic moments of the Masters
As the only Canadian champion in the Masters, Mike Weir also donated the original digging rod he used.
Mike Weir wasn't a long hitter, and Augusta had a lot of par five holes, and he had a hard time getting two of them. Therefore, digging up the pole on the road to winning the championship in 2003, it played a miraculous effect, allowing him to repeatedly stage all the good plays of pushing, and finally added holes to win the championship.
"Why dig up the pole?" Will said, "Because throughout that week, it saved me too many times." Especially on the 15th hole in the last round, the cut was too important to catch the decisive birdie for me. ”
How dare he not donate?!
Of course, the tradition of "donating poles" is so "exclusive" and "private" that not every champion can remember what he gave Augusta.
Lange forgot he had donated the S-pole
Bernhard Langer, the 1985 and 1993 champion, for example, wasn't sure if he donated clubs! In fact, he donated the S-stick that the German used when he first won the championship, and it's now in the Augusta Clubhouse restaurant.
Lange is far less outrageous than Fred Couples – for a long time, Cápos was recorded in Augusta's annals as "the only former champion who never donated a club"...
It wasn't until last year, twenty-nine years after his victory in 1992, that Capos realized his embarrassment when he was reading an email from Augusta that happened to contain a text describing that of all the former champions, he was reluctant to give clubs.
After Kaposs won the Green Jacket, he seemed to forget one thing...
"I'm a little dizzy." Kapos said that he didn't know why, "I didn't know there was such a thing, and I couldn't understand what was wrong." ”
To make up for this ooh, Cabos quickly rummaged through boxes and cabinets, and finally found a MacGregor M85 No. 1 wood in his home in Palm Springs, California. "I knew it was the No. 1 wood I used in 1992 because I put it in a very safe place."
While competing in the 2021 Masters, Cabos took the club to the driving range to be handed over to Augusta's staff. At the time, Rory McIlroy and the other players watched it curiously.
"Everyone is laughing. They should be curious if I'm going to race with this antique pole. Kapos said.
"But I obviously haven't hit wooden Number One in a long, long time, and it's as big as a microphone." Much smaller than my current Number One wood. Let me use it again, basically can't play the ball. ”
Wheat was interested in Capos's antique persimmon poles
Capos said he started playing metal club-headed serves since 1993.
"I lost my bet to a TaylorMade staff member, used his number one wood, and then I stopped playing wooden clubs from then on." Kapos said.
However, the captain of the Ryder Cup confessed that if he had known that Augusta had this tradition, he might not have brought the no. 1 wood more than a decade ago.
MacGregor M85 compared to contemporary No. 1 wooden pole head
Capos's most famous shot of 1992, on the 12th hole in Cape Amen, when he led two shots, almost repeating Spieth's later "tragedy" – the tee shot was short, and when he saw the ball about to roll into Ray's Creek – miraculously hung on the shore!
Capos, who was "hard not to die", then cut the ball to 3 feet from the side of the flagpole with a digging rod, successfully saved the pa, and finally defended the 2-shot advantage to win the only Grand Slam title of his career.
But why, in the end, didn't he bring the digging rod?
A champions dinner for past Green Jacket winners
"I don't remember which one it was." "It seems to be an old Wilson, and I have Wilson's digging rod at home, but I don't want to take that one because I'm not sure if it's it." ”
"But this No. 1 wood is undoubtedly the one I used to win the championship."
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