Category: Masters

Photos: Oldest living Masters champ Jack Burke, Jr. turns 100

His Masters win in 1956 remains the largest comeback in tournament history.

He’s the oldest living Masters champ and he turns 100 this weekend.

Jack Burke, Jr., who is also the oldest PGA Championship winner, hits the century mark on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023.

Gene Sarazen, the 1935 Masters champ, lived to be 97 and three months; Byron Nelson stretched his years to 94; Doug Ford died in 2018 at 95. Burke outlived them all, and although the 1956 Masters winner hasn’t returned to Augusta National since 2011, the accomplishment remains etched in his memories.

His Masters win came during the 20th playing of the event and the first one to be televised, although the CBS cameras were only on holes 15, 16, 17 and 18 on Friday through Sunday.

The most memorable part of his victory, though, was the he came back from eight shots down to win, still the largest comeback in Masters history.

Amateur Ken Venturi, led the tournament by four shots after 36 holes; he was up eight shots on Burke. After 54 holes, Burke was still down eight shots. He would end up winning by a shot and his 1-over final remains tied for the highest winning score at Augusta National.

Check out some photos through the years of Jackie Burke.

The Augusta Chronicle’s Doug Stutsman contributed to this story.

Registration for 2024 Drive, Chip and Putt qualifying has opened

The Drive, Chip and Putt is held the Sunday before Masters week at Augusta National Golf Club.

Junior golfers between 7 and 15 can now register for qualifying for the 2024 Drive, Chip and Putt, held on the Sunday before the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

The Masters Tournament, USGA and the PGA of America made the joint announcement Tuesday. The DCP was founded by the three governing bodies of golf as a way to introduce kids to the game.

In 2024, the Drive, Chip and Putt contest will host its 10th season. It’s a free program available in all 50 states. Local qualifying begins in April 2023 at more than 340 sites nationwide and will continue throughout the summer.

There is a boys and girls division with four age groups. Scoring is centered around skill development in driving, chipping and putting. Top performers at the local level will advance through subregional and regional qualifiers in July and August and September and October.

The 10 regional sites leading up to 2024 are:

  • Scioto Country Club, Columbus, Ohio
  • TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
  • Aronimink Golf Club, Newtown Square, Pennylvania
  • Sea Island Golf Club, St. Simons Island, Georgia
  • Champions Golf Club, Houston
  • Castle Pines, Castle Rock, Colorado
  • Desert Mountain, Scottsdale, Arizona
  • The Golf Club of Tennessee, Kingston Springs, Tennessee
  • Chambers Bay, University Place, Washington
  • TPC Deere Run, Silvis, Illinois

There will be 40 girls and 40 boys qualifying from each of those sites and advancing to the National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday, April 7, 2024.

For more information: drivechipandputt.com.

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Scott Stallings finally has his Masters invitation and he’s inviting Scott Stallings to a practice round

Scott Stallings finally has his invitation.

It’s finally here.

In Scott Stallings’ case, that means his Masters invitation.

You might remember last week, three-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings was patiently waiting for his invite to play at Augusta National in April in the first major of the year. Yet it never arrived.

Instead, it went to Scott Stallings, who happens to share the same name as the professional golfer but doesn’t have quite the skills.

The other Stallings, an Atlanta realtor, received the golfer’s invite by mistake and shared it on social media, quickly going viral. Nothing to fret, however, as the golfer Stallings received his invitation from the realtor Stallings in the mail after the hilarious mixup.

The Stallings will meet at Augusta National in April, as the golfer will host the realtor during a practice round.

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Scottie Scheffler saw Bubba Watson on vacation and couldn’t help but make a joke about the Masters Champions Dinner and LIV Golf

The defending Masters champ is also starting to plan out his dinner menu.

After a holiday hiatus, the PGA Tour is back this week in Hawaii and the boys brought some jokes to the island.

On Tuesday ahead of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, Jon Rahm made a crack about how tense the Masters Champions Dinner will be due to the presence of a handful of players who made the jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf. Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion at Augusta National, joined in on the fun during his Wednesday presser at Kapalua with a story about seeing two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson while on vacation in Tennessee last year.

“I haven’t seen many of the LIV guys. I saw (Bubba Watson) on vacation this year and I told him that I was just gonna have a separate table for him in the corner by himself,” Scheffler said with a big laugh.

His menu is still being workshopped for the annual gathering that could include up to six LIV players this spring: Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Phil Mickelson.

Scheffler thinks the players will be able to put their animosity aside for a few weeks out of the year, especially at a place as steeped in history as Augusta National.

“I think that stuff just takes time, things will heal and we’ll see what happens,” Scheffler continued, noting how golf will inevitably move on. “All that stuff is not really for me. I can only show up and just try and play good golf. I’m not going to LIV anytime soon, so it’s not a concern for me at the moment.”

The Texan returns to PGA Tour action this week with his fourth start of the 2022-23 season. Scheffler logged two top-10 finishes in his three fall starts at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba (T-3) and Cadence Bank Houston Open (T-9). He also earned a runner-up finish at Tiger Woods’ unofficial event in the Bahamas, the Hero World Challenge.

Last year Scheffler earned all four of his PGA Tour titles over six starts from the WM Phoenix Open in February to the Masters in April. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in between and finished inside the top 25 in 16 of 20 starts in 2022, including a trio of runner-up finishes at the Charles Schwab Challenge, U.S. Open and Tour Championship. Scheffler rose to No. 1 in the world and held the title for 30 weeks from March 27-Oct. 22. His $14,046,910 in official prize money set a single season PGA Tour record and he totaled more than $24,796,910 in earnings including bonuses.

Despite his successful season, Scheffler noted how his quick ascension didn’t quite earn him the respect that comes with the title of world’s best compared to other players who reached No. 1. That said, he never felt like he had to live up to it, either.

“Successful weeks for me look a little bit different. If I can show up and I have a great attitude and I’m committed to my shots and playing golf the right way, that’s a good week for me. Getting caught up in the noise of who the best player is isn’t going to help me be successful and approach things the right way.”

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Tickets for the 2023 Masters are up 20 percent from last year, still the best deal in sports

$450 is still an outrageous deal.

We are just over 91 days away from round one of the 2023 Masters.

Folks on the patron list were alerted that tickets are officially available for the year’s first major. With one small change from 2022.

Last year, weekly badges (good for all four tournament days) went for $375. This year, they’ll run patrons $450, according to the executive editor for The Aiken Standard, John Boyette.

If you’ve never seen Masters ticket prices before, the cost might surprise you. Just over $100 to spend a day at the greatest place on Earth — it’s a no-brainer.

For comparison, a single-day pass for the ’23 Honda Classic is listed at $75. A Monday pass for this year’s U.S. Open is $125. Saturday is $300.

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We asked more than a dozen PGA Tour pros whether LIV golfers should be allowed to play in the Masters. Here’s what they said

Golfweek asked more than a dozen players whether LIV golfers should be allowed to play in the 2023 Masters.

Augusta National made it official on Tuesday that it won’t stand in the way of  LIV golfers competing in the 2023 Masters in April. Invitations will be sent to all players who meet the existing qualification criteria.

It’s been a hot topic of discussion almost since Scottie Scheffler donned the Green Jacket in April and LIV Golf began to take shape. Would the private club, which makes its own rules for the tournament held each April in Augusta, Georgia, update its qualification criteria to prevent LIV golfers from competing in the season’s first major? For now, the answer is no, but the green jackets left the door open to make changes as it sees fit in the future.

LIV Golf signed a host of former Masters champions and there are also several major champions who have won their titles in the last five years and are thus eligible as well as players who appear to be locked into finishing the year in the top 50 in the world.

Ahead of ANGC Chairman Fred Ridley’s announcement, Golfweek asked more than a dozen players, including past champions Jordan Spieth (2015) and Trevor Immelman (2008), whether LIV golfers should be allowed to play in the Masters. Here are their answers.

LIV golfers allowed: Augusta National announces no changes to eligibility criteria for 2023 Masters

“At Augusta National, we have faith that golf, which has overcome many challenges through the years, will endure again.”

Invitations for the 2023 Masters will be hitting the mail shortly for Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed.

The past champions who have departed for LIV Golf, will be welcomed to the field at the first major, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley confirmed on Tuesday.

“We will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament,” Ridley wrote. “Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it. Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April.”

Ridley, however, left open the possibility that those eligibility criteria, which includes using the Official World Golf Ranking to determine invitees, could be revised in the future.

“As we have said in the past, we look at every aspect of the Tournament each year, and any modifications or changes to invitation criteria for future Tournaments will be announced in April,” he said.

In addition to Mickelson, Johnson and Reed, LIV Golf has signed former Masters champions Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia. Recent major winners Cameron Smith (2022 British Open), Bryson DeChambeau (2020 U.S. Open) and Brooks Kopek (2019 PGA Championship) will receive invites too, as will the likes of Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch and Harold Varner III, who are ranked within the top 50 in the world. In all, 16 LIV golfers are expected to be exempt into the 2023 Masters.

Ridley’s comments didn’t mention LIV Golf by name but included the most direct statement of how Augusta National views the upstart league, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

“We have reached a seminal point in the history of our sport,” Ridley wrote. “At Augusta National, we have faith that golf, which has overcome many challenges through the years, will endure again.”

Golfweek asked more than a dozen PGA Tour pros, including past champions, whether LIV golfers should be allowed to play in the Masters and to a man they didn’t have a problem with it. The general sentiment was summed up by 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who said, “If they have qualified via various criteria, yes. It is an invitational, though, so the Masters can decide on its own criteria.”

The 87th Masters is scheduled to begin on April 6.

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Adam Scott’s phone went off at his Australian Open press conference and revealed a familiar ring tone

It’s safe to say Adam Scott hasn’t forgotten about his Masters victory.

It’s safe to say Adam Scott hasn’t forgotten about his victory at the Masters in 2013. Look no further than when his phone went off during a pre-tournament press conference Wednesday morning in Australia.

Scott was gathered with members of the media ahead of the 2022 ISPS Handa Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne. He was answering questions about the Australian Open’s unique format, which will use two courses and have men, women and all-abilities golfers competing, and about being in his home country the past two weeks when his phone started ringing. And his ringtone was a familiar one.

It was the Masters theme.

It’s coming up on a decade since Scott captured his green jacket in the rain, but safe to say he fondly remembers that day.

Last week, Scott announced he and caddie Steve Williams were reuniting. Williams was on the bag when Scott won the Masters and rose to World No. 1 in 2014.

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Photos show changes to Augusta National’s Par 3 course are complete, along with several new structures

Aerial photos give us a peek of the changes down in Georgia.

On May 31, Eureka Earth posted photos of the Augusta National Par 3 course torn to shreds, more resembling a dirt patch than a golf course.

Just months later, the popular Twitter page has updated the golf world with news pictures of the short course, which look spectacular.

The changes feature a few additions.

According to EE, “two new cabins, an event building, a member restroom, a player pavilion, a merchandise building, and two restrooms, have been completed.”

It’s hard to imagine we’ll get any information directly from Augusta in the coming months, leaving us to wait until the 2023 Masters — scheduled for April 6-9 — for official word.

The Par 3 Contest will be held Wednesday, April 5.

For comparison, here’s the original photo from May.

Earlier this week, Eureka Earth posted photos of the newly renovated 13th tee that has extended the hole some 30 yards.

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Renovation to the 13th tee box at Augusta National Golf Club looks to be complete, ready for Masters 2023

Having a short iron into the par 5 looks to be a thing of the past.

The 13th hole at Augusta National has long been a place of possibility for players looking to make a move up the leaderboard at the 11th hour. In 2022, the hole played a mere 510 yards, and with the opportunity to cut the corner, it could play much shorter.

To put it in perspective, Rory McIlroy hit 3-wood off the tee Sunday of the 2022 Masters and had only 203 yards into the green.

This strategy, however, is no longer an option.

Eureka Earth, your source for all things Augusta National during the year, posted an updated look at the 13th tee box Tuesday morning, and construction seems to be complete.

On June 20th, Eureka Earth posted photos of construction beginning on the historic par 5. Judging by the length between the outlined new tee box and the existing one, the back tee could play 40-50 yards longer in the 2023 Masters in April.

Knowing how Augusta likes to keep things under wraps, we most likely won’t know the official yardage of the hole until Masters week.

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