Tag: Butler Cabin

Masters Survey 2024: Keegan Bradley on the ‘secret bathrooms,’ Justin Thomas dreams of the Champions locker room & Zach Johnson’s Butler Cabin humble brag among pros favorite building or room at Augusta National

Keegan Bradley’s answer to the question of his favorite building or room at Augusta National might be the best answer of this year’s entire Golfweek Masters Survey. “This is going to sound strange but there are these secret bathrooms on the course,” …

Keegan Bradley’s answer to the question of his favorite building or room at Augusta National might be the best answer of this year’s entire Golfweek Masters Survey. 

“This is going to sound strange but there are these secret bathrooms on the course,” he said. “There’s one behind 11 tee and one as you are walking down 13 to the left. It’s a nice moment to get out of the scene for a second, take a breath, it’s very calming. I like to do that.”

Strange, indeed. Forget for a moment that he picked a place that technically may be neither a building or a room, but who knew the club had “secret bathrooms.”

The rest of the answers are a bit more what you’d suspect, although more votes for the caddie building than expected. The locker room got its share of votes, including from Kevin Streelman, who liked to grab a coffee and sit on the balcony overlooking the famed Tree and first tee. “It’s pure,” Steve Stricker said of the locker room. But count Tony Finau and Justin Thomas among the pros who long for the day that they can get the first-class upgrade to the prestige of the Champions locker room, of which Padraig Harrington said, “there’s only one room to be at Augusta National and I’ve never been there.” Gary Player, a three-time Masters champion, has and he confirmed it’s everything it’s cracked up to be, saying it has “an ambiance like no other.”

Although the Black Knight gets topped for best humble brag by Zach Johnson, who proclaimed, his favorite spot at Augusta National is Butler Cabin. “Ideally on Sunday night,” said the 2007 Masters champ, “is pretty good.” That answer is tough to beat.

The locker room is the coolest place.

The caddie building is tough to beat. A lot of different characters down there, a little more relaxed and the food is really good there.

Right now, it’s the locker room. Hopefully someday it will be the champions locker room.

Any room that’s got President Eisenhower or Bobby Jones in it. Though the Champions Locker Room has an ambiance like no other. 

The clubhouse is cool. Player dining is nice and quiet. 

I love the lockerroom. It’s our safe place, get out of the chaos, room on the side that we can eat in and looks over No. 1 tee and see everybody out there. 

I don’t even use the locker room. I just walk across the street from my bus.

The Champions Locker room but I haven’t earned the right to be there yet.

This is going to sound strange but there are these secret bathrooms on the course. There’s one behind 11 tee and one as you are walking down 13 to the left. It’s a nice moment to get out of the scene for a second, take a breath, it’s very calming. I like to do that.

The locker room is pretty special. Seeing Jack and Gary and Tiger walking around. It’s a place of solitude. There’s a little back area with a balcony and a few seats and I grab a coffee and you’re looking down at the tree and the first tee.

Family dining.

The caddie house. It feels like Augusta but comfortable, low key and relaxed. Guys in their jumpsuits. Every player feels like they can take a reprieve when they step inside the caddie house. 

I wish it was the Champion’s Locker. There’s only one room to be at Augusta National and I’ve never been there.

I imagine if I had won there it would the Champions locker room. But I do love the locker room for the rest of us. It’s pure. 

Not yet but it’s going to be the Champions locker room when I get there.

The phone room in player dining in the locker room. We are able to bring our phones in but if you need to make a call you go in this room. There have been times, especially if there is a rain delay, when there is a line to go in that room.

Butler Cabin, ideally on Sunday night is pretty good. The Tuesday dinner up above is the best.

Every golf fan needs this Masters Yule Log video from the Butler Cabin for Christmas

What about a Yule Log video for the golf fan in you?

Yes, the Yule Log is a Christmas Day tradition like no other, a continuous video of a fireplace with holiday tunes played over it.

But what about a Yule Log video for the golf fan in you?

There’s an answer for that, courtesy of the Masters’ YouTube channel. It’s a roaring fireplace … in the famed Butler Cabin at Augusta, where the famed green jackets are handed out.

There’s no music behind the crackling fire, unfortunately, but I think I have just the tune to use in combination with the video below …

Here’s the Masters Yule Long and the soundtrack you need:

The tie that binds: How a gift from Jim Nantz means the world to a recent high school graduate

When Coe Murdock graduated from high school this year, he never hesitated in choosing which tie to wear.

When Coe Murdock graduated from Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, Alabama, recently, he never hesitated in choosing a tie to wear to his ceremony.

He dug into his closet and pulled out the one gifted to him by Jim Nantz of CBS Sports when Murdock attended the Masters in 2013.

“I was so honored to hear that nine years later Coe wore my tie to his graduation,” said Nantz, who inscribed the back of the tie at the time with a note reading: To Coe, My friend. Dream Big! 4/14/2013. “Sometimes you meet young people and just know they will successful in life. This is one of those people who has a presence about him and natural kindness and respect that will take him a long way. It may even lead to saving him a seat at CBS.”

In 2012, Murdock’s parents encouraged him to write a letter to Nantz because he was developing a deep affection for sports, particularly golf, and had visions of hosting the CBS broadcast someday like Nantz. The longtime voice of CBS Sports received the letter and responded with a note and signed picture.

“I thought that was going to kind of be it,” Murdock wrote in a recent email.

But the following April, his grandmother had badges for the Masters and took Murdock and his father to the Augusta National Golf Club for the first time.

“At the time, all I really cared about was getting golf balls and autographs so of course I wanted our chairs to be on 18 green along the rope,” Murdock recalled.

Murdock’s grandmother shared the story of Nantz’s letter to a security guard named Bill standing watch outside the 18th tower and wondered if her grandson could meet his hero. A few hours later, Bill informed them that Nantz would like to meet and invited young Coe to Butler Cabin after the Green Jacket Ceremony.

“I was so new to golf I had no idea what that was,” Murdock recalled.

Just 15 minutes after the Green Jacket presentation, Coe sat in the exact chair Adam Scott had spoken with Nantz.

Coe Murdock inside Butler Cabin as Jim Nantz gives him his tie he worse during the final round of the 2013 Masters (Photo courtesy Coe Murdock).

“We talked for a few minutes and he took off his tie and signed the back and said that he loved giving people his ties, it was almost a tradition at events to do that and he gave me his that day and referenced for me to wear it for my senior graduation,” Murdock recalled.

In the ensuing years, Nantz watched Murdock grow up. They exchanged hand-written letters and pre-COVID, not a year passed without Nantz spending time with him at Augusta National.

Murdock held on to Nantz’s purple tie from Saks Fifth Avenue. It’s important to note that Nantz, who never repeated wearing ties on the air, didn’t give this keepsake to Murdock or others seeking attention. It was intended to be a kind gesture to someone he admired, respected, or, in Murdock’s case, as a source of inspiration. Somehow, along the way, the story of Nantz gifting ties (including to a senior player on an NCAA basketball championship team) got taken to a place where it lost its original meaning. He stopped giving them away.

But in the end a beautiful thing came out of it when Vineyard Vines created a “Forget Me Knots” tie with proceeds benefiting the Nantz National Alzheimer Center in Houston. Over the course of several years, more than six-figures was raised for research to a cause near and dear to Nantz. (His father died of Alzheimer’s in 2008.)

And there’s no doubt that Nantz’s tie meant a great deal to Murdock, who was helped his high school golf team win its fifth consecutive state championship earlier this month. Murdock will be headed to Auburn in the fall. As he was getting ready for his high school graduation ceremony, he told his dad he should wear the Nantz tie.

“It was cool, too, because my grandmother who had first taken me to the Masters and started this whole thing was in town from Charlotte,” he said.

“For a long time, I wanted to get into sports journalism and do what (Jim) does but recently I’ve changed my mind just as I got older and really realized just how hard the job is,” he wrote in an email to Golfweek. “The Masters and the whole experience with him definitely made me fall in love with the game though and I’ve loved it ever since. Even if I don’t go into journalism, the impact of that first year was big for me and golf.”Coe Murdock right with his father at his high school graduation ceremony. (Photo courtesy Coe Murdock.)