But let me just say: what the champions will get courtesy of Jon Rahm is downright perfect. It’s tapas and pintxos! Featuring Iberico ham, Spanish potato omelets and chicken croquettes — side note, if you haven’t had Spanish tapas, you need to!
That’s followed by a crab salad and the main course will be Pil-Pil fish or ribeye. Dessert? It’s cake.
Clark will make his debut at Augusta National next month.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — In honor of Players Championship week on the PGA Tour and with a tip of the cap to Gary Koch’s most famous call here, Wyndham Clark’s last week was better than most.
Sure, the reigning U.S. Open champion drained a 26-foot birdie to win the B flight of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. That timely putt earned him $2.2 million for finishing a distant five strokes behind Scottie Scheffler, but the difference between a solo second and what otherwise would have been a T-2 with Shane Lowry was worth a cool $400,000. That alone would make for a very good week, right, and good work if you can get it.
But the highlight of Clark’s week had nothing to do with Arnie’s Place. To borrow the slogan of API presenting sponsor Mastercard, Clark’s best round of the week was priceless. His week, which began last Monday with an appearance at Wells Fargo Championship media day in Charlotte, soon got a whole lot better when Quail Hollow founder and Augusta National Golf Club member Johnny Harris flew with Clark — private, of course — to Augusta, Georgia, for his first trip around the famed Alister MacKenzie layout.
“It was amazing,” Clark said. “That’s a place I always dreamed of playing at and then to do it with my dad and brother was awesome. We were walking the first couple of holes and we were just looking at each other and saying this is so cool.”
Clark already has plans to return to Augusta National with his caddie John Ellis after the Players and ramp up his preparation for his Masters debut next month.
“We’re going to play one fun round together, probably have a good bet, and then we’ll get down to business,” Clark said.
He’s not the only wide-eyed Masters rookie who has already made his maiden voyage around the course ranked third in Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses in the U.S. list. Nick Dunlap, the reigning U.S. Amateur champ and winner of The American Express in January, paid a visit late last month during the Mexico Open at Vidanta, playing for two days with another pair of first-timers Lee Hodges and Denny McCarthy and veteran Chris Kirk.
“In my opinion, it’s the most special place in the world as far as golf courses go,” Dunlap said. “There’s a different feeling about it and it took me a day and a half to where I would stop just looking around and be like, man, I’ve got to play golf here. There’s such an awe factor, I mean, just driving down Magnolia Lane and then the golf course is just perfect. It’s the most nervous I’ve been for a shot that means nothing. It’s just different.”
The Taste of the Masters features a new option for fans in 2024.
If you want the Masters experience but don’t have a ticket for the first men’s major of the year, the green jackets in Georgia have you covered.
From the pimento cheese to the egg salad and bar-b-que pork, you can get the delicacies of Augusta National delivered to your door with the 2024 Taste of the Masters hosting kits.
Taste of the Masters made its debut during the November 2020 Masters that was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the kits were such a hit that Augusta National has kept the tradition alive.
New in 2024, the Classics Kit serves 4-6 people and costs $99.95. The Large Hosting Kit serves 12-14 people and costs $179.95.
Map & Flag is set to be the tournament’s first offsite hospitality venue.
Patrons with deep pockets will have a new hospitality venue to experience at the 2024 Masters.
Map & Flag – the new venue off Washington Road in Augusta, Georgia, that was teased ahead of last year’s tournament – will cost a whopping $17,000 for weekly passes according to a Sports Business Journal report on Monday. Map & Flag daily passes were not sold, but tournament badges are included with the weekly pass. Similar to the course and tournament, the new venue will also not allow cell phones on property.
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced the tournament’s first official hospitality program outside the gates of Augusta National before the 2023 Masters and noted how the venue, just a short walk from Augusta National’s north gate, was created to “meet the evolving expectations of our patrons and guests.”
Map & Flag is set to feature 80 TVs as part of an “expansive food hall and high-energy sports bar” with three main dining options as well as a garden and merchandise shop.
As of today, 83 players have been invited to compete in the first men’s major of the year.
Augusta National Golf Club announced Wednesday morning that Ryo Hisatsune, Joaquin Niemann and Thorbjorn Olesen have all accepted special invitations to compete in the upcoming 2024 Masters. Niemann will make his fifth Masters appearance, Olesen his fourth, and Hisatsune will make his debut.
“The Masters Tournament has a long-standing tradition of inviting leading international players who are not otherwise qualified,” said chairman Fred Ridley. “Today’s announcement represents the Tournament’s continued commitment towards developing interest in the game of golf across the world. We look forward to welcoming each player to Augusta National this spring.”
Niemann has been on a quest to reach the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking to play his way into the Masters field over the last few months. He has top-five finishes in three DP World Tour starts this season and won the Australian Open back in December. The Chilean also won LIV Golf’s season-opener in Mexico via a playoff with Sergio Garcia.
Olesen won the Ras Al Khaimah Championship last month for his eighth DP World Tour victory and third in as many years. Over his last seven starts he has five top-10 finishes.
Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen, Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann have accepted invitations to compete in the 2024 Masters Tournament. pic.twitter.com/2O6yAncMIb
Hisatsune became the first Japanese player to win Rookie of the Year on the DP World Tour last year following a season that featured a win at the French Open, his first on the tour. He’s recently finished T-11 at the American Express on the PGA Tour and also logged a T-8 and T-13 late last year at the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship, respectively.
As of the announcement, 83 players have been invited to compete in the first men’s major of the year. With seven weeks until the Masters, players can still play their way into the field by either winning a PGA Tour event or finishing inside the top 50 of the OWGR the week prior to the tournament.
The field of players bound for Augusta National is starting to take shape.
The professional golf schedule has gotten off to a slow start this year, but fear not golf fans, because major championship season is right around the Amen Corner. That’s right, the 2024 Masters is just 50 days away.
Players still have some time to earn their way into the first men’s major of the season, whether it be through tournament wins or the Official World Golf Ranking, but the field of world-class players bound for Augusta National Golf Club is starting to take shape.
Using the 2024 qualifications for invitations, here’s the current field list of players who will be making the trip down Magnolia Lane in just under two months. Check out the field (so far) below.
Augusta National Golf Club will have a slightly new look when players drive down Magnolia Lane this year.
Augusta National Golf Club will have a slightly new look when players drive down Magnolia Lane for the 2024 Masters.
The longest hole on the golf course, the par-5 second hole named Pink Dogwood, will now play to 585 yards after the club moved the tee box back 10 yards and to the left. The switch was quietly announced when Augusta National sent its media guide to the press on Monday.
Pink Dogwood played as the easiest hole on the course at last year’s Masters, with a scoring average of 4.637. Its cumulative ranking is second easiest with an all-time scoring average of 4.775. The last change to the hole was made in 2010 when the front of the green was widened. The tee box hasn’t been altered since 1999 when it was moved back 20-25 yards.
The alteration continues a trend of tee-box movement in recent years and follows last year’s unveiling of the new tee box on the par-5 13th, which lengthened the hole by 35 yards.
Langer had previously announced that the 2024 Masters would be his last one.
The winningest golfer in PGA Tour Champions history is going to miss significant time because of an injury.
Bernhard Langer, 66, announced Friday he tore his Achilles tendon during a training exercise Thursday in Boca Raton, Florida. Two weeks ago, he finished T-22 in the PGA Tour Champions 2024 season opener in Hawaii.
“I will have surgery today to repair the injury, which will cause me to miss time playing competitive golf as I recover,” Langer said in a statement. “Throughout my career, faith and family have been my bedrocks, providing me strength and guiding me through difficult times. I will lean on both as I work towards a return to competition.
“I appreciate everyone’s support during this time, and I look forward to seeing the fans and my fellow competitors back on the course soon.”
He has 46 wins on the PGA Tour Champions, the most all-time, and 12 senior major championships.
The Achilles is the tendon that goes up the back of the ankle and connects the foot to the leg. It runs from the heel bone to the bottom of the calf muscle. It directs movement from the leg to the foot, including pointing and flexing.
Full recovery from an Achilles tendon injury can take up to 12 months, meaning it’s unlikely we see him play at the Masters.
The odds of injuring an Achilles tendon increase with age, according to the Mayo Clinic. Most Achilles injuries happen between the ages of 30 and 40. Men are five times more likely to experience the injury than women.
Langer is the defending champion at the Chubb Classic, Feb. 16-18, at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, as well as the U.S. Senior Open, which was his record-setting Champions victory last summer.
De la Fuente is a senior at the University of Houston.
A pair of major championship tickets have been punched in Panama.
Mexico’s Santiago De la Fuente shot a 6-under 64 in the final round, the low round of the day, to win the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama City by two shots over his fellow countryman Omar Morales (69). With the victory, de la Fuente has earned a spot in both the 2024 Masters at Augusta National and 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon.
In addition to the Masters and Open, de la Fuente has also earned invitations to this summer’s Amateur Championship and the U.S. Amateur. He and Morales are also exempt to the final stage of qualifying for the U.S. Open. De la Fuente finished T-2 one shot behind champion Aaron Jarvis in 2022.
¡Con este putt, Santiago de la Fuente (-10) se consagra como campeón del Latin America Amateur Championship 2024! 🇲🇽🏆
With this putt, Santiago de la Fuente (-10) is the 2024 Latin America Amateur Champion! 🇲🇽🏆 pic.twitter.com/JxS5R6jVS8
— Latin America Amateur Championship (@LAAC_Golf) January 21, 2024
De la Fuente is a senior at the University of Houston and finished T-2 at the Argent Financial Classic earlier this fall. Morales is a junior at UCLA and finished T-1 in October at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate and finished runner-up two weeks later at the Cal Poly Invitational.
Burke claimed that he received more for attending the Champions Dinner at the Masters than he did for winning it.
John “Jack” Joseph Burke Jr. won 16 times on the PGA Tour, including two majors in 1956 – the Masters and PGA Championship – earning him Player of the Year honors. In 1952, he won four tournaments in a row, along with the Vardon Trophy, which is awarded for low scoring average. He played on five Ryder Cup teams during the 1950s, captained twice and hosted another at his own course.
Burke died on Friday at the age of 100.
While still at the peak of his abilities, he retired from the Tour and built one of the country’s first golf-only clubs – Champions Golf Club in Houston – with his former childhood babysitter and closest friend, fellow World Golf Hall of Famer Jimmy Demaret.
Burke grew up on River Oaks Country Club in Texas during the Great Depression, where his father, Jack, served as the first club pro in the state’s history and mentored the likes of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Jack Grout and Harvey Penick. Young Jackie suffered from asthma and couldn’t play other sports so at age 7 he began sitting and listening at the feet of his father, who is himself a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame.
By age 12, Burke Jr. could break par and a year later gave his first lesson to John P. Fusler, who paid him $350 when Burke helped lower his scores from 100 to 85.
“He thought I was the greatest teacher in the world, but all I was doing was relating what I had heard at the dinner table,” Burke told the USGA’s Golf Journal in 1995.
He landed a job as a teaching professional at Galveston Country Club in Houston before he turned 20, and would later hold jobs at Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey and Metropolis Country Club in New York. One time, in the company of Demaret and his golf buddy Bob Hope, the comedian innocently asked Burke, “What do you do?”
“I’m a golf professional,” Burke answered.
“Where?” Hope asked. “At Boys Town?”
The finest hour as a player for “the pro from Boys Town,” as Burke was affectionately called, may have been the final round of the 1956 Masters, which is still widely considered to be the toughest conditions of cold, wind and rain in tournament history. Somehow, Burke held it together against the elements to shoot 71 and erase an eight-stroke deficit as amateur Ken Venturi ballooned to an 80.
“He handed me the trophy,” said Burke, overlooking the fact that he tied for the low round of the day to finish at 1-over 289, still tied for the highest winning score in tournament history. “I thank him a lot for that.”
Burke, who was paired in the final round with Mike Souchak, always was known for his stellar putting and his short stick was his sword and his shield at Augusta National as he relied on a short, tap putting stroke.
“Sand had blown out of the bunkers all over the green,” he told Golf Digest in 2002 of a critical birdie putt he holed at 17. “I’d putted on sand greens in east Texas that were really fast, and factored that in, but I still thought I’d hit it about halfway — till the wind blew it right in the center of the cup. Mike’s a cheerleader-type guy, and he ran to pick the ball out of the cup and then clapped me so hard on the back I had to walk around on the 18th tee to recover. I put my second shot on 18 in the right bunker and had to make a downhill four-footer to save my par. It still makes me almost ill to think about that putt with the outcome riding on it.”
Burke won the 1956 PGA Championship at Blue Hill Golf & Country Club in Canton, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, back when it was contested at match play, defeating Ted Kroll, 3 and 2, in the final.
“I beat eight guys to win the PGA,” Burke recalled. “Each day you felt like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and some guy was going to push you off. I never felt like I was going to win the PGA. Never.”
Indeed, Burke needed two extra holes to prevail over Fred Haas in the third round and was five down after 14 holes in the 36-hole semifinals before rallying to knock off Ed Furgol on the 37th hole. And for good measure, he trailed three down midway into the finals before edging Kroll.
At the time, the life of a Tour pro was a meager existence, even during a banner year. Many years later, Burke claimed that he received more for attending the Champions Dinner at the Masters than he did for winning it.
“I won the PGA in Boston and my check was hot,” Burke once told the Houston Chronicle. “I couldn’t cash my check for $6,000. The PGA had to guarantee my check.”
It led Burke to consider scaling back his tournament schedule to spend more time with his family. He and Demaret, a three-time winner of the Masters who died in 1983, shared a mutual interest in creating a haven for hardcore golfers that would capitalize on the knowledge and experience they’d gained from playing the game around the world.
“Golf is really in your blood when you drive through a strange area and start envisioning golf holes on every piece of property around the next bend,” Burke said in his autobiography, “It’s Only a Game.”
“This is what happened with Jimmy and me when we envisioned Champions. We looked at several pieces of property, but the land here looked just right for a golf course.”
They acquired 500 acres (at $500 per) in Northwest Houston in 1957, out in what was then a forest of pine and oak trees in the middle of nowhere, to build two courses – Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit – and hired Ralph Plummer as the architect.
On April 21, 1959, celebrities Bing Crosby, Mickey Mantle and James Garner joined Ben Hogan, Jay Hebert, Bob Rosburg and Souchak among the more than 6,000 who attended the grand opening. A day earlier, Burke and Julius Boros battled in an 18-hole playoff at the Houston Classic. Boros shot a 3-under-par 69 at Memorial Park … and lost by five.
“I believe we should have a saliva test on Jackie,” Boros said at the time. “As soon as he is available, I would like to sign up for a series of lessons.”
Burke’s reputation as “America’s grand golf sage” helped attract numerous prominent competitions to the club and tested golf’s elite amateurs and pros ever since. The Cypress Creek Course was home of the Tour Championship five times between 1990 and 2003, hosted tour events from 1966-’71 – Ben Hogan chose the course for his final tournament appearance of his career at the 1971 Houston Champions International – the 1967 Ryder Cup, 1969 U.S. Open, 1993 U.S. Amateur, 1998 and 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, and 2020 U.S. Women’s Open. Burke was one of five Champions members who have won the PGA Championship, along with Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton and the late Dave Marr and Jay Hebert. When a local sportscaster asked Burke if that’s unusual, he said, “Hell, we’ve got three members who walked on the moon,” referring to astronauts Alan Shepard, who hit a golf ball there, Gene Cernan and Charles Duke.
Jack and Robin Burke in 2016. (Golfweek/Tracy Wilcox)
Burke continued to foster the same atmosphere that his father promoted at River Oaks. Golf is it at Champions. In fact, he was so dedicated to protecting the spirit of competition that he refused to consider members who have a handicap higher than 15.
“You play your way in, you don’t buy your way in,” Burke once said.
Burke claimed that a country club where no one plays the game seriously “is like a yacht club where no one can sail a boat.”
Champions Club likely will be his most lasting legacy, which is just how Burke always wanted it.
“My dad said to me once, ‘Son, before you leave this planet, you try and leave more than two footprints here. So, I said, ‘I will do that,’ ” he said. “This is my footprint.”
Burke, who served in the Marines during World War II and fathered six children, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000, and in 2004 received the Bob Jones Award from the U.S. Golf Association, which is considered its highest honor and awarded for distinguished sportsmanship.
Burke has tutored the likes of Crenshaw, Elkington, Sutton and Phil Mickelson. Crenshaw once described a lesson with Burke as “a full-contact sport,” and former touring pro turned Golf Channel commentator Billy Ray Brown is living proof of that. Brown, a former University of Houston star, missed a putt at the start of a lesson from Brown and received a whack alongside the head for it.
“Son,” Burke said, “I want you to feel pain when you miss a putt.”
When Mickelson made his first pilgrimage to Champions for a lesson from Burke, he was challenged to pass Burke’s putting-pressure test: holing 100 straight three-footers. In typical Mickelson fashion, he bet Burke dinner at Houston’s finest restaurant in town that he could do it on the first try. Mickelson missed his fourth putt and wanted to double down.
In recounting the story to Golf Digest, Burke said, “Man, I can’t eat that much.” During his heyday, Burke would make the 100 putts every night before allowing himself dinner. “You’d get to 89 and you were a little tired and hungry. The key is to strike a carpenter’s 90, with the blade square to the line, and concern yourself less with sinking putts. Losers are result-oriented — winners are execution-oriented. On long putts, your target is that three-foot cup. You need mental aids.”
“Being with him was like a tonic for the soul,” Crenshaw said.
Sutton, who made Burke one of his assistant captains to the 2004 U.S. Ryder Cup team, said the smartest decision he made as a young pro was buying a house next door to Burke, who he considered one of the few people who really understood the game in its entirety.
“He’s seen all the great players, he knows how they hit it. He understands the golf swing, he’s made it happen and he’s been a great player in his own day,” said Sutton, who looked at Burke as a spiritual advisor, sports psychologist, sounding board, confidante, cheerleader and surrogate parent. “Without even knowing it, he did a great deal to make me a better, more well-rounded person.”
