From Bobby Jones's dream to Tiger's record-tying fifth jacket — 90 years of the most celebrated event in golf.
The Masters exists because of Bobby Jones — and Bobby Jones is worth knowing. He is the only player in history to win what was then considered the Grand Slam of golf in a single year: the US Amateur, British Amateur, US Open, and British Open all in 1930. After completing that achievement at age 28, Jones retired from competitive golf, having never turned professional.
Jones wanted to build a golf course that represented his vision of the ideal course — one that was challenging but beautiful, strategic but fair, that rewarded creativity and punished recklessness. He partnered with Scottish architect Alister MacKenzie, and together they built Augusta National Golf Club on the site of a former nursery in Augusta, Georgia, opening in 1932.
Two years later, Jones and Clifford Roberts organized the first Augusta National Invitation Tournament. The name "The Masters" was resisted by Jones at first — he considered it too presumptuous — but Roberts persisted, and by the late 1930s "The Masters" had become the event's official name.
The first Masters was won by Horton Smith in 1934. The early tournaments established the event's unique character: the beauty of the course, the invitation-only field, and the sense that Augusta National operated by its own rules and standards. Gene Sarazen provided the tournament's first legendary moment in the very second edition, holing a 4-wood for a double eagle (albatross) on the 15th hole in the final round — "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" — to force a playoff, which he won.
The Masters wasn't played from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II. When it resumed, it quickly grew in prestige. Jimmy Demaret became the first three-time champion (1940, 1947, 1950). Sam Snead won three times. Ben Hogan, despite winning nine career majors, won the Masters only once (1951, 1953).
Arnold Palmer transformed The Masters into a television event. His four titles (1958, 1960, 1962, 1964) coincided with the rise of golf on TV, and "Arnie's Army" — the enthusiastic galleries that followed him — brought an emotional energy to Augusta that had never existed before.
But it was Jack Nicklaus who defined the Masters era. Six titles between 1963 and 1986 — including his legendary final major at age 46, when he charged through the field with a stunning final-round 65 to claim the 1986 Masters in what is still considered the greatest final round in the tournament's history.
Tiger Woods announced his presence on the world stage by winning the 1997 Masters at age 21 by 12 strokes — the largest winning margin in Masters history. It was a performance of such dominance that Augusta National immediately began "Tiger-proofing" the course, adding distance and difficulty in specific areas to address his otherworldly length.
Woods won the Masters four more times — 2001, 2002, 2005, and the emotionally charged 2019 comeback, when he won his fifth green jacket and 15th major championship after years of back surgeries and personal difficulties. The 2019 victory was one of sport's most celebrated moments.