The Masters has been held the same way for over 90 years, and that continuity is part of what makes it special. Here's what to know before you watch.
The most famous garment in sports. The winner of The Masters receives a green blazer — the official color is called "Masters Green" — in a ceremony immediately after the final round. The defending champion places the jacket on the new champion's shoulders in Butler Cabin, which has been broadcast live since 1956.
Past champions are awarded their jacket and may wear it on Augusta National property. They are not permitted to take the jacket off the premises permanently — it stays in a locker at Augusta National and is returned by the champion when they visit. Non-members who win keep their jacket for one year, then it returns to Augusta.
The jacket originated in 1937, when Augusta National members began wearing them to be identifiable as hosts to patrons attending the tournament.
Every year on the Tuesday before The Masters, all living past champions gather for the Champions Dinner — an exclusive gathering inside Augusta National's clubhouse. The defending champion chooses the menu, typically serving a meal from their home country or culture.
The dinner was started by Ben Hogan in 1952. Past menus have ranged from Tiger Woods's cheeseburgers and fries (1998) to international cuisine chosen by international winners. The Champions Dinner is one of golf's most celebrated private events.
Augusta National doesn't officially confirm the menu in advance, but past champions and journalists typically reveal what was served.
Every Wednesday before The Masters, players compete in a nine-hole par-3 contest on Augusta National's separate par-3 course — a beautifully manicured nine-hole layout alongside the main course. Caddies play, family members caddie, children accompany their fathers, and the mood is celebratory rather than competitive.
A famous superstition holds that no par-3 contest winner has ever gone on to win The Masters that week — a streak that has held for decades. Players have openly admitted to throwing shots to avoid winning the par-3 contest for fear of the jinx.
Each Masters opens with an honorary starter ceremony on the first tee Thursday morning. Living legends of the game — typically players in their 80s or older — hit ceremonial first shots to officially begin the tournament. Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have performed this role for many years.
The ceremony is brief and reverent — the players receive enormous applause from thousands of fans who gather at the first tee early Thursday morning specifically to witness it.
Augusta National famously keeps food and beverage prices at the concession stands at levels that would have seemed reasonable in 1975. The pimento cheese sandwich — a Masters staple — has been available for under $2 for years. Beer prices are similarly low by stadium concession standards.
This is a deliberate choice by Augusta National: the club wants patrons focused on the golf, not the economics of eating. The low prices are a point of pride and a signal that Augusta National operates by its own rules and standards.
Augusta National calls its ticket-holders "patrons," not fans. Cell phones were banned from the course grounds for years — a policy relaxed in recent years to limited photography. Running is prohibited. Folding chairs must be placed in designated areas. The experience is deliberately controlled.
Tickets are not sold publicly — they come through a waiting list that is effectively closed to new applicants. Many patrons have held their passes in the family for decades, passed down through generations. The scarcity of tickets is part of the Masters mystique.
Butler Cabin is a small cabin on Augusta National property where the green jacket ceremony is televised. Every Masters Sunday, after the final putt drops, the new champion walks from the 18th green to Butler Cabin for a brief interview and the jacket ceremony — the moment when the previous year's champion places the green blazer on the new winner's shoulders.
This moment has produced some of the sport's most emotional images. Tiger placing the jacket on his son Charlie's shoulders in his mind after the 2019 win. Phil Mickelson, in tears, receiving his jacket in 2004. The ceremony's intimacy — conducted inside a small cabin, not on a public stage — gives it a personal quality unlike most major trophy presentations.
Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most private institutions in American sport. The club does not release its membership list. Membership is by invitation only, with a waiting list estimated at decades. The grounds are never open to the public except during Masters week. The club has no website beyond the Masters tournament site.
For decades, the club admitted only white male members. The first Black member was admitted in 1990. Women were excluded until 2012, when Augusta National admitted its first two female members — a change that came with significant public pressure ahead of Augusta National hosting the US Women's Amateur. Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore became the first women members that year.