The Masters has at all times been an invitational occasion, even earlier than it was referred to as the Masters, although its attraction and status have swelled for the reason that event’s early days. The chance to play right now is hardly a shock — Augusta Nationwide publishes a roster of clear-cut methods to qualify, from being a earlier Masters champion to ending within the prime 4 on the earlier 12 months’s P.G.A. Championship, although it has the authority to ask others to compete. However gamers aren’t at all times conscious that the storied event comes with a bodily invitation.
Patrick Reed, who earned one in every of Augusta Nationwide’s inexperienced jackets in 2018, recalled that he had been tipped off to keep watch over the mail for his first invitation after he received the Wyndham Championship, however that it was nonetheless “unbelievable” when the envelope from the membership close to the Savannah River arrived forward of the 2014 Masters. He saved that first invitation, in addition to the one from the 12 months after he received.
“Each of them are ones I’m going to save lots of and cherish ceaselessly,” he stated at a information convention in 2019, though he didn’t know the place his different invites had wound up over time. He added, “Simply the chills if you’re opening it up, it’s simply an superior expertise — though it’s only a piece of paper that has your invitation on it.”
Neither Crenshaw nor Participant may recall every other event with fairly such a behavior, or, a minimum of, not one fairly so polished. (“I don’t bear in mind getting a letter from the R&A,” Participant, who has lengthy described the British Open as his favourite event, mused wryly of that occasion’s organizer.) Many in golf, together with Crenshaw, ascribe the enduring formality to Bobby Jones, an Augusta Nationwide founder who died in 1971.
“To me, it displays what Bob Jones at all times retained on practically every part that’s at Augusta: It’s correct, it has a certain quantity of grace to it, there’s a contact of humility,” Crenshaw stated. “It’s fantastically accomplished, and the font has by no means modified, and the seal is on it. It’s the best way they do issues.”
