In sports around the world there are emblematic trophies. The historic golden piece of the winners of the world Cup soccer ball, the rings used on their hands by NBA champion players, the elegant Venus dish received by the winners of the Wimbledon women’s tennis tournament are some of the most emblematic examples.
However, there is a trophy that it is not made of gold, silver or bronze, but simply of cloth and that represents absolute excellence in its sport: the historic green jacket that champions of the Augustan Mastersone of the so-called Big Four on the PGA Tour and, for many, the tournament of golf most important on the planet.
That’s why Olympics.com will cover the history and magnitude of what is perhaps the most famous piece of clothing in world sport.
A symbol of excellence
To retrace the history of the Augusta green jacket, you have to travel back to the early 1930s. What’s more, the story didn’t even begin in the United States, but in a town in north-west England called Hoylake.
In the year 1930, the Royal Liverpool Golf Clubwhere the British Open Golf, held a reception for all of its athletes. The most famous golfer of the time, the American Bobby Jonesattended the event and became obsessed in the uniform worn by the captains of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club: a red jacket.
Jones peppered with questions about the item of clothing Kenneth Stroker, one of the captains, throughout the match. Until at one point the British replied: “Mr. Jones, if you are so fascinated with this, I will give you my coat in case you win our championship this week”, was Stroker’s phrase, according to the English club historian Joe Pinnington in an interview with the CNN.
Said and done, Jones prevailed in the championship and returned to the United States with that new and prestigious outfit.
Jones would found in 1933 the Augusta National Golf Club and, four years later, he decided that all club members should wear a green jacket to stand out from the rest of the club’s patrons.
We had to wait 12 years, until the edition of the Augusta Masters in 1949so that Bobby Jones himself established the rule that, from that contest onwards, each champion of the golf tournament held at his club would receive as the main prize a green jacket with the emblem of the Augusta National Golf Club.
Thus, the first winner of the contest to take the garment as a trophy was Sam Sneadwho prevailed in the tournament of that 1949.
The green jacket: elite and avant-garde clothing
The first green jackets were made by the textile company Brooks Uniform Company since 1937. However, over the years, it was seen that the material was too thick.
Thus, in 1967, the Augusta National Golf Club decided to change its supplier and from then to date, the suit has been made by Hamilton Tailoring Co., a company based in the city of Cincinnati. Despite hundreds of thousands of orders over the decades, the company has never made one of these jackets for individual customers. They only made the suit for the champion of each edition of the golf tournament.
- The color of the jackets is Pantone 342. However, that green has been so emblematic throughout the history of sports in the United States that over time it began to become popular as the Verde Masters.
- The green jacket is classic. It is three button, single breasted and single vented, with the Augusta National Golf Club shield on the left pocket and also on the brass buttons.
- The tropical weight wool comes from the Forstmann Co. mill in Dublin, Georgia. Meanwhile, the buttons are made by the Waterbury Co. of Connecticut and the patch on the chest pocket is made by the A&B Emblem Co. in Weaverville, North Carolina.
- He owner name is sewn on the inner label of the jacket and due to the complexity of its preparation, it takes approximately one month to manufacture each unit of this garment.
The green jacket, only for champions
There are a couple of unbreakable rules regarding the wearing of the green jacket of the Augusta Masters champions. The most important: each champion can use it only during the year of his reign. Then he must return it to the club. In addition, it can only be worn in public within the facilities of the Augusta National Golf Club.
Another rule is that in each edition of the Masters, the last champion must help the current winner of the championship to wear the new jacket.
All these rules allowed for unique stories about transgressions, champions who ‘forgot’ to return the garment and even winners who had to help themselves to put on the new jacket.
In 1966, for the first time, the particularity occurred that the champion of the last edition revalidated his title and was crowned again in the Masters. Such was the case with Jack Nicklauswho had to help himself put on the garment, after being crowned.
Since then, it was decided that when this phenomenon occurred again, the person in charge of helping to dress the champion would be the president of the emblematic club. Thus, it occurred in 2002, with Nick Faldoand in 2002, when Tiger Woods he won his third career Masters and second in a row.
There were also two exceptional cases of Masters champion golfers who did not return their jackets in the following edition of the championship.
That happened with the South African Gary Player, who in 1961 was the first international winner of the tournament and took the garment to his country to never return it, and with the Spanish Severino Ballesteroschampion in 1980 and 1983, who decided to leave one of his green jackets in his personal museum in Pedreña, despite numerous attempts by the Augusta authorities to recover the suit.
The 2023 Masters, with the expected candidates and a legend
This April 6 will begin the 2023 edition of the most important golf tournament in the world. The defending champion of 2022, the American Scottie Scheffleris the top favorite to defend the title, after he won the Players Championship with a margin of five strokes in February, considered the fifth largest on the circuit.
One of his main rivals will be the Spanish Jon Rahm, who in February won the Genesis Invitational to return to number one in the world ranking for a few weeks. The one from Barrika has three victories in this 2023.
For his part, the Australian Cameron Smithreigning champion of the British Open, also starts among the favourites.
The participation of the legendary Tiger Woodswho in 2022 had returned to the mythical Augusta contest after having suffered a serious traffic accident.
The American, quintuple champion of the Augusta Masters (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019), he would carry out his 25th participation in the most important golf event on the planet.
