Jason Day sets sights on Augusta’s elite foreign legion
If Aussie star Jason Day can win the US Masters this weekend he will become only the 21st non-American to win the historic tournament.
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When Jason Day steps up to the first tee at Augusta National Golf Club tonight (Australian time)
he carries the expectations of a nation. If the newly-crowned world No.1 finishes the weekend in possession of the 2016 US Masters’ famous green jacket he will become only the 21st non-American to do to.
From its earliest days the Masters, officially known as the Augusta National Invitational Tournament, was dominated by Americans.
The tournament was born out of a plan to promote a private golf course, co-founded by American golfing great Bobby Jones. A lawyer and amateur golfer, Jones was the first player to win all of the existing major golfing tournaments: the US Open, British Open, the US Amateur Championship and the British Amateur Championship.
After this feat, in 1930, he retired from competition to concentrate on law. But he was never far from golf, designing courses and making instructional golf films, and his celebrity made it hard for him and his friends to play a quiet, relaxing round.
His solution was to create his own golf club. With other golfers he bought a former nursery in Augusta, Georgia, to build the Augusta National Golf Club. It opened in January 1933 during the Depression, when many courses were closing. To attract members and keep the club financial, Jones invited some golfing friends to a tournament in 1934. Even then it was unofficially referred to as the Masters, because of the depth of talent. Jones competed against the other top golfers, coming equal 13th behind winner American Horton Smith.
Most of the names on the leaderboard during the first 30 or 40 years were Americans, with only the occasional Scot, English-born American, Canadian, Australian or South African player making it to the final round. The first “foreigner” to come close to winning was Harry Cooper, who was born in England but whose family had moved to Texas when he was young. He came second behind Smith in 1936 and in 1938 tied for second place with Ralph Guldahl.
The first Australian to make an impact was Jim Ferrier, who tied for fourth in 1946. Ferrier was from Manly, and walked with a limp resulting from a soccer injury as a teenager. He was runner up at the British Amateur Championship in St Andrews in 1936 and moved to the US in 1940 to become a golf journalist, turning pro in 1941. Serving in the US Army during the war he soon returned to form, scoring an invitation to Augusta in 1946. In 1947 he won the PGA Championship and in 1948 tied for fourth again in the Masters.
In 1950 he hit his Masters zenith, coming second to winner Jimmy Demaret, but after playing in 1951, ’52 and ’53 he was out of the Masters until 1964 when he tied for fifth.
By then South African champion Gary Player had become the first foreigner to finally crack this bastion of American golf, beating Arnold Palmer by one stroke in 1961.
Player won again in 1974 and 1978, but despite competing up until 1998 he never again wore the green jacket. Seve Ballesteros was the next non-American to win in 1980, the year Australian Jack Newton finished equal second. Ballesteros won again in 1983, ushering in the end of American dominance with wins by German Bernhard Langer, Scot Sandy Lyle, Englishman Nick Faldo, Welshman Ian Woosnam, Fijian Vijay Singh, Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, Canadian Mike Weir, South African Trevor Immelman, Argentinian Angel Cabrera, South African Carl Schwartzel and, the first and so far the only Australian Adam Scott.
Australian Greg Norman was consistently in the top ranks of Masters competitors in the 1980s and ’90s but famously never won, coming second in 1986, 1987 and 1996.
Video has recently emerged to show that in 1987 Larry Mize took an illegal drop on the 15th hole which should have seen him penalised, leaving only Norman and Ballesteros in contention.
TALE OF THE GREEN JACKET
● The Masters winner is presented with a green jacket by the previous year’s winner. The tradition goes back to 1937 when Augusta club members wore green jackets to distinguish themselves from the crowd watching the tournament.
● In 1949 the club awarded green jackets to all previous winners. The winner can wear the jacket for a year until a new winner comes along. The previous winner’s jacket is then stored in the clubhouse. Multiple winners only get one jacket but can wear it each time they win.
The jackets are all made by the American suit manufacturers, Brooks Brothers
Originally published as Jason Day sets sights on Augusta’s elite foreign legion
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