Why We Love The Masters (Less Obvious Edition)
If you live in a part of the world where winter is a real thing, then you probably love the Masters, in part, because it is one of the first signs of spring. In the piedmont of Georgia, the blooming shrubbery at Augusta National is a couple of weeks ahead of what is to come here in the Philadelphia suburbs and so the same anticipatory emotions kick in as on Christmas Eve or the day before a big party that has become a tradition in your neighborhood.
We love the Masters for the lead changes, birdie runs, and bogey trains that happen on Masters Sunday, in particular at Amen Corner and #15 an #16. Augusta National’s layout, design, and the weight of the importance of the tournament are all ingredients in a wonderful recipe for drama and entertainment on a Sunday afternoon in April*. The NFL is in the offseason, early-season baseball is nice, but the games have yet to take on real meaning and so even if you aren’t a golfer or fan of golf, the Masters is something to latch onto and focus on.
An underrated reason we love the Masters is because it is held on the same golf course, year after year and so there are the good feelings that familiarity brings. A tradition unlike any other, as we say. And perhaps you have traditions within the tradition – you might annually fall asleep for a wonderful, life-altering nap before the second nine begins** or maybe you have the same meal every year or maybe you have a little party, a more quaint version of a Super Bowl party.
But all of that is well-known, well-contemplated and are just givens at this point. Cliches, even.
For me, yes, I love the Masters because of the signs of spring, the traditions within the tradition, and the Sunday chaos the second nine provides, for sure. But there are other reasons that the tournament holds my focus year after year and I can’t imagine I’m alone in having these reasons.
The Momentus Decision(s)
There’s not another golf course on the planet that tempts players, hole after hole, the way Augusta National tempts players with nearly every hole asking players, “want to play it safe or go for it?”
The 13th at Augusta – Azalea – is a prime example of how the course asks the players that question from the tee shot until the ball is in the hole. Off the tee, do you want to hug the left side as much as possible for the reward of a shorter shot with a flat lie for the second shot with the risk of ending up in the creek hugging the left? Or do you want to just get one safely in the middle of the fairway? You can do that if you want, but then your next shot has a tough lie with the ball above your feet and a longer distance to the green.
Do you want to go for the green in two? It makes an eagle-3 more likely, so yeah, let’s do that. But wait, that brings bogey and double-bogey more likely too, so maybe not.
When describing the 13th hole at Augusta, the club and tournament’s founder, Bobby Jones called the decision for players to go for the green or not a "momentous decision”. While 99.9% of us will never have that momentous decision at Augusta on any day of the week, much less Masters Sunday, golf constantly asks us to make our own “momentous” decisions which is one of the reasons we love the course and the tournament so much: we can identify with what the golf-equivalent of superheroes they are going through.
“My opponent just hit his drive in the trees. Should I stick with driver and go for the jugular or should I take something less, keep it in play, and play the odds?”
“Should I take the break out and ram this one in with everyone watching or should I cozy it in the side door?”
“The flop right at the pin or the ‘vanilla’ pitch 20 feet to the left?”
No, we can’t hit majestic irons straight up into the clouds with thousands watching in person and millions on screens at home the way Rory McIlroy can*** and identify with him on that level. But, we can certainly identify with him when it comes to the process in our heads, deciding what we want to try to pull off and what consequences we are willing to live with after the shot has been hit.
Whether you are Rory “Effing” McIlroy or Rory from Havertown, Pennsylvania, those decisions are why we love our Wednesday afternoons on the course after work as much, or more, as Masters Sunday before the work week begins.
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* Millions of words can and will be written and discussed about the 2025 Masters, Rory, McIlroy, and the glass case of emotions we found ourselves in on the afternoon of April 13th.
** If you fall asleep during the second nine on Sunday, you are either not really a golf fan or you have a sleep disorder and you should see a professional.
*** Hey, there’s a hundred guys on the PGA Tour who can’t do it either, so don’t get down.