Green Jacket Required

The Champions’ Dinner in 1958: (clockwise from bottom left) Claude Harmon, Gene Sarazen, Clifford Roberts, Cary Middlecoff, Sam Snead (standing), Doug Ford, Byron Nelson (standing), Jimmy Demaret, Bobby Jones (sitting), Jack Burke, Jr., Craig Wood, Ben Hogan, Horton Smith, Herman Keiser and Henry Picard

Menu by Bernhard Langer – 1986 –

Wiener schnitzel with spaetzie New York Prime sirloin steak Black Forest gateau ON THE MENU

Menu by Tiger Woods – 2006 –

Salsa & ceviche, chili con queso & stuffed jalapeno, quesadillas Steak & chicken fajitas with Mexican rice & beans Apple pie & ice cream

Menu by Adam Scott – 2014 –

Artichoke & Arugula salad with grilled calamari Australian Wagyu New York Strip with Moreton Bay Bugs Strawberry & Passion Fruit Pavlova (Scott’s mother’s recipe)

FOOD Champions Dinner

“Surely this has to be the most exclusive club of all,” wrote Ben Hogan in March 1952, in a letter to Augusta National founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts. “Not only do a fortunate few of us have the tournament to look forward to, but the annual meeting of our club as well. Here, long after serious competition for some of us comes to an end, we can still get together and reminisce.”

Hogan won the first of his two Masters Green Jackets in 1951, and following a request in this letter, the annual Champions’ Dinner was inaugurated in 1952. It has featured at every Masters since, with the defending champion choosing the menu and providing the wine.

Hogan served as emcee for the first four Champions’ Dinners before asking his childhood friend and rival Byron Nelson—the champ in ’37 and ’42 (and a more natural storyteller)—to take over. Nelson led the special occasion from 1956 to 2005 until, aged 93, he asked fellow Texan Ben Crenshaw to take the reins. Crenshaw, the Masters champ of ’84 and ’95, has kept the honor ever since.

On the Tuesday evening prior to the 2020 Masters, Crenshaw read out Hogan’s 68-year-old letter. As he did, you could have heard an azalea petal fall on Augusta’s immaculate grass.

“It was emotional,” said Charles Coody after that dinner. Now 84, Coody won the 1971 Masters. “Having Ben read that letter sure was special. I think it touched all of us.”

Emotions have often been stirred at the Champions’ Dinner. In 2015, after an ice storm struck irreparable damage to the famous “Eisenhower Tree”—a loblolly pine on Augusta’s 17th that President Eisenhower in fact never liked—the tree was removed and from its timber commemorative plaques were made for each of the past winners. Arnold Palmer, then 85, had been close friends with Eisenhower, and Palmer was presented with his plaque at the Champions’ Dinner by thenchairman Billy Payne.

“It was a very nice gesture,” Palmer told Kingdom magazine afterwards. “The guys started asking questions, which prompted me to make a few remarks. Mostly I spoke about the President and what a great guy he was, how I valued our relationship and how I still do.”

“Arnold talked about the responsibilities we have as Masters champions,” Mark O’Meara, Masters champion in 1998, later told Kingdom. “He talked about how important it is for young players to behave in the right way and to treat people with respect; the fans, the volunteers and everybody around the game. It was wonderful and incredibly emotional. Mr. Palmer had tears in his eyes.”

Five years later, in 2020, Tiger Woods made some heartfelt comments a year after his 15th major success.

“Tiger thanked many of us for helping him over the years,” said Bernhard Langer, the winner in 1985 and 1993. “He talked about how it was very emotional for him to win last year because he didn’t know if it would ever happen again. His kids were there in 2019 and he said that giving them a hug when he won reminded him of how Tiger used to give his own parents a hug when he won before. It was a great speech.”

Coody speaks on behalf of many of the past champions when he says: “I will go back even if they need to put an escalator in to get me up the stairs.”