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Bobby Jones saw his involvement in founding the
tournament as a service to golf, but demurred at calling it The
Masters Tournament, preferring "Augusta National Invitational".
That name was used for five years before Jones relented and the
present name was adopted in 1939. The first tournament was
played with current holes 10 through 18 played as the front
nine, and 1 through 9 as the back nine, then reversed
permanently to its famous layout for the 1935 tournament.
Gene Sarazen hit "The shot heard 'round the world," holing a
shot from the fairway on the par 5 15th for a double eagle to
force a playoff in which he won the 1935 Masters. In 1961 Gary
Player became the first non-American Masters champion. In 1975
Lee Elder became the first African-American to qualify for the
Masters.
European players collected eleven victories in twenty years in
the 1980s and 1990s, by far the strongest streak they have had
in any of the three majors played in the United States since the
early days of the U.S Open. Jack Nicklaus became the oldest
player to win the Masters in 1986 when he won for the sixth time
at age 46. In 1997 headlines were made around the world when
Tiger Woods won the Masters by twelve shots at age twenty-one.
More recently, the club was targeted by Martha Burk, who
organized a failed protest at the 2003 Tournament to pressure
the club to accept female members.
As with many other courses Augusta National's championship set
up has been lengthened in recent years. In 1998 it measured
approximately 6,850 yards from the Master's tees but by 2006 it
was almost 600 yards longer at 7,445 yards. The 2006 changes
attracted many critics, including the three winningmost players
in Masters history, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger
Woods. Woods claimed "Shorter hitters are going to struggle".
Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson was unperturbed and
stated, "We are comfortable with what we are doing with the golf
course". After a practice round Gary Player defended the changes
saying, "There have been a lot of criticisms, but I think
unjustly so, now I've played it.... The guys are basically
having to hit the same second shots that Jack Nicklaus had to
hit [in his prime]".
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