Masters of Their Domain
It has really dawned on me lately how The Masters has turned into a true, worldwide sporting event. It has grown from an important golf tournament, certainly it being the first major of the season and first major since August of the previous year makes it important, to a genuine sporting spectacle that attracts the eyes of the sports world onto it almost like a World Cup, a Boxing World Championship, or at least like the golfing version of Wimbledon.
The players come from all across the globe. The BEST golfers in the world. Not just the best players in America, which is what the tournament used to primarily feature, but now it really does attract the best players in the world, all congregating in one place, trying to win that first major of the year. As in, there are representatives from six of the seven continents in Augusta, Georgia this week. (And, you guessed it, there is no Antarctica Open golf champion at the tournament this week)
They come to one of the best golf courses (it’s the only major golf tournament to play at the exact same golf course every year) in the world too. Augusta National is a stunning course in terms of natural beauty, in being a challenging course with its subtle difficulties, and in being a legendary course in terms of the history that has occurred there. It’s a course that shows up in ALL of the world’s best top ten lists, and it’s on all true golf lovers’ bucket list as a course they’d most like to play (although Augusta doesn’t really let anyone who is a normal person play there).
It’s an invitational tournament, so not everybody gets to play. But, if you are one of the BEST players in the world, you earn an invitation. The top players on the U.S. Tour, including all who win a PGA tour event, they are invited. If you have won a major in the last five years, you are invited. To make sure the tournament gets the best players throughout the rest of the world, the top 50 in the world rankings (based on the end of the previous year’s final rankings) AND the top 50 in the world rankings throughout the first three months of this season also. In other words, it gets the top players in the world.
What gets me the most about The Masters, is that you can pick a region and find the best golfer in that entire region. You get that best player from an entire country. Best player from the entire continent. The Masters, with its field of less than 100 players, gets the BEST of the best.
The best player in Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy, he’s there.
The best of Australia, Adam Scott and Jason Day, they’re there.
South Africans Charl Schwarzel, Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen. Boom, they’re in town.
Argentinian Angel Cabrera (a former champion, as they invite back the former champions) is there.
The best of Sweden, Henrik Stenson.
The best of England, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose. You’ve got your Scots, your Welsh, your Irish.
The best of Japan, Spain, Germany, Austria, Finland, France, South Korea, Columbia, Thailand, Denmark, even Fiji.
And then, there are the Americans.
You’ve got Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler from California.
You’ve got the best player from South Carolina, Dustin Johnson.
From Texas, Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker.
From New England, Keegan Bradley.
Bubba Watson from Georgia.
Billy Horschel from Florida.
Fred Couples from Washington.
J. B. Holmes from Kentucky.
And, all the rest.
Everywhere, you’ve got the best players in the world, playing on the best course at the best time of the year. You’ve got the tension of all of these great players wanting to win the same tournament that Bobby Jones invented and that Sarazen, Hogan, Snead, Nelson, Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Watson, Faldo, Ballesteros, Mickelson and Tiger Woods have won.
It is so aptly named. The Masters. In the world of golf, these are the masters of their craft, masters of their domain.
