AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Gary Player kicked his leg after his tee shot down the middle. Jack Nicklaus joked about the challenge in bending over to put his tee in the ground. Tom Watson outdrove them both with a swing that has held up over time.
Together, the three luminaries got the Masters underway Thursday as the traditional honorary starters.
One of the revered traditions of the Masters occurred just as the sun was rising over bucolic Augusta National. People watched from the clubhouse veranda, and the stately oak tree that serves as a popular meeting point on the course, as the three icons with their combined 11 green jackets striped their tee shots down Tea Olive, the scenic opening hole.
“I feel it gets a little more narrow every year,” said the 89-year-old Player of perhaps the widest fairway on the course.
Fifty years after winning his last green jacket, the 85-year-old Nicklaus was joined by his wife, Barbara, known widely as the “First Lady of Golf.” She was dressed in the traditional white caddy bib of the Masters, and toted along her husband’s small bag with its single club — the driver he used to hit his opening tee shot.
Then the 75-year-old Watson hit his tee shot, and the Masters was underway. The first official pairing was Davis Riley and Patton Kizzire, going off in a twosome before groups of three the rest of the day.
The tradition of honorary starters began in 1963, when club co-founder Bobby Jones asked Scottish pros Fred McLeod and Jock Hutchinson to lead off the opening round. They served in the role into the 1970s, when the custom was paused for a handful of years. In 1981, Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson assumed the job. Sam Snead joined a few years later. And their opening tee shots became as much a part of the Masters experience as those pimento cheese sandwiches.
Arnold Palmer served as a starter from 2007 until his death in 2016. Nicklaus had joined him in 2010, and Player two years later. Watson made it a group of three again three years ago — a trio with a combined 35 major championships to their names.
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