On a bright spring day in 2009, Trevor Immelman found himself hitting balls next to Tiger Woods on the practice range at Augusta National Golf Club. It was Tuesday, and Immelman, the Masters defending champion, had a big day ahead of him, but in that moment, he was just trying to loosen up before an 18-hole practice round. At one point, Woods turned to Immelman and asked him, “Hey, what time does everything start tonight?”
The young South African was confused. Woods was referring to the start of the annual Champions dinner. As a four-time winner of the Masters — he of course added a fifth title in 2019 — Tiger knew full well when the exclusive affair reserved strictly for winners of the green jacket was set to begin. Immelman froze in his place. He was to be the guest of honour and the host that night at a dinner attended by upwards of 30 former champions, an occasion that is one of the grandest Masters traditions.
“I was thinking: ‘How does he not know when the dinner starts?’ And now I’m questioning when it starts,” Immelman recalled. “Then I started thinking about my speech. And the menu. I’m getting more nervous by the minute. Look, there’s no ‘Champions Dinner for Dummies’ book out there. I was a wreck the rest of the day. Tiger was messing with me.”
This Tuesday on the second floor of the stately white clubhouse at Augusta National, a contingent of young and old and wise Masters champions will reconvene for another edition of golf’s most exclusive dinner party. Scottie Scheffler, winner by three strokes a year ago, will be the man of the hour — and on the hot seat, if you will — feted for his accomplishment with Woods and Immelman, legends Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player, and current peers like fellow Texan Jordan Spieth seated before him at one large table. They all will dine on the menu Scheffler has chosen and then they will lend an ear to his prepared remarks. And then stories will flow, laughter will fill the tight quarters, and Scheffler will understand the fraternity to which he has been welcomed — a fraternity furiously, passionately coveted among the uninitiated.
“If there is anything in our sport, and sports in general, that defines class and grace, it’s the Masters,” said Zach Johnson, who won the 2007 Masters. “And at the top of that experience is the opportunity to go sit at that table on Tuesday nights. I can’t ever imagine missing one.”
While the illustriously cloistered affair is commonly known as the Champions dinner, its proper name is the Masters Club dinner. Ben Hogan started the Masters Club in 1952, the year after the first of his two victories at Augusta National.
The green jacket, which first was presented in 1949 to winner Sam Snead, is the outward symbol of achievement for Masters champions. The notably taciturn Hogan, who finally triumphed at Augusta National in his 10th attempt, believed that the bond among Masters winners should be celebrated in a private interpersonal manner, so he organized the first “stag” dinner the year after his two-stroke victory over Skee Riegel in ’51. He invited the 10 other men who had won the tournament as well as co-founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, who were made honorary members of the club. (Each succeeding chairman of Augusta National also is bestowed an honorary membership.)
Hogan intended for the dinner to be informal, once saying, “it would be pleasant for all past winners to gather to reminisce, swap banter and relax.”
Hogan also commissioned the creation of a gold locket to present to each winner. The three-piece locket, measuring 1½ inches by 1 inch, is formed in the shape of the Augusta National Golf Club logo. Inside is a silhouette of the clubhouse and the champion’s name. On another side, it reads, “Ben Hogan, founder of the Masters Club.” Ben Crenshaw once described it as “the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.”
