Nicklaus finally got his green jacket
Jack Nicklaus has won six green jackets, but it wasn’t until he made a run at a seventh that he actually got one of his own.
Every fan of the Masters knows the winner gets a green jacket. They are presented with one in the Butler Cabin, and then again at the actual awards ceremony on Sunday night. But what most don’t know is that isn’t the winner’s actual jacket. It is one of a member, who is similar enough in size.
After all the ceremonies are done, the champion is measured for a new jacket to be made for him. Somehow, that slipped through the cracks when it came to the greatest champion the game has ever seen. He ended up wearing another famous, or infamous, person’s jacket for years. It wasn’t until after he was honored with a plaque, on a drinking fountain between the 16th and 17th holes, for his career accomplishments, the club realized its mistake.
“When I won, they brought out a jacket,” Nicklaus said. “It was a 46-long and I was a 43-regular and it didn’t quite fit.
“So the next year when I came back, they didn’t ask me to go get a jacket. They didn’t do anything, never mentioned my jacket. Tom Dewey had a jacket, the former governor (of New York), who lost to (Harry)Truman for the presidency (Chicago Daily Tribune headline: Dewey defeats Truman). His jacket fit me and I wore his jacket for probably 15 years, maybe longer. Nobody ever mentioned, ‘Do you have your green jacket?’ Well, I had Tom Dewey’s. I never got a green jacket.
“Finally, I won six Masters. Still, nobody had ever given me a green jacket. I always thought that’s what we won here at Augusta National, but never did get one. So, I told the story to (former Augusta National chairman) Jack Stephens in 1998 when we were getting ready to do the drinking fountain at 17. Jack Stephens said, ‘What? You’ve never been given a green jacket?’
I said, “No. Nobody’s ever mentioned it.”
“He said, OK.”
Nicklaus, at 58-years-old, would rattle the pines with cheers one more time that week. He shot a final-round 68, and when he made birdie on No. 15, he briefly moved within two shots of the lead. He would end up finishing sixth.
The following spring, the jacket situation was finally resolved. When Nicklaus went to his locker, he found a note from Stephens.
“It read, ‘You will go down to the pro shop and you will be fit for your green jacket,’ which is the one I’ve got on,” Nicklaus said.
BIG BUCKS: After Tiger Woods slides into his fifth green jacket, some serious green will also be sliding into his bank account.
For the first time in tournament history, the first-prize payout has exceeded $2 million.
Woods will take home $2,070,000 of the $11.5 million total purse, which is up $90,000 from the $1,980,000 Patrick Reed won last year. The Masters joins two other events — last year’s U.S. Open and this year’s Players Championship — for eclipsing the mark.
It has taken just 18 years for the first-place prize money to jump more than $1 million. Woods was the first to earn seven figures for winning in 2001. He won $1,008,000 that year, which is $234,000 less than the $1,242,000 for second place if there would have been a solo second-place finisher.
Horton Smith won the inaugural event in 1934 and won $1,500. In 1986, when Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters title, he earned $144,000. Twentieth place in this year’s event earns $149,500.
ANOTHER BREAK FROM TRADITION: With the bad weather that was forecasted for Sunday, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley made the call to move tee times up and then send players off No. 1 and No. 10 tee.
Once play started and the weather was updated, Ridley and the competition committee made the decision to go without the usual green jacket ceremony where Patrick Reed would have put the green jacket on Tiger Woods in front of the fans and membership on the putting green.
Once play was completed, the idea was to allow patrons and tournament workers to get off the course before the worst weather moved into the area.