There are many traditions surrounding the Masters, but perhaps the most iconic is the green jacket awarded to the winner each year. The origin of the tradition is much more humble than what the most famous award in golf eventually became.
Why does the Masters winner get a green jacket? Explaining Augusta’s prestigious prize
It had humble beginnings, but there is perhaps no more iconic clothing in golf.
Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images
In 1937, the green jackets began being seen around the grounds, but not until 1949 were they given to the winner.
Augusta National members began wearing the jackets in 1937. The idea was to have them be easily identifiable so they could answer questions from patrons.
Brooks Uniform Co. in New York made the original jackets, which featured heavy wool material.
Those soon gave way to a lightweight version that could be custom-ordered from the club’s pro shop.
Masters winners get their jackets when they win, and the previous year’s winner puts it on for them. As the Masters continued to trend upward in prestige on the golf landscape (it’s the youngest major by over 20 years) the jacket became more and more famous.
So much so that it’s been parodied in the movie Happy Gilmore.
Masters winners can keep their jackets for a year, and then they have to give them back to the club. The jackets wait at the club for the members and former champions. When members check into their cabins upon visiting the club, their jackets are right there waiting for them. And no, if a Masters winner repeats they don’t just put the jacket on themselves. The chairman, Billy Payne, holds it open for the winner.
The late great Seve Ballesteros reportedly told Augusta National it could come get his green jacket from his trophy room in Spain. Apparently they never did.
Sometimes green jackets end up in strange places.
In 2016, an official green jacket from the 1960s ended up in a Houston thrift shop. At the time, the store spoke to Greenjacketauctions.com and they said the last time they had a jacket come up for sale it went for $18,000.
But when a different jacket from the 1950s was found in a Toronto thrift store back in 1994, it ended up being auctioned off for over $100,000 just last week.
Augusta National has confirmed this jacket is legit, and we know it’s from the early 1950s. The Club did not say who it may have belonged to.
However, the jacket no longer has the name tag in it, so we don’t know who originally won it.
Despite the ones that have made it outside the gates, home is still Augusta National.
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