CNN
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Have you ever wondered why the Masters is played in April? For anyone interested in more than just the golf at Augusta National, the answer might seem obvious.
With all the flowering azalea bushes and dogwood trees in the background, springtime in Georgia is simply the best time to showcase the tournament and the stunning property upon which it is played. The dazzling array of pinks, purples, and fuchsias that are always so resplendent at that time of year have become almost as alluring as the action on the course.
However, the reason that arguably golf’s most prestigious tournament is played every April has nothing to do with the botany and instead everything to do with a completely different sport: Baseball.
When Bobby Jones completed the seemingly impossible grand slam of golf in 1930, winning all four major tournaments in a single calendar year, he retired from the game at the age of 28.
But there would be much more to his legacy. The Atlanta native then partnered with stockbroker Clifford Roberts to purchase the grounds of the Fruitland Nurseries company from the Berckman family in Augusta, 150 miles to the east of his hometown.
Jones thought the property already looked like a golf course and construction began in 1931, with the 18 holes ready for play at the end of 1932. Now, they needed a tournament to showcase the course to the world.
At the time, golf’s four major tournaments were considered to be the US Open, the US Amateur, The Open Championship and the British Amateur. Jones and Roberts had grand plans for their “Augusta National Invitation Tournament” – the only question was when to schedule it.
As a newcomer to the game, the organizers knew that their tournament couldn’t succeed without publicity. The all-star field wouldn’t be enough; they needed sports journalists to come to Augusta and write about it.
In the 1930s, when the NBA and the NFL were still decades away from realization, baseball was America’s pre-eminent sport, and in the springtime, the country’s top sportswriters would be traveling back from covering Spring Training in Florida to their headquarters in the Northeast.
So, Augusta National scheduled it then, hiring nationally syndicated writer Grantland Rice, who then persuaded many of his peers to stop by in Augusta. Since there was a two-to three-week gap between Spring Training and the start of the Major League Baseball season, those writers were only too happy with the diversion in Georgia.
In addition to covering a tournament featuring a who’s who of golf, Bobby Jones’ comeback from retirement was reason enough to attend. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette carried the Associated Press’ reporting that Jones was the co-favorite, playing on his own course where he’d set the practice-round record of 65.
“The great Georgian quits handshaking for some earnest club swinging in the first round of the $5,000 masters invitation tournament,” read the copy filed the day before the tournament teed off on March 22.
Jones’ comeback, though, was short-lived; he finished outside the money, 10 strokes behind inaugural champion Horton Smith, but the writers were now hooked.
At the time, there was a passing mention of the “beautiful Augusta National course,” while Rice remarked that, although the final round was played with a “chilly wind under a gray heavy sky,” it was a “truly great course.”
It would be another quarter of a century before anyone outside Augusta really noticed the majestic backdrop to the tournament. Sports Illustrated was the first media outlet to use full color photography in print, and the magazine didn’t feature the Masters on the cover until 1960.
The explosion of color television across the country came a little over half a decade later, by which time the Masters had cemented its status as one of the four major tournaments, the first in the calendar year and the only one to be played on the same course every 12 months.
The springtime schedule has remained and, with the exception of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, The Masters has been played in April – either partially or wholly – ever since the second tournament was held in 1935.
The spectacular scenery has become an intrinsic part of its charm; in fact, 2017 green jacket winner Sergio Garcia even named his daughter Azalea.
So, if it wasn’t for baseball, the Masters might never have taken off, and if it wasn’t played in the springtime, it would look like a completely different tournament altogether.
