Posts tagged Green Jacket
Dan Patrick Tried on Jack Nicklaus’ Green Jacket
03 months ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
During his typical run down of the major sporting stories at the top of each hour, Dan Patrick touched on the leaderboard at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship, specifically Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Patrick, an avid golfer himself, routinely weighs in on golf and has guests leading up to and following major championships. With his own golf simulator in his studio, Patrick can be seen during the simulcast of the popular nation-wide radio show pounding balls at commercial breaks (as long as he isn’t recovering from shoulder surgery).
Given his stature in the sporting world and love for the game, it should come as no surprise that Patrick has been invited to play at Augusta National, the site of the year’s first major, which is just 33 days away.
Often, Patrick will go out on tangents and tell stories about his experiences in and around the world of sports. Luckily for golf nuts, today he delved into his trip to the National, which included nuggets about happening upon the Champions Locker Room and slipping into Jack Nicklaus’ Green Jacket.
Consider this your weekly update that the Masters is right around the corner.
Rounding Up Bubba Watson’s Media Tour
01 year ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
The Tour Report
Bubba signing one of his pink drivers
Whenever there’s a major sporting event, whether it be golf with the majors, baseball with the World Series, basketball with the NCAA National Championship or NBA Finals, the winner/winning team takes a tour around the national media outlets.
With his win at the Masters, Bubba Watson was everywhere you looked earlier this week and not just the places you would expect. Sure, Bubba put in the time with the folks at Golf Channel’s Morning Drive (one of the best interviews there was), but also on Fox News, CNN and even Charlie Rose.
In case you haven’t gotten your Bubba fix yet, here’s a short run-down of what and where Watson spent his Tuesday and Thursday of this week. If you’re not really interested in what he said in each interview, PGATour.com’s Tour Report did a good job of giving a blow-by-blow of Watson’s whirlwind 36 hours. Be sure to read Day 1 and Day 2 (and read from the bottom-up).
For the sake of organization, I’ll put Bubba’s appearance in as much of a chronological order as possible.
- Bubba kicked things off by surprising the fellas at Morning Drive by coming in studio to talk to them before shipping off to NYC.
- Before getting on the plane to New York, Bubba called into the Dan Patrick Show, Jim Rome and the Scott Van Pelt Show.
- From there, Bubba hopped on a plane to New York where he met with Twitter celebrity Darren Rovell.
- Watson went from CNBC, to CNN to make a special appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight where the talk-show host said he had one of his favorite interviews. Here’s a little snippet.
- Bubba went from Piers’ studio to Ed Sullivan Theatre to hop on the Late Show with David Letterman for a pretty entertaining interview.
- After Letterman, Bubba just had one more phone call. Nothing important, really, just the POTUS. In typical Bubba fashion, when Obama got on the phone and said, “Hey, Bubba,” Watson answered with “Hey buddy, how you doing? I mean Mr. President.”
- On Wednesday, Watson started his day going to “CBS This Morning.”
- From there, Bubba went over to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which is hosted by Joe Scarborough who is from the Florida Panhandle, near where Watson grew up in Bagdad, Fla.
- After “Morning Joe,” Bubba hooked up with PBS’ Charlie Rose at the Bloomberg Building and talked to the famed interviewer about how he connects with the average American.
- Rounding out his 36-hour interview fest, Watson went to the Time Warner Building for two final interviews with Fox News. Before he leaves to go home, the guy who had been leading Watson from place to place told him that he has never seen so many people come out to meet one guy, a nod to the “everyman” that Watson was.
Watson, who was active on Twitter throughout his media tour tweeted out around 1:45 Wednesday that he had finally finished his tour and was heading home to be with Angie (his wife) and Caleb, their new son.
Aside from all the television and radio, Bubba made the cover of a few magazines, including Sports Illustrated.
Watson will be back in action in two weeks when he defends his title at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
You Can Have Bobby Jones’ Green Jacket for a Small Fortune
01 year ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Few names, if any, inspire the level of interest around the golfing world as that of Bobby Jones. The only man in the history of the game to win the Grand Slam; the founder of Augusta National golf club; and arguably one of the greatest golfers ever to put on a pair of spikes.
Coming in early August, anyone can own a piece of history. Namely, Mr. Jones’ green jacket.
Heritage Auctions, who will be putting on the sale of the jacket, expects to earn upwards of $100,000 dollars for the jacket.
“In the realm of golf, Jones’ name reigns supreme,” Chris Ivy, director of Heritage Sports Collectibles, said in a statement.
The two-button jacket is made of wool and has the initials “ANGC” embroidered on the left breast along with the long-standing logo of the Masters. Also, on the inside of the pocket, “RTJ” is sewn, of course, standing for Robert Tyre Jones.
The jacket dates back to 1937 when the members of the Augusta National Golf Club began wearing the green jackets in order to distinguish themselves to the patrons in case anyone had any questions about the grounds. It’s amazing how that has changed over the years.
Today, if a patron were to see someone in a green jacket, they wouldn’t be able to near them because they would be in some roped-off members only section of the golf course.
The green jacket, as you all very well know, is only given out to the winners of the tournament and the members. The green jackets aren’t even allowed to leave the property of Augusta National except for one year following the winning of the tournament. So that gives you an idea of how rare having one of these jackets outside of Georgia is.
To my knowledge there is only one other jacket that hangs outside the National’s grounds and that belongs to Gary Player who took his green jacket back home to South Africa after winning the tournament and never brought it back.
The Augusta Chronicle reported that the jacket was given to an artist who painted a picture of Jones that now hangs in the Augusta National Clubhouse. Many believe that arist to be Thomas Stephens for the famous painting seen to the left.
However, whether or not it was Stephens who received the jacket, the artist has since sold the jacket. To prove its authenticity, the jacket comes with a notarized letter that traces the ownership of the jacket back to Jones. Also, former club photographer Frank Christian wrote a letter of authenticity that stated the jacket was the same style as those of the era.
So there you have it. Bidding begins on August 4 and will no doubt be an incomparable collectors item to some insanely wealthy golf fanatic.
The Top Ten Surprising Facts about Charl Schwartzel
02 years ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
As per usual, with the Masters affiliation with CBS, the winner usually appears on the network’s late-night talk show wit host David Letterman for a segment, or at least reads the Top-10 List they have compiled for them.
This year, with winner Charl Schwartzel declining to go on any national television shows, appearing on only a handful of radio programs, the Late Show had to make due with a dorky looking white guy playing Schwartzel’s part.
I’m willing to bet half the audience wouldn’t have known the difference anyway.
The props folks did a pretty good job emulating the green jacket and in case you were curious about the real Schwartzel, including how to pronounce his name, here is a little video Nike put together leading up to the 2010 Masters:
Tournament Badges for 2012 Masters Available via Lottery
132 years ago
by Chris Chaney
in Golf
Augusta National has been rather avant-garde as of late. First, they allowed Tiger Woods to put their famed course on a video game, opening their club to a new generation of fans. Now, for the first time since 1971, future-patrons will be able to purchase tickets for the tournament days online via a lottery.
Announced on their site earlier this week, Augusta National Golf Club released a statement saying that there will be a chance to win tournament day badges for the first time in 47 years.
Famously the most difficult ticket in sports, the Masters has been sold out since 1971 with no realistic chance of ever being up for sale again.
Practice round badges that have always been sold via random drawing will continue to do so for single-day passes, either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
Likewise, the single-day tournament badges will be drawn randomly. The deadline for applying for tournament badges is June 30. The deadline for practice round badges is a month later on July 30.
In a continued effort to modernize the tournament, Chairman Billy Payne said the entire lottery system will be moved online.
“Moving the entire application process to our official tournament website is a safe and convenient way for those wishing to apply for daily practice round tickets,” Payne said. “We are also pleased to provide a limited number of tickets for the individual tournament round days, which, up until now, have only been allocated to our series badge holders.”
As per usual, the Masters does not release the official attendance numbers and Payne also declined to answer how many tournament badges would be available, although the site uses the term “very limited” number of badges.
If chosen, you will receive an e-mail in mid-July. Tournament day lottery winners will get two passes for one day at $75 a piece, while practice round lottery winners will receive four badges at $50 a piece.
To apply for the badges, go to the Masters website and sign up. While you’re there, take a little time to look around. It is a really cool and interactive site that can help you waste a few hours at work.
Good luck.
