x
Skip to main content
Golf Logo
InsideGolf Join Now  / Log In
‘Mood killer’: Adam Scott recalls Masters Champions Dinner awkwardness
SHARE
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share by Email
Golf Logo
  • News
    • Latest
      • News
      • Features
      • Shows
      • PGA Tour Schedule
    • Series
      • Tour Confidential
      • Monday Finish
      • Hot Mic
      • Rogers Report
    • Shows
      • The Scoop
      • Subpar
      • Seen & Heard
  • Instruction
    • Game Improvement
      • Driving
      • Approach Shots
      • Bunker Shots
      • Short Game
      • Putting
      • Rules
      • Fitness
    • Series
      • Top 100 Teachers
      • Rules Guy
      • The Etiquetteist
      • Emergency 9
    • Shows
      • Warming Up
      • Play Smart
      • Short Game Chef
      • Pros Teaching Joes
  • Gear
    • Clubs
      • Drivers
      • Irons
      • Hybrids
      • Fairway Woods
      • Wedges
      • Putters
    • Other Gear
      • Balls
      • Shoes
      • Apparel
      • Golf Accessories
    • Series
      • ClubTest
      • Winner’s Bag
    • Shows
      • Fully Equipped
  • Travel & Lifestyle
    • Travel
      • Course Finder
      • Courses
      • Resorts
    • Lifestyle
      • Accessories
      • Celebrities
      • Food
      • Style
      • Betting Advice
    • Shows
      • Super Secrets
      • Destination Golf
  • Shop
    • Shop
      • Clubs
      • Shafts
      • Training Aids
      • Balls
      • Bags
      • Technology
      • Apparel
      • Accessories
      • Our Picks
      • Shop All
    • Collections
      • The GOLF Collection
      • The Birdie Juice Collection
      • The Fully Equipped Collection
      • Shop All
  • Newsletters
    • Sign Up for GOLF’s Newsletters
      • Hot Mic
      • Monday Finish
      • Play Smart
      • Our Picks
      • Top Stories
      • Sign Up for All
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Features
    • Shows
    • PGA Tour Schedule
  • Instruction
    • All Instruction
    • Driving
    • Approach Shots
    • Bunker Shots
    • Short Game
    • Putting
    • Rules
    • Fitness
  • Gear
    • All Gear
    • Drivers
    • Irons
    • Hybrids
    • Fairway Woods
    • Wedges
    • Putters
    • Balls
    • Shoes
    • Apparel
    • Golf Accessories
  • Travel & Lifestyle
    • All Travel
    • All Lifestyle
    • Course Finder
    • Courses
    • Resorts
    • Accessories
    • Celebrities
    • Food
    • Style
    • Betting Advice
  • Series
    • Tour Confidential
    • Monday Finish
    • Hot Mic
    • Rogers Report
    • Rules Guy
    • The Etiquetteist
    • Emergency 9
    • ClubTest
    • Winner’s Bag
  • Shows
    • The Scoop
    • Subpar
    • Seen & Heard
    • Warming Up
    • Play Smart
    • Short Game Chef
    • Pros Teaching Joes
    • Fully Equipped
    • Super Secrets
    • Destination Golf
  • Shop
    • Clubs
    • Shafts
    • Training Aids
    • Balls
    • Bags
    • Technology
    • Apparel
    • Accessories
    • The GOLF Collection
    • The Birdie Juice Collection
    • The Fully Equipped Collection
  • Newsletters
    • Hot Mic
    • Monday Finish
    • Play Smart
    • Top Stories
    • Our Picks
    • Sign Up for All
InsideGolf Join Now  / Log In
InsideGolf

Great for yourself...or your Dad

InsideGOLF
News

‘Mood killer’: Adam Scott recalls Masters Champions Dinner awkwardness

By: Alan Bastable
  • Follow on Twitter
January 11, 2023
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share by Email
2022 champions dinner

The Masters Champions Dinner in 2022.

getty images

However you feel about the pomp and circumstance of the Masters, its fabled Champions Dinner — on the Tuesday evening of tournament week — is among the great traditions in all of sports: Thirty or so green-jacket holders breaking bread and sharing tales from Masters past? Ah, to be a fly on the silverware.

Some players are reluctant to share much color about the tribal gathering — what happens at the Champions Dinner… — but thankfully others are more forthcoming. Raymond Floyd has spoken of how Claude Harmon would own the room with his hilarious storytelling. Fuzzy Zoeller has reminisced of his first dinner, in 1980, when he brought gag gifts to lighten the mood. Tom Watson, just last year, spoke of how Jack Nicklaus regaled attendees with memories from his epic 1986 triumph.

On Tuesday, it was Adam Scott’s turn. Speaking at the Sony Open, the 2013 Masters winner gave golf fans a peek behind the Founders Room curtain.

“Generally, I sit next to Trevor most years,” Scott began, referring to Trevor Immelman, the 2008 winner and International Presidents Cup captain in 2022. “We have been mates since we were junior golfers, and after my year of hosting the top of the table, I quickly bee-lined that next dinner down to Trevor’s corner to post up next to him.” (It is customary for the defending champion to sit at the head of the table flanked by the dinner’s resident host, two-time champion Ben Crenshaw, and Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley.)

News
2022 masters champions dinner
Best Masters Champions Dinner ever? Jack Nicklaus makes case for this year’s
By: Alan Bastable

“[Immelman] sits on my left most years and Mark O’Meara sits on my right,” Scott continued. “It’s not assigned seating, but a lot people sit in the same chairs. I like that, to be perfectly honest. I like the fact that you kind of feel like that’s your spot. I enjoy the whole thing. I enjoy hearing what everyone has to say that evening.

“Like, Fred Couples does a great job needling some of the older players into telling stories. He’s a very good facilitator, Freddie, of those kind of things. It’s good fun. I get to share it now. Now I’ve been out here so long a lot of these guys I consider friends, and I get to share the evening with a few friends. Even leading up to this. I often see Zach Johnson like in the workout trailer or something a month away and we both are already excited about Tuesday night.”

Last year’s dinner, hosted by Hideki Matsuyama, provided one of the more stirring moments in the gathering’s recent history when Matsuyama, who is far more comfortable speaking in Japanese, rose and addressed his fellow champs in his second language.

“He rehearsed his speech and spoke English, and I think the room really appreciated that a lot,” Scott said. “Even though it was three minutes or something, probably felt like an hour for him. But I think the room really appreciated that and showed how much it meant to him to be a part of that club.”

The dinner’s not all gravity and goosebumps. Far from it. There are jokes and laughs (some of which — in Sam Snead’s heyday, anyway — are too blue to repeat on these pages), and sometimes even a little awkwardness.  

News
Jon Rahm of Spain talks to the media prior to the Sentry Tournament of Champions on The Plantation Course at Kapalua on January 3, 2023 in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii.
‘A little tense’: Masters Champions Dinner could get awkward, Jon Rahm says
By: Jack Hirsh

“Bernhard Langer getting sat down by [former club chairman] Billy Payne at one dinner was a memorable one for me,” Scott said, beginning to laugh. “Having a suggestion about something. Kind of was a mood killer one night. Good stuff.”

Scott said he couldn’t recall which year this happened, “but that was the gist of it. You can sit down.”

What had Langer lobbied for?! A different centerpiece? Widening Augusta’s fairways? The freedom to wear the green jacket wherever he pleases? The mind reels! Then again, not all Champions Dinner secrets should be revealed, lest the get-together lose its mystique.

Scott, who is 42, still has many Masters starts ahead of him. But when the day comes to hang up his spikes, he said a certain tradition will still draw him back to Augusta come tournament week.

“I’ll look forward to going to dinner forever,” he said.

Latest In News

3 minutes ago

Bryson DeChambeau nearly makes bizarre U.S. Open rules gaffe

3 hours ago

What goes on inside a U.S. Open media center? | Rogers Report

4 hours ago

Oakmont's church pew bunker: The treacherous hazard explained

4 hours ago

2025 U.S. Open Friday tee times: Round 2 groupings

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s executive editor, Bastable is responsible for the editorial direction and voice of one of the game’s most respected and highly trafficked news and service sites. He wears many hats — editing, writing, ideating, developing, daydreaming of one day breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely talented and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the features editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and foursome of kids.

  • Author Twitter Account

Related Articles

News
Rory McIlroy

What happened to Rory McIlroy on Friday?! And airport tears | Weekend 9

By: Nick Piastowski
News
Augusta National

2026 Masters tickets lottery opens (with slight price increase)

By: Josh Berhow
News
rory mcilroy and jim nantz pose next to AT&T Pebble Beach trophy.

Al Michaels' 1-word text to Jim Nantz perfectly captured Rory McIlroy's Masters

By: James Colgan
Food
rory mcilroy after masters win, and 1990 chateau lafite rothshild wine

The fabled wine Rory McIlroy uncorked to celebrate his Masters win

By: Alan Bastable
Gear
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott hold their green Trackmans.

Rory McIlroy just got golf's most exclusive launch monitor. Here's the backstory

By: Jack Hirsh
News
rory mcilroy marking his ball on the green

Rory McIlroy’s handmade ball markers have fascinating backstory

By: Alan Bastable
News
Rory McIlroy walks up to the Masters trophy after winning the 2025 Masters

Why 1 unseen part of Rory McIlroy's Masters celebration spoke to me

By: Josh Schrock
News
Kyle Lowry, NBA player for the Philadelphia 76ers, plays during the Pro-AM, prior to the Truist Championship

What's next for Rory McIlroy? This golf-crazed NBA champion has thoughts

By: Josh Schrock
News
Rory McIlroy

Why Rory McIlroy felt 'the worst' at this year’s Masters ... after a birdie

By: Nick Piastowski
Sign up for GOLF's Newsletters
Get the latest news, the hottest instruction tips, new product releases, golf media insider reports and more delivered directly to your inbox. Choose your favorites now.
Sign Up
Categories
  • News
  • Instruction
  • Gear
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
Services
  • Masthead
  • GOLF Media Kit
  • GOLF Magazine Customer Service
  • TERMS OF SERVICE
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Opt-out of Ads/Sharing
  • Your Privacy Choices
Social
  • facebook
  • x
  • instagram
  • youtube
Membership
InsideGOLF Logo
More than $140 Value for JUST $39.99

INCLUDES 12 SRIXON Z-STAR XV GOLF BALLS, 1 YR OF GOLF MAGAZINE, $20 FAIRWAY JOCKEY CREDIT - AND MUCH MORE!

LEARN MORE

© 2025 EB Golf Media LLC. An 8AM Golf Affiliated Brand. All Rights Reserved. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy a linked product, GOLF.COM may earn a fee. Pricing may vary.

Go to mobile version