AUGUSTA, Ga. — One of the most exclusive and sought-after dinner invites took place on Tuesday at Augusta National Golf Club. Thirty-three green-jacket winners gathered (and one club chairman joined) to dine on the second level of the clubhouse, with the festivities often spilling out onto the terrace that overlooks the historic property.
The only way you get an invite here? You guessed it — win the Masters.
The annual Masters Champions Dinner needs little introduction, and most golf fans know the gist of it by now: the defending Masters champ picks the menu and all former champs, if able, join for a night of stories, camaraderie and laughter.
On Tuesday night, Jon Rahm was the host — chef José Andrés helped create the menu — and his Spanish-inspired spread received rave reviews when the menu was released a couple of weeks ago. (No reports yet on how it went down on Tuesday night.)
The best (and least best) menus of the past years have long been a fun conversation topic — Jack Nicklaus called a recent one “probably the best we ever had” — and three-time Masters champ Nick Faldo recently riffed on that topic in a pre-Masters interview with talkSPORT.com.
He was asked about the night in general, and also if he had any thoughts on the best and worst menus.
“So, what was the worst one,” he said, thinking for a second. “Oh, it was Bubba [Watson], wasn’t it? When we had Chuck E. Cheese. [Laughs.] When we had a little hamburger and our little corn and our little ice cream … we had a milkshake as well. So yeah, that was a lot.”
Watson, a two-time Masters champion, had to plan dinners in both 2013 and 2015. And he rolled out the same menu both times: Caesar salad, chicken breast, green beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn, confetti cake and vanilla ice cream.
Faldo had strong thoughts on the menu even years ago, calling it a “Happy Meal” from McDonald’s.
And so did Adam Scott…
If it sounds like Watson is a picky eater, that’s because he is. (You may remember him celebrating his Masters win at a Waffle House.) And that’s just fine if players haven’t liked Watson’s selections — players can always order off the menu — because he might not like theirs either.
“I’ll give you a secret,” Watson said last year at a LIV Golf event. “Normally I eat before, eat a couple burritos before I go to the dinner, because I don’t know what they’re going to have.”
But, as Faldo and others will tell you, that night is about more than just the dinner.
“It can get quite emotional cause some old boys are getting on, or you’ve lost somebody and reminisce some old stories and that sort of things,” Faldo told talkSPORT.com. “We usually have a good laugh as well. … It’s usually obviously very entertaining; very proud to be a part of that. It’s pretty special as you can imagine.”
