The Masters does the long game about as well as Warren Buffett. Over the past 70 years, it has produced four absolutely magnetic champions: Arnold Palmer, who won the tourney four times; Jack Nicklaus, with his six titles; Phil Mickelson, who has three victories at Augusta; and Tiger Woods, who won his fifth (and most recent) green jacket in 2019. This year, for the first time since 1954, none of those players is competing in the event.
This year, for the first time since 1994, neither Mickelson nor Woods are in the field.
Of that foursome, only one will be on hand, Big Jack his own self, playing the ceremonial first shot on Thursday morning, beside Tom Watson (two-time winner) and Gary Player (three coats).
So this will be different. These next 20 or 30 or 40 years at Augusta will be different, too.
Palmer and Nicklaus were so revered at Augusta National that they were invited to join the club as dues-paying members, the only former winners to get such an invitation. In other words, they could come to the club as they wished, play the course, bring guests, stay in the cabins, tour the wine cellar without a chaperone. Woods and Mickelson, like all former winners, were honorary members. They still needed a host to play the course. Palmer and Nicklaus had direct ties to the club’s most important figures through its history, including the club’s founders (Bob Jones, Clifford Roberts); various prominent members (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Warren Buffett); and former winners from near and far (Gene Sarazen, Seve Ballesteros). There are plaques on the course honoring Palmer and Nicklaus, with short histories of their Augusta highlights.
Maybe plaques are coming for Mickelson and Woods, and they certainly deserve them for their stirring play at Augusta from over the decades, but it’s not likely they are coming anytime soon.
In the long history of the Masters, Tiger Woods is the only player who ever received a public scolding from a club chairman. That happened at the 2010 Masters, when Woods returned to public life and tournament golf in the wake of a scandal that had private life splashed all over tabloids across the world. The chairman then, Billy Payne, reading from a prepared statement at a Wednesday State-of-the-Masters press conference, said that Woods “had disappointed all of us” and that he had failed as a role model. Woods had a T4 finish that year.
From 1995, when he played as an amateur, through 2013, Woods played in every Masters. (It was in 2013 when he was given a two-shot penalty for taking an incorrect drop on the 15th hole of his Friday round. He had a T4 finish.) Woods didn’t play in 2014 while recovering from a back surgery. He didn’t play in 2016, following another back surgery. He didn’t play in 2017, reportedly for back issues. He didn’t play in 2021, following a harrowing Los Angeles car crash. He didn’t play last year, following surgery for a torn ruptured left-leg Achilles. Woods is not playing this year, following his March 27 DUI arrest in South Florida, near his Jupiter Island home.
Palmer played in 50 consecutive Masters tournaments, none as an amateur. Woods played in 19 straight from 1995 to 2013, including two as an amateur. Nicklaus played in 46 consecutive Masters tournaments, starting with three as an amateur. Mickelson played in the 1991 and ’93 Masters as an amateur, sat out ’94, then played in 27 consecutive events as a pro, from 1995 through 2021. Mickelson didn’t play in 2022 Masters, the year it was revealed that he was leaving his lifelong professional home, the PGA Tour, to join the global, Saudi-backed pro series, LIV Golf. There was an uproar then and Mickelson took a leave from the tournament play and public life for several months.
“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” he said in statement then. “I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.” Fred Ridley said at the 2022 Masters that the club did not “disinvite” Mickelson from the tournament. But it was an open secret in certain circles that Mickelson was not playing by mutual agreement. He was the reigning PGA champion then, which he had won at age 50. With the club’s encouragement, he likely would have played. In 2023, Mickelson returned to the tournament, was unusually quiet at the dinner and finished in a tie for second.
Mickelson is not playing this year. In a statement on Thursday, he said, “Unfortunately, I will not play in the Masters tournament next week and will be out for an extended period of time as my family continues to navigate a personal health matter. I wish everyone the best of luck and will be watching.”
Ridley responded with this statement: “We know how much Phil loves the Masters tournament, and he will be missed by everyone in Augusta next week. He has our complete supports as he takes time to be with his family.”
When Woods won the Masters in 2019, at age 43, his life seemed to be in such a good place, given where he was after his 2017 arrest and his years of back issues, along with other body parts. When Mickelson won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, becoming the oldest winner of a major, he seemed destined to become the closest thing golf had to a next Arnold Palmer. Both were guaranteed to become Ryder Cup captains, to be competitive in U.S. Senior Opens and other stately senior events and to enjoy the kind of adulation that Nicklaus and Palmer enjoyed for decades after their playing careers wrapped up. There’s no sign of that for now.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
