Augusta National Golf Club always fusses about maintaining authenticity and tradition when it comes to the Masters Tournament. In its almost 100 years of history, the iconic and historic event has welcomed innovations in golf like no other event. For instance, the Masters became the first golf tournament to be televised in HD in 2000. Following that, in 2010, the Masters was the first major sporting event produced in 3D for both television and the internet. The point? The Masters and Augusta National are all about history and traditions — however, a recent report brings more to our attention.

The Masters recently released a new YouTube video showcasing its rich history, cherished traditions, and groundbreaking innovations. Diving headfirst into the Masters’ televised broadcasting history, which started in 1956. At that time, the CBS coverage only featured holes Nos. 15-18, yet an “astonishing 10 million viewers tuned into watch that first year,” the voice over narrates. Despite the massive success, it wasn’t until 1966 that the Masters became the first golf tournament in history to feature a color broadcast.

Following the success of the television broadcast, co-founder Cliff Roberts and CBS producer and director Frank Chirkinian joined hands to bring more to golf and the Masters. And they did by introducing an entirely new form of leaderboards. The voice-over talks about the same, “Leaderboards that displayed a player’s standing in relation to par… just one of their [Clifford Roberts and Frank Chirkinian] many creations.”

The Masters pioneered a game-changing innovation in golf: displaying players’ scores relative to par on leaderboards. Augusta and the USGA began using on-course leaderboards around the same time in the late 1950s, but the Masters was the first tournament to showcase scores in relation to par instead of total strokes, revolutionizing the presentation of scores. Roberts also developed a color-coded system to display players’ cumulative scores: red for under par and green for over par or even par.

There was more, however. As the voice-over adds, “Clifford Roberts and Augusta National also pioneered the practice of bringing players to the press for interviews after their rounds, a service that has since been adopted across the game and the globe.” So, the point is, if pros like Rory McIlroy have anyone to blame when it comes to the media duty of post-round interviews, they have Roberts to blame for that! Though Cliff Roberts was the genius behind so many iconic moments at Augusta National, it was Ben Hogan who started an even more enduring moment at Augusta National.

Ben Hogan started the iconic Champions Dinner tradition at Augusta National

The Champions Dinner, a beloved tradition of the Masters Tournament, began in 1952 when Ben Hogan, the previous year’s champion, invited all former winners to a gathering. He scheduled the first Masters Club dinner for 7:15 p.m. on Friday, April 4, following the second round of the 15th Masters.

At that time, only ten past champions existed, including multiple title winners like Horton Smith, Byron Nelson, and Jimmy Demaret. To emphasize the event’s significance, Hogan requested that attendees don their green jackets, which most did with open-collared shirts, although some, like Bobby Jones and Roberts, chose to wear ties.

The dinner was later rescheduled for Tuesday in 1959. Hogan’s vision for the dinner was to create a sacred space free from commercialization, a sentiment that resonated deeply with the attendees. As the years progressed, a unique tradition emerged where players would pass around their menus for signatures.

Hogan presided over the first four dinners before passing the emcee role to Byron Nelson in 2005 and later to Ben Crenshaw. Initially, Hogan covered the dinner costs, establishing the tradition that the reigning champion would take on this responsibility. However, Hogan gradually withdrew from the event, attending sporadically until 1978, when he cited the demands of his equipment company as the reason for his absence.

Notably, he missed the dinners in 1968 and 1972, making a single return appearance in 1972 before stepping away for good. In conclusion, there’s more to Augusta National (and the Masters) than meets the eye!