As the 76th Masters in Augusta, Georgia at Augusta National Golf Club gets underway this week, once again we will all be cast under the spell of the American South. Seagull-white dogwood in bloom. Rhododendrons and azaleas blazing with rich deep abundant colors. The cathedral-like Georgia pines swaying in the capricious winds. The sounds and smells of springtime wafting in the crisp air. The devilish water elements. The rolling topography. The pine straw browns. The verdant greens. The sparkling blues. The blinding whites. The roars. The shadows. And 98 hopeful yet terrified professional and amateur golfers all with the same desire to be in the Butler Cabin on Sunday afternoon for a jacket fitting. It's all there and the drama unfolds on 350 acres of Dixie's best land.
Some of the fortunate known as "the patrons" will actually attend, while most of us "the wanna-be patrons" will sit in wonderment Thursday to Sunday staring at HDTV like mesmerized little children watching beauty, joy and suffering unfold in real time.
The CBS announcers will titillate us with their typical yearly poetic and orgasmic attempts to describe what is before them. They will talk lovingly of Robert "Bobby" Tyre Jones, Jr. as they should. Bobby Jones, a true Southern handsome gentleman, an engineer and english double major, a successful lawyer, and a multi-champion amateur golfer of which the world may never see again and co-founder of Augusta National Golf Club and of the Masters Tournament. But little will be said about the other co-founder of Augusta National and of the Masters Tournament, Clifford Roberts, whose picture is imported above. Bobby Jones died in 1971 with the forever title "President in Memoriam". Roberts died, by his own hand on Augusta's par 3 grounds, in 1977 with the forever title of "Chairman in Memoriam." A lofty title indeed for Roberts, but just who was Clifford Roberts?
Clifford Roberts born in Iowa 1894. He came from nothing. He left school after the 9th grade. His father and mother both committed suicide. Mother by shotgun and father by train. Similarly, Ben Hogan, as a six year old, saw his father take his own life. Those tragic events shape a person forever. A person becomes inward...private. Clifford like Ben was damaged yet determined. To their immense credit, they both survived the unspeakable personal heartaches of their lives and prospered amidst it all.
A natively smart and intuitive Clifford wound up on Wall Street. Met powerful and influential people. Became very adept at the world's second oldest profession, that is, separating wealthy people from their money not in a nefarious-madoffian way but in a way where both sides prospered. Eventually, Roberts met Jones and the dream of a private golf club was discussed. Roberts found the land in Augusta, Fruitlands Nursery, and secured the seed money (about $200,000) from his contacts to purchase the land and design (by Alister MacKenzie) and build a golf course on it. When Bobby Jones saw the land for the first time, he proclaimed, "...perfect, and to think the ground has been laying here all these years for someone to come along and lay a golf course on it." The course opened for play in 1932 during the Great Depression no less.
With 140 members, Augusta National was a men's only private golf club by invitation only. Jones was the President of Augusta National. Roberts was the Chairman of Augusta National. Jones was its heart and soul. Roberts was its brain and will. Jones was the velvet. Roberts was the hammer. Jones was macro. Roberts was micro. Jones's main focus was the golf course. Roberts's main focus was everything else. In 1934, The Masters Tournament was created. The Masters name was Roberts's idea which Jones hated, bellowing "too embarassing." However, The Masters name caught on and the annual visit down Magnolia Lane signals everything superior about tournament golf thanks to Roberts steady and strong hand on the tiller.
Roberts's contributions to Augusta and to the Masters are too numerous to mention. Suffice it say, from the green jacket to Pinkertons to CBS to the pimento sandwiches, Roberts was the author and the enforcer. In 1942 Masters, amateur contestant Frank Stranahan, met Roberts wrath head-on. In those days, Roberts enforced a rule that a contestant in the Masters may only play one ball during practice rounds. Well Frank played two balls. Roberts found out about it. Frank was sent home before the sun set that day. Roberts was tough but also fair.
In closing, writer Charles Price wrote this about Clifford Roberts:
"For all his foibles, his peccadillos, his sometimes infuriating idiosyncrasies, chiefly, an almost total inability to tell you in plain words what he was thinking, Roberts made himself into the one indispensable figure at Augusta National and at the Masters Tournament. Cliff Roberts was, in the last anlaysis, an autocrat in the absolute, and that is what all golf clubs and all golf tournaments need above anything else if they are going to venture into the extraordinary."
Ridden with incurable cancer while nearing the end of his incredible life, Roberts demurely reflected on his 45 year tenure as Chairman, "I was overpaid for my services."
So, enjoy the greatest show on grass this week and give Bobby and Clifford a heartfelt salute for giving us an American treasure that endures year after year. They set the gold standard for golf in both club and tournament. WE THANK YOU!
