The Masters: What is the Butler Cabin?

There are ten cabins on the grounds of Augusta National. The best known of these is the Butler Cabin.

While seven of the ten cabins form a semi-circle east of the tenth fairway and west of the Par-3 Course, the Eisenhower, Butler and Roberts Cabins stand alone.

Why is the Butler Cabin the best known of them all? Every year, American TV network CBS hosts its broadcast from inside it and, when you see the Masters champion, defending champion and low amateur together speaking to Jim Nantz in a room at the end of the tournament, that’s from the basement of the Butler Cabin.

It’s where the champion is also first presented with the Green Jacket before the official presentation on the 18th green in front of the patrons a few minutes later.

Why the ‘Butler’ Cabin?

The Butler Cabin takes its name from a chap called Thomas Baldwin Butler. He was a regular player partner of fellow Augusta National member, President Dwight Eisenhower, after whom another one of the cabins is named.

A third cabin is named after Clifford Roberts, President Eisenhower’s personal adviser and friend, the club’s first chairman and Jones’ business partner when the course was first built.

Where is it located?

The Butler Cabin is situated between the clubhouse and the Par-3 Course – as shown in the map above – beside the practice putting green and tenth tee box. It was built in 1964 and CBS first started using it in 1965.

For most of the year, it is available to members and guests of members as accommodation.

A player’s perspective

The vast majority of players never enter the Butler Cabin. A lot of them don’t even know where it is on the grounds of Augusta National. For those lucky enough to be crowned the Masters champion, the last time they enter the Butler Cabin is when they present the Green Jacket to the next winner.

Adam Scott, who won the 2013 Masters, told the New York Post about his experience in the Butler Cabin.

“I have a lot of memories – some are a blur – but standing in Butler Cabin was most memorable, because I’d been going to the Masters for 11 years and I’d never even been there before,’’ he said.

“So, when I was standing in that room under the portrait of Bobby Jones with the chairman of the club and Jim Nantz, it was that spot that we always watch on TV. It was something I’d never seen live before, only on TV.

“The room is pretty much a backdrop. I just remember a lot of television cameras and production people on other side of the room. The whole thing is very staged.”

Until he began working for CBS in 2008, Sir Nick Faldo had not been back to the Butler Cabin since presenting Tiger Woods with the Green Jacket in 1997.

“The first time he came into the cabin for CBS, he sat down in the chair across from me and he had tears in his eyes,” Nantz said.

For those lucky enough to set foot in the Butler Cabin, it’s clearly an incredibly special place.