The Masters: The complete history of the Green Jacket

The story of the Green Jacket begins, would you believe, in England.

When legendary amateur Bobby Jones arrived at Royal Liverpool Golf Club to take part in the 1930 Open Championship, something caught his eye during a pre-tournament drinks reception.

Club captain, Kenneth Stoker, and his predecessors were wearing matching red jackets.

Jones liked what he saw, and the story goes that Mr Stoker promised the American that, should he win that week’s Open, he would gift him his prized garment. A few days later, Jones was on his way back across the Atlantic with not only his third Claret Jug but a blazer of his own courtesy of his new friend in Hoylake.

Three years later, Jones would open his own golf club – Augusta National – and pitched the idea of matching jackets for members. Red, yellow, and, of course, ‘Georgia Peach’ were put on the table, before the voting committee settled on green to match the lush surroundings.

When The Masters – known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament for its first six iterations – was inaugurated a few months later, club members wore the woolen jackets to distinguish themselves from patrons.

In 1949, it was decided that each Masters champion would take home a Green Jacket of his own, with all past winners retroactively receiving one.

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Badge of honour

Let’s get technical for a moment.

The Augusta National Green Jacket is a three-button, single-breasted, single-vented blazer with a notch lapel.

The tropical wool fabric used is produced by Victor Frostman Inc. in Dublin, Georgia, around 90 miles south of Augusta, while the jackets themselves are made by Hamilton Tailoring Company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

An embroidered patch featuring the club’s famous logo adorns the left breast pocket, as do the brass buttons, which are custom-made by the Waterbury Company of Connecticut.

Each Green Jacket, which has its owner’s name stitched on the inside lining, takes approximately one month and costs around $250 to make.

Obey the rules

Only one Green Jacket is allowed to leave the property at Augusta National – and that is the one owned by the reigning Masters champion.

For one year, the winner of men’s golf’s opening major is permitted to take the jacket home and do as they wish. That’s why you often see players on talk shows or at sporting events while in their newly-acquired clothing.

But from the moment they return for the following year’s Masters, it is kept safely in the Champions Locker Room for each time they visit the famed Georgia club.

Of course, not everyone follows the rules. Legend has it that it was Nick Faldo who normalised wearing the Green Jacket for various press appearances, which the board at ANGC reportedly didn’t like, while Seve Ballesteros is said to have flat out refused when asked to return his jacket after his Masters wins in 1980 and ‘82.

But it was Gary Player who most famously found himself on the wrong side of the then Augusta chairman Clifford Roberts. When the first non-American Masters champion received a phone call in his native South Africa asking why his jacket was on the other side of the Atlantic, Player replied: “Fine, Mr Roberts. If you want it, come and fetch it!”

The 1961 champion agreed not to wear his Green Jacket in public again and, from the following year, stricter rules were put in place.

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Sale of the century

There was more controversy in 1994 when a genuine Augusta National Green Jacket turned up in a charity shop in Canada. Bought by a local journalist, who couldn’t believe his luck at the $5 asking price, it was re-sold in 2017 by Florida-based Green Jacket Auctions for a whopping $139,000.

This tipped off Augusta National, which had trademarked the name ‘Green Jacket’ seven years prior and set its legal team into action.

The company is now known as Golden Age Auctions, while Mullion Golf Club in Cornwall also received a cease and desist to stop offering green jackets to winners of its own annual tournament.

“They’re an 800-pound gorilla,” one legal opponent once told Golf magazine. “They try to bully you.”

However, that didn’t stop the hammer coming down on a Green Jacket owned by Horton Smith for his victory in the inaugural Masters for a cool $682,229 in 2013, while Jones’ blazer had fetched $310,700 two years before.

Jack to square one

No-one has won the Masters more than Jack Nicklaus – and yet he never got his hands on his own Green Jacket until relatively recently.

When the Golden Bear, who triumphed six times at Augusta, won his first, the powers-that-be didn’t have the right size, so they ended up lending him one which was far too big.

“They must have thought I was huge,” Nicklaus joked years later. “It hung off me like an old blanket.”

For his second and third wins, Nicklaus borrowed the jacket off Thomas Dewey, a New York governor, to wear in public while the original 46-long hung in his locker.

“Nobody ever spoke to me about it – and I was never going to say anything,” Nicklaus recalled.

Then, ahead of his fourth win in ‘72, and with the now late Mr Dewey buried in his beloved blazer, Nicklaus decided to have his own made by one of his sponsors – clothing company Hart, Shaffner & Marx. Even though it was the wrong shade of green – Pantone 342, if you’re wondering – the replica remained until 1997, when Nicklaus finally mentioned it to then Augusta chairman Jackson Stevens, who immediately requested one to be made.

But Nicklaus declined the belated offer. “It was such a great story,” he said. “I didn’t want to ruin it.”

Perhaps that’s why now there is a field on the registration form invitees which fill out ahead of the Masters that asks for their jacket size.

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