The 2021 Masters Tournament is the 85th edition of the 2021 Masters Tournament Betting and the first of the men’s four major golf championships to be held in 2021. It is taking place, as always, from at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia from 8th to 11th April. The Masters is the youngest of the four majors, and the only one played on the same golf course every year.

Like most major sports events, the tournament was postponed in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions and held later in the year behind closed doors. However, this year spectators will be allowed in reduced numbers following the correct social distancing measures.

Masters Week is always eagerly anticipated and celebrated for its surprise winners, with the Champion often not decided until the final 18th hole on Sunday. This year one of the favourites must be Jordan Spieth, who will be attempting to collect a second green Master’s jacket coming hot on the heels of his Texas Open victory last week, which finally ended a losing run stretching back to July 2017.

Spieth is one of the later starts on the first day teeing off at 19.00. Bryson DeChambeau (18:36), another favourite Justin Thomas (18:48) join Jordan Spieth with the later tee off times.

At the other end of the day, first to tee off at 15.30 is US Amateur champion Tyler Strafaci who will play with Lee Westwood and defending champion and world number one Dustin Johnson.

Rory McIlroy, who is making his seventh attempt to complete the career Grand Slam of all four majors, plays with Jon Rahm of Spain and American Xander Schauffele and they tee off at 15:42.

The Masters is the only major to be played on the same course every year and this unique fact itself sets it apart from any other golf course in the world. In addition, Augusta is said
to be one of the greatest courses in the world due to its property, its design and the resources available for the upkeep of this unique golf course are unequalled.

Leading the way in golf course maintenance technology, Augusta has possibly the highest maintenance budget of any golf course in the world with the ability to shut the golf course down for half the year. This is primarily because of the millions of dollars generated from the CBS broadcast of the Masters. As a result a huge amount of this broadcast revenue goes right back into the golf course.

Augusta keeps its membership at around 300 and is one of the few private clubs in America with no application process. Whilst the annual membership fee is rumoured to be low for a club of Augusta’s stature, it seems it’s not what you know, to get a membership it’s who you know!

Another key element of the Master’s tradition is the wearing of the green jacket. When Augusta was first founded in 1933, members wore green jackets during the tournament so that they could be easily recognised amongst the spectators.

The “Masters Green” jacket, with an Augusta National Golf Club logo on the left chest pocket, originally debuted in 1937, and was viewed as the symbol of membership of the extremely exclusive Augusta National.

From 1949 every winner of the Masters tournament was presented with a Green jacket and had it for life, as well as becoming for life members of the Champions Club at Augusta.
Now at the end of each Masters, the ‘green jacket’ ceremony is held, where the new champion is presented with the green jacket by the previous year’s champion.

Over the years, US golf legend Jack Nicklaus has won the most green jackets, winning six between 1963 and 1986, followed closely by Tiger Woods with five. Nick Faldo, Sam Snead, Gary Player and Phil Mickleson have all won it three times each. And those who have won it twice include the last Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Bubba Watson and Jose Maria Olazabal.

So the big question is, as the players start to tee off for the 2021 August Majors, who will be wearing the green jacket on Sunday?

Sources:
wikipedia.org
bbc.co.uk/sport/golf
thesun.co.uk/sport
bleacherreport.com