And, as champion, you only get to keep it for a year—the club will kindly hold it for you to wear at the annual Champions Dinner. Your name is stitched on the “etiquette label” on the inside so that when you come back, you don’t make the all-too embarrassing mistake of accidentally putting on the one belonging to Palmer or Nicklaus.
The Green Jacket Closet
Three-time winner Woods already had a Green Jacket—size 42 long—so Mickelson would just present him with that one should he happen to win again.
If DiMarco won, however, it would be his first Masters title, so club officials would have to scramble over to the Green Jacket closet where they keep all the extras in a wide variety of sizes. They would then guess as to which one would be the best fit so that Mickelson would have something to give him at the completion of the tournament.
Later in the evening, DiMarco would then have his measurements taken and an order would be placed with the Hamilton Tailoring Company, a small shop in Cincinnati that has made the jackets since 1967 at an estimated cost of around $250 apiece. Upon completion, the jacket would then be sent to DiMarco to enjoy as he pleased until next year’s tournament.
Hamilton Tailoring does not accept orders from the general public, which is why you don’t commonly see pantone 342 fashioned at your local municipal course.
Perhaps Just a Tad ‘Presumptuous’
The first Green Jackets were made in 1937 by the Brooks Uniform Company in New York City. They were originally intended to be worn by Augusta National members so that they would be easily identifiable to guests who needed assistance during the Masters Tournament.
The first Masters was held in 1934 shortly after construction of Augusta National had been completed. The course was codesigned by architect Alister Mackenzie and golf legend Bobby Jones, who also founded the club with investor Clifford Roberts. They wanted to host the U.S. Open on their new course in ’34, but their bid to do so was declined by the U.S. Golf Association.
Rejected but not defeated, Jones and Roberts decided to host their own tournament—one that would be even better than the Open. It would be called “The Masters,” a name which Jones, who had tremendous respect for the integrity of the game, expressed concern over sounding just a tad “presumptuous.”
He wasn’t too crazy about the gaudy green blazers either.
The Winner’s Exception
The name “Masters” stuck, however, as did the blazers.
In 1949, Sam Snead became the first Masters champion to be presented with a Green Jacket, which was given as a gesture of making the winner an honorary member of Augusta National. An exception to the rule of not removing the jackets from club grounds was made to allow the winner to keep the jacket until the following year’s tournament.
This allowance has been followed by every Masters winner except one.
After Gary Player lost in a three way-playoff in 1962, he stormed back to his native South Africa without giving back the jacket he had won the year before. Shortly after returning home, he received a call from then Augusta National president Clifford Roberts.
“I told Mr. Roberts how sorry I was not to have known the rules and said that if he were passing through Johannesburg, I would be delighted to see him and give it back,” Player said in a 2002 London Telegraph article.
That never happened. In 2003, Player put the Jacket and some 300 other pieces of memorabilia up for auction through Christie’s with an asking price of an estimated $5 million for the entire collection.
Green Tiger
At the end of a long day, it was Mickelson presenting the Jacket to Woods. The two champions were all smiles for the gallery and the cameras in their garish Green Jackets, which would be a major fashion faux pas in any other place except Augusta, Ga., where Pantone 342 never goes out of style.