1999 champion Jose Maria Olazabal (left) presents the green jacket to the 2000 winner Vijay Singh. (Jonathan Ernst/The Augusta Chronicle)
Behind the green jacket
Augusta National's green jacket isn't just another blazer. Here's a closer look at the most coveted article of clothing in sports.
- It's the classic three-button style, single-breasted and center-vented.
- Made of tropical-weight wool (about 2 1/2 yards per jacket) from Forstmann Co. mill in Dublin, Ga.
- That brilliant rye green: Pantone 342.
- Estimated cost to make: $250. (Although no club spokesperson will confirm this publicly.)
- Made exclusively since 1967 by Hamilton Tailoring Co. of Cincinnati.
- Logo-stamped brass buttons made by Waterbury Co. of Massachusetts. Breast-pocket patch made by A&B Emblem Co. in Weaverville, N.C.
- The owner's name is stitched on a label inside.
- The winner doesn't keep the presentation jacket he wears on Sunday -- he's later given a custom-made version to keep.
- Tournament officials watch as leaders emerge in the final round and try to have a few appropriate sizes on hand.
- Sometimes they guess wrong. Jack Nicklaus was given a ridiculously big 46-long in 1963, which he said "looked like an overcoat." When Nicklaus came back a year later, the club still had not made a jacket that fit, so he borrowed one from former N.Y. governor Tom Dewey, a club member. Nicklaus eventually ordered one himself from Hart, Schaffner and Marx in 1972.
- After a year, the winner must bring the jacket back to Augusta National and never wear it outside the club again. But there have been exceptions. Gary Player got into a heated exchange in 1961 with Cliff Roberts after he mistakenly left his jacket in South Africa.
- Sam Snead was the first Masters champion to get a green jacket, in 1949, to make him an honorary member. It was then awarded to all past champions retroactively.
- The original purpose of the green jacket, as envisioned by Cliff Roberts, was to identify club members as "reliable sources of information" to visiting non-members -- and to let waiters know who got the check at dinner.
- Traditionally, last year's winner presents the jacket to the new champion at the tournament's end.
- BONUS TRIVIA: If the defending champion wins, who puts the jacket on him? Find out in the 2002 area of our Masters history.
