Augusta National Golf Course is the private course that is home to The Masters Golf Tournament. The winner each year is draped with the traditional green champion's coat, often by the prior year's victor. The durable power of the green jacket is an attractive iconic golf image. No golf event can compete with that image. The tournament's list of traditions, dinners, social gatherings and the stories that accompany them are too numerous to give justice by quick summery. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters six times, most of any golfer. His ventures into Georgia for this tournament alone have filled volumes of newsprint.

When MacKenzie, the architect of Augusta, last revisited his handy work, he was known to have said humbly that it was his finest achievement. If you look at how he accomplished the wide fairways and massive greens, it certainly is impressive. With its scarcity of traps, low amount of bunkers, and balance between tough and soft pin positions, Augusta could be the best darn golf course in America.

Born twenty-some years after the inception of the two big Opens, it just may have surpassed its two big brothers (the British Open and US Open) in importance. To play the Masters is certainly the goal of golfers in every corner of the world. Like Carnegie Hall once was to entertainers. And then there is winning the Masters. Certainly to do that would be to reach an undeniable plateau of excellence. The happy tournament is impeccably organized. Strict invitation. It is played at the perfect time of the year. It is played at the perfect course.