A-Z of Augusta (A-M)

Amateurs
No amateur has ever won the Masters though a few have sent a shudder through the paid ranks. Frank Stranahan, Billy Joe Patton and Ken Venturi have all come close to breaking the deadlock and the last serious bid came from Augusta member Charles Coe, who missed a birdie putt at the 72nd hole to tie Gary Player in 1961.

Bridges
Three of the game's legends are honoured over the Augusta back nine. The Hogan Bridge commemorates the American's then-record score of 274 in 1953. A second recognises Byron Nelson's birdie-eagle run at 12 and 13 to make up six shots on Ralph Guldahl and the Sarazen Bridge honours the American's albatross two at 15 - the 'shot heard 'around the world' - to lift him into a 36-hole play-off with Craig Wood.

Cheeseburger
What else do you expect a 22-year-old to serve up at the Champions Dinner? To complete Tiger¹s choice of meal, chicken sandwiches and french fries were also on the menu, washed down by a variety of milkshakes. Canadian Mike Weir went even further to reflect his national cuisine when hosting the 2004 dinner. The left-hander's mouth-watering offering was elk, wild boar and Arctic char (fish apparently).

Driver
One of the most important clubs and given extra significance with the recent lengthening of the course. Phil Mickelson chose to carry two last year but he wasn't the first to put a pair of drivers in the bag for a Major. Ian Woosnam did it at the Open at Lytham in 2001, but that may have been more of an oversight! The Welshman did, though, make an inspired decision to hit driver at the 72nd hole in the 1991 Masters, taking the bunkers out of play to secure a par as his closest rivals made a mess of the last.

Europe
From 1980 to 1999 Europe enjoyed an extraordinary run of success with 11 victories. Nick Faldo was the most successful with three while Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal were also multiple winners. Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam started and finished a particularly golden spell of four successive Sundays. So why was the Masters so special for this generation? Basically, we had the best players in the world and the splendour and challenge of Augusta, more often than not, brings that to the fore.

Fruitlands
Plans for a luxury hotel on the site were abandoned by a Miami hotelier after a hurricane in Florida left the company bankrupt and Bobby Jones and Co quickly moved in. The 365-acre abandoned nursery was recommended by future Augusta mayor Tom Barrett and a group of five investors. Jones put in no money, Clifford Roberts a little and the Fruitlands property was optioned for 70,000 US dollars.

Green Jacket
These jackets may be only worn outside the club grounds during the year in which the player is champion and are held at the club after that. Even then you have to be careful. Faldo was reprimanded for wearing his on the BBC's Wogan show in 1989, a television studio being deemed not a fit and proper place. Precious? Never.

Hole-in-one
To date there have been 18 and, like the par-three contest, no eventual winner has managed one and gone on to win. Jeff Sluman is the only player to ace the fourth, four have done so at the sixth while three have followed suit at the infamous 12th. The 16th, Redwood, is the place to be to witness an ace. Padraig Harrington is one of 10 to hole out here and Kirk Triplett, playing in the group behind, incredibly followed him in three years ago.

Ike's Tree
The club's most famous member and former President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, joined in the early 1950s at the urging of Chairman Roberts and soon became friends with Jones. Not the best of players, Eisenhower kept hitting his drive into the loblolly pine in the left half of the 17th fairway and at a club meeting in 1956 proposed to have the tree removed. The committee resisted however and ever since the tree has been known as Ike's Tree.

Jack Nicklaus
In 1959 Jack Nicklaus turned up as a bulky 19-year-old and promptly missed the cut. A year later he was leading amateur and from then on he made Augusta his own with a record six victories in 45 appearances. The first came in 1963 when he became the youngest winner and he added two more in the following three years, including a staggering nine-shot success in 1965 -­ only Tiger Woods has bettered his 271 aggregate. He was never out of the top 10 in the 70s, winning twice, before his incredible win in 1986, six years after his previous Major scalp.

King
Arnold Palmer catapulted the game into people's living rooms with his good looks, humble manner and no-holds-barred style of play. The four-time champion claimed the Green Jacket every other year from 1958 to 1964 and it could have been even better. Only once was he outside the top 10 during this time. His double-bogey finish, when par would have beaten Gary Player in 1961, is his best-known close shave.

Lyle
Sandy was two clear going into Sunday's final round in 1988 but a bogey at 11 and a visit to Rae's Creek at the next left him trailing Mark Calcavecchia and Craig Stadler. Birdie chances slid by before a downhill 15-footer dropped at 16 and an exquisite seven iron, from the upslope of the fairway bunker, slowly made its way back towards the cup. Another downhill 15-footer and Briton's first champion gave his own version of the highland fling.

MacKenzie
Dr Alister MacKenzie was handpicked to be Augusta's architect after Jones made a chance visit to another MacKenzie creation, Cypress Point. The pair immediately struck up a friendship and set about making Augusta a reality. Jones would hit a selection of shots and MacKenzie, a Yorkshire-born doctor, would visualise the rest. MacKenzie sadly died from heart failure before the club opened in 1934.
A-Z of Augusta (N-Z)