AUGUSTA, Ga. — Come Sunday night at Augusta National Golf Club, someone will win the Masters green jacket and their life will change forever.
It’s the most desirable jacket in all sports, but it’s definitely not your average jacket. Let’s explain.
First, the color. You know you were wondering. Pantone 342, also known as Masters Green. (Your new bottom color? Smart choice.)
The club bought its first jackets from the Brooks Uniform Company in 1937, but members, who were encouraged to buy them so patrons could identify reliable sources of information, were not happy with how warm they were. There have been several different suppliers since then, but Hamilton Tailoring Co. has done since 1967. (No, you can’t buy one.) Besides the club logo on the left breast pocket, it’s also on the brass buttons.
Jackets were not awarded to Masters players until 1949, when Sam Snead won. They have been awarded to all previous winners over and over again.
And you probably know this one, but the tradition of the Masters is that the winner of the previous tournament puts the jacket on the new champion every Sunday night. But what about back-to-back winners? In 1966, when Jack Nicklaus repeated as champion, club founder Bobby Jones suggested, jokingly, that Nicklaus take both roles and put them on him. The past two times there were repeat champions, Nick Faldo in 1990 and Tiger Woods in 2002, the club chairman helped with the jacket. Although, with the 2026 tournament coming to an end, there is a chance that we could once again have our fourth winner in the tournament’s history.
Jackets reserved for club members and Masters winners. That’s all. And don’t even think about taking them off the premises. That right is reserved only for the ruling charioteer after his victory. But when the year is over and they come back next April to defend their title, the jacket stays put as long as the new champion wears theirs. Gary Player, who has won three times, forgot the law for one year and returned to South Africa. When he heard about chairman Clifford Roberts, the Player joked, “Well, why don’t you come and get it?”
There are times when Masters champions wear their jackets for no reason, but this is when they may be representing a tournament or club at an event or event, and of course, they may need permission to do so.
As the Masters draws to a close each year, the club selects a few jackets that might fit the bill for the eventual winner. The jacket the winner gets the night of their victory is usually not the one they keep. They are immediately replaced after their win and get a new one.
These jackets are not often found in the wild, but when they are, the price is high. Back in 2013, Green Jacket Auctions sold Augusta National Invitational winner Horton Smith’s jacket for $682,229.
So while you may not win the Masters to earn your green jacket, you can always be asked to join the club. Although that may be unlikely. I LA Times published a story in 2023 that described a special room in the basement of the members’ store that the club called the “Green Jacket Experience” and the “Green Jacket Vault,” where new club members were joined by chairman Fred Ridley and a tailor to have their jackets fitted.
