As they’ve completed yearly since Ben Hogan began the custom in 1952, Masters champions will collect collectively for dinner at 6pm sharp on Tuesday night time on the Augusta Nationwide clubhouse adorning their inexperienced jackets.
This yr could have a well-recognized really feel to it as they honour defending champion Scottie Scheffler for the second time in three years, and his menu of alternative has modified little or no.
The illustrious group will take pleasure in ‘Papa Scheff’s meatball and ravioli bites’ as each a nod to the dish Scheffler sliced his hand open making ready on Christmas Day and to his favorite dish his father prepares.
FOX SPORTS, accessible on Kayo Sports activities, is the one place to look at the 2025 Masters LIVE | New to Kayo? Get your first month for simply $1. Restricted time supply.
It is usually one of many few adjustments to Scheffler’s menu.
Because it did two years in the past, the Texas-style dinner may even embrace ‘Scottie-style’ cheeseburger sliders and firecracker shrimp, a alternative of ribeye steak or blackened redfish, macaroni and cheese, jalapeno creamed corn, Brussels sprouts and a heat chocolate chip skillet cookie for dessert.
The reigning champion’s alternative of menu is likely one of the few issues Augusta Nationwide and the champions themselves willingly pull down the curtain on to provide followers a glimpse into the mysterious night.
It’s sometimes a what occurs within the room stays within the room sort of affair.
The annual photograph exhibits who attended and who stays tight with who, however generally the champions select to supply a bit of extra perception.
For instance, they’ve typically make clear the menu hits and misses through the years.
Scot Sandy Lyle’s 1989 alternative of haggis as the primary dish raised eyebrows, so too did a 21-year-old Tiger Woods’ choice to offer cheeseburgers, fries and milkshakes in 1998.
Canadian Mike Weir opted for elk and wild boar because the meat choices in 2004, as most champions have chosen to craft a menu from their homeland.
Englishman Danny Willett selected a full Sunday roast after his countrymen Nick Faldo selected fish and chips one yr.
Hideki Matsuyama’s Japanese and Jon Rahm’s Spanish feasts have been successful, particularly with seafood lovers.
In the meantime, Adam Scott made positive his menu was uniquely Australian in 2014.
Scott flew in Morten Bay bugs, select Australian wagyu beef for the steak and served a pavlova with Anzac biscuits for dessert.
Augusta Nationwide chef Shaun Lewis ranked it among the best ever.
The worldwide flavour could be a nightmare for choosy eaters, with some champions typically pinching meals from a neighbouring plate that has gone untouched.
Whereas fussiness typically results in turning into the brunt of a number of jokes, as an example, Scheffler nonetheless finds it humorous that lots of the older champions discovered his tortilla soup from two years in the past too spicy for his or her liking.
One other distinctive quirk of the dinner is that the reigning champion covers the invoice.
Scheffler’s dinner this yr is reported to price US$108 per plate, considerably lower than the $220 a head Matsuyama forked out in 2022 and the $180 per individual Rahm coughed up final yr.
Contemplating Scheffler earned a staggering US$29.2 million in prize cash final yr, his fellow champions might have anticipated a dinner extra lavish and can absolutely make enjoyable of the world No.1 for being low-cost.
The champions dinner has additionally harnessed higher consideration in recent times due to the tensions happening in males’s skilled golf.
The approaching collectively of LIV and PGA Tour rivals for the 2023 dinner led to Faldo joking within the lead up that they would wish plastic cutlery, however the night went easily, so far as the general public is conscious.
This yr, the dinner is within the highlight once more due to the return of Angel Cabrera.
The 2009 champion has been incarcerated in Argentine and Brazilian prisons in recent times, serving time for home violence.
Whether or not Cabrera must be allowed to return or not has been the topic of a lot debate, however the Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership have been swift of their actions to dampen his return being a difficulty.
It’s set to make an fascinating matter of dialog on the dinner desk.
But when there may be any awkwardness, it is going to be nipped within the bud virtually instantly.
Scott is a former champion who has been fairly open about tales from the dinner.
A number of years in the past in an interview, he revealed that the Augusta Nationwide representatives haven’t any qualms about placing champions within the place.
“Bernhard Langer getting sat down by [former club chairman] Billy Payne at one dinner was a memorable one for me,” Scott stated with fun.
“Having a suggestion about one thing. Type of was a temper killer one night time. Good things.”
To take care of among the thriller, Scott didn’t expose what Langer’s suggestion was however golf followers can think about.
Lovers of the game the world over would kill to be a fly on the wall in such moments.
Present gamers would too.
Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson delights in selecting a number of targets annually to textual content initially of Masters week, or method on the vary, to ask if they’ve dinner plans on Tuesday? Simply to rub salt within the wound.
Dustin Johnson was a daily sufferer earlier than he received in 2020, and famously texted Mickelson the next yr saying, “I instructed that motherf***** I do know what I’m doing for dinner Tuesday night time”.
Tiger’s ICONIC 05 Masters chip | 01:10
The reigning champion provides a speech yearly, the contents of that are very hardly ever shared.
One of many shifting moments from current instances nevertheless, was Matsuyama, who feels way more snug talking Japanese as an alternative of English, standing up and delivering a roughly three minute speech he had rehearsed in his second language.
As with all reunion, the night time is closely stuffed with tales of yesteryear.
Separate conversations happen amongst small teams across the desk, however Scott revealed that some matters depart the room to take a seat and hear, resembling an icon talking about one other icon.
“Listening to Gary Participant speak about Hogan will get your complete desk’s consideration,” Scott stated.
“The mystique of Hogan’s actually robust, even for the blokes who have been enjoying with him.”
Participant not too long ago shared a narrative about Hogan expressing his disgust at something that broke the sanctity of the dinner.
Claude Harmon, the 1948 champion, wished to get all current to signal a menu as a present to the highest junior golfer at his membership, and when the menu acquired to Hogan, Participant remembers that the nine-time main winner was displeased.
“Hogan slammed his fists on the desk and it was so loud everybody acquired a shock,” Participant stated. “He stated, ‘That is the Masters Champions Dinner, not an autograph session.’ I used to be proper subsequent to him and can always remember that second.”
There aren’t any further visitors on the dinner.
No caddies, no spouses, no youngsters, no pals, solely Masters champions and the chairman of Augusta Nationwide.
The dinner is only a catchup between a bunch who share a particular bond.
Cam Smith eyes prime prize at Augusta | 08:02
Langer refers to it as “like a household dinner”.
It’s just like a premiership reunion at a neighborhood sporting membership.
Everybody regales one another with reminiscences of well-known victories, or a specific shot, or make gentle of each other for blunders.
Sam Snead fills the function as the person who tells “soiled jokes” later within the night time after indulging in a number of beers or glasses of wine.
And simply as everybody has their very own locker within the changerooms, Scott stated it looks like everybody has their very own particular place throughout the dinner.
“Typically, I sit subsequent to Trevor [Immelman] most years,” Scott stated. “Now we have been mates since we have been junior golfers, and after my yr of internet hosting the highest of the desk, I rapidly bee-lined that subsequent dinner all the way down to Trevor’s nook to submit up subsequent to him.
“[Trevor] sits on my left most years and Mark O’Meara sits on my proper.
“It’s not assigned seating, however quite a bit individuals sit in the identical chairs. I like that, to be completely trustworthy. I like the truth that you sort of really feel like that’s your spot. I take pleasure in the entire thing. I take pleasure in listening to what everybody has to say that night.
“Like, Fred {Couples} does an important job needling among the older gamers into telling tales. He’s an excellent facilitator, Freddie, of these sort of issues.
“It’s good enjoyable. I get to share it now. Now I’ve been out right here so lengthy a whole lot of these guys I contemplate pals, and I get to share the night with a number of pals.
“Even main as much as this. I typically see Zach Johnson like within the exercise trailer or one thing a month away and we each are already enthusiastic about Tuesday night time.”