History
When the great amateur golfer Bobby Jones retired from competition in 1930, he had a dream of creating the world's finest golf course in Georgia, his native state.
Augusta was chosen as the site. There Jones and Alistair MacKenzie, a Scottish golf architect, laid out the Augusta National Golf Club, a course distinguished by "strategic" design, requiring thought and planning by the golfer, in addition to technical skill.
The course opened in 1933 and hosted the Augusta National Invitation Tournament in March of 1934. With first-place money of $1,500, the event attracted an outstanding field of golfers, most of whom praised the new layout highly, and it was immediately decided that the tournament would be held annually. It became known as the Masters' Invitation Tournament in its second year.
The Masters is unique among events on the PGA tour in that is a genuine invitational tournament with a relatively small field. About 90 golfers are invited to enter, and the field is cut to the top 40 and ties after the first two rounds.
When the concept of the modern grand slam was created in 1946, the Masters was one of the four tournaments included, along with the U. S. and British Opens and the PGA Championship. Jones had won the original grand slam, comprising the two Opens and the U. S. and British Amateur Championships, in 1930.