It isn’t bragging if you can back it up, Muhammad Ali famously said, but even the cocky old prizefighter might have had his tolerance for bombast tested Thursday at Augusta National.
There’s a pre-ordained order to things at the Masters. We hear from competitors on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday belongs to Augusta National’s chairman, and Thursday—at least the early morning, as play gets underway—is reserved for the honorary starters.
The Masters is celebrated for its immutability, underpinned as it is by tradition. One example is the honorary starters, legends whose ceremonial tee shots get things underway shortly after dawn. They are among the few things that do actually change at the Masters, and not just their names. Starters assume the role in the flush of their autumnal years and, while most everything around them remains the same as the years roll on, they grow stiffer of bearing, shorter off the tee and more fragile of health, though never less impressive in our collective memory.
