One of the many traditions of The Masters is reserved for the winner when he receives the Green Jacket from the previous year’s champion. But what happens when the player who won it the previous year retains his title?
Considering the long history of The Masters, which began way back in 1934, it is perhaps surprising that the issue has only presented itself on the three occasions – in 1966, 1990 and 2002, when back-to-back champions were crowned at Augusta National.
On the first of those occasions, Jack Nicklaus retained his title following a playoff with Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer – but who would hand him the Green Jacket? That was answered by Masters co-founder Bobby Jones, who suggested Nicklaus himself should perform the honor, which he duly did, with chairman Clifford Roberts looking on.
By the time Nick Faldo became the second player to complete back-to-back Masters titles when he beat Raymond Floyd after two extra holes in 1990, it had been decided that the Augusta National chairman would take on the role, and that year, the honor fell to Hord Hardin, who was chairman between 1980 and 1991.
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A dozen years after that, Tiger Woods became the third and most recent player to win consecutive Masters titles when he beat Retief Goosen by three shots, leaving the fifth Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson, who served between 1998 and 2006, to hand him the Green Jacket.
Hootie Johnson was the most recent Augusta National chairman to perform the role, when he gave the Green Jacket to Tiger Woods
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It speaks volumes about the difficulty of winning The Masters back-to-back that since then, there has only really been one occasion where a defending champion has come close to retaining the title.
Back in 2016, Jordan Spieth had seemed primed for successive Masters wins heading into the final round with a lead of one. It looked a near-certainty after his opening nine holes on Sunday, too, where Spieth opened up a five-shot lead. However, it all went wrong on the crucial back nine, which included a quadruple bogey, as Danny Willett eventually won by three.
That left Spieth with the unenviable role of placing the Green Jacket on Willett’s shoulders, when he must have been wondering how he wasn’t the one receiving it from…
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