The Tale of the Georgia Green

Making him promise that he would never wear it in public, Roberts then introduced a set of strict guidelines before the 1962 Masters to ensure that no more Green Jackets went astray. (While Player adhered to his request, the jacket formed part of a collection of his memorabilia offered for sale at Christie's in 2002 but went unsold.)

The same indignation was shown by Augusta National in 1994 when a genuine Green Jacket turned up in a Toronto thrift shop among a bunch of old sports coats. Discovered by a Canadian journalist, he immediately recognised the distinctive logo and gladly handed over the C$5 listed on the price tag! Contacting General Manager James Armstrong for information, the club was not best pleased to hear about the find.

"If it had been the Turin Shroud, the secret society known as the Augusta National Golf Club could not have been more furious," wrote Ian Wooldridge in the Daily Mail some years later. 

"It’s true that Augusta National is relatively protective over its Green Jackets but this was not always the case,” says Ryan Carey, president of Green Jacket Auctions, an auction website specialising in high-end golf memorabilia, including rare Masters Items. “I've spoken to many members, employees and former Masters champions and they all confirm the jackets weren't nearly so tightly guarded by the Club back in the 1940s and 1950s. Then in the early 1960s the shutters came down and have stayed down ever since.”

Understandable when you find that a standard members’ jacket can fetch thousands of dollars at auction. Link it to 1959 Masters champion Art Wall and the bidding tops U$53,000; link it to Bobby Jones and the auction sale price rises to an astronomic U$310,700, like one sold in 2012.

So what price any one of the six Green Jackets won by the great Jack Nicklaus? Curiously not that much as the Golden Bear has never actually owned one until fairly recently. In one of the oddest of stories to emerge from Augusta National in years, the player most associated with the Masters was ultimately forced to buy his own jacket 43 years after supposedly winning his first. “Everybody talks about the Green Jacket,” said Nicklaus, “but I never actually owned one until 1998.”