The Butler Cabin at the Masters and Why It Holds Such Importance
Most golf fans think the green jacket ceremony happens out on the course, but in reality, it doesn’t.
It happens inside a small white building near the clubhouse called Butler Cabin, and most people watching on TV have never heard of it.
The cabin was built in 1964, and it got its name from Thomas Butler, who was a member at Augusta National Golf Club. Butler ran a bank in Augusta and was a personal friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower, another Augusta member.
It’s a simple building with white paint, a chimney, and a couple of windows. There are bedrooms and a kitchen inside, and club members and guests use it year-round.
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Every April, though, Jim Nantz pulls up a chair by the fireplace. A portrait of Bobby Jones hangs on the wall behind him. The Masters champion walks in, the jacket goes on.
That’s how it has worked since 1965, when Jack Nicklaus sat in that chair for the first time after winning his second green jacket.
How the Butler Cabin Got Its Place in Masters History
CBS moved in back in 1965. Jack Nicklaus had just won his second green jacket and became the first champion to sit inside the cabin for an interview.
Jim Nantz wasn’t there yet, that came later, but the bones of what people know today were already in place.
The new champion sits down. The defending champion is already there. The low amateur is there too. The jacket goes on. That’s the drill.
It doesn’t always go smoothly. In 2012, Bubba Watson walked straight past Augusta National chairman Billy Payne during the handshake, completely blanking him. Payne brushed it off as Watson, fresh off his first Masters win, was elsewhere in his head.
Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have each done it five times. Nobody else has matched that.
People talk about Rae's Creek, the 12th hole, and the par-3 course when Augusta comes up. The Butler Cabin barely gets a mention. But come Sunday evening in April, every player who teed it up four days earlier had that little white building in the back of their mind the whole time.
What is your favorite Butler Cabin moment from Masters history? Let us know in the comments!
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Written by
Sneha Abraham
Edited by
Pulkit Prabhav