1939: When The Masters Became The Masters

Most of us would be giving the wrong answer if we said the Masters was officially born in year two of the tournament, but as John Steinbreder explains in this Masters.com story, the rollout was not really official until 1939. There’s hope for The Tournament Players Championship/The Players Championship/The Players/The PLAYERS!

As much as Jones disdained the name, it had more than its fair share of early adopters. In fact, Roberts relates how a mutual friend of theirs, Tom Barrett, was so disappointed that the competition was not being called the Masters that he told a newspaper reporter friend about it. That person then wrote a story on the matter, which was one reason several members of the media referred to the event during its inaugural playing as the Masters Tournament.

“By 1935, most of the media did so, and in 1936, no one except the Club called the Tournament by any other name than the Masters,” Roberts wrote.