Gary Player

The tee shot was Watson's first as an Honorary Starter alongside Player and Nicklaus as he was asked to join the duo starting this year. That group of golfers ...

He also pumped his drive past both Nicklaus and Player, much to the chagrin of the latter. It's the most normal a beginning to this event has felt in three years. The tee shot was Watson's first as an Honorary Starter alongside Player and Nicklaus as he was asked to join the duo starting this year.

Check out the best photos of honorary starters Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player beginning the 2022 Masters at Augusta National.

Honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and newcomer Tom Watson struck ceremonial tee shots Thursday to signal the start of the 86th Masters golf ...

The late Arnold Palmer had joined Nicklaus and Player for many years in the starters' role and last year, the late Lee Elder -- the first black golfer to compete in the Masters -- was among the ceremonial starters. They met for a group hug and took photos after their work was done. Spectators crowded around the first tee for a glimpse of the former Masters champions.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Mist fell over Augusta National as Tom Watson joined Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as the newest honorary starter at the 86th Masters ...

Turning more serious, Watson said he isn’t in the same league as the other two honorary starters and pronounced himself “humbled” to be given the role. With Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen for the first two rounds, he’s making his first official start in 18 months. AUGUSTA, Ga. – Mist fell over Augusta National as Tom Watson joined Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as the newest honorary starter at the 86th Masters Tournament.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the second straight year the Masters' Honorary Starters ceremony created a discussion beyond simply the opening tee shots.

Player was named an ambassador of Saudi Golf in April 2021. In 2021, Lee Elder was recognized on the first tee for breaking the tournament’s color barrier in 1975. Companies attaching themselves to Honorary Starters is not new; fellow starters Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were adorned with plenty of advertisers.

Tom Watson said he was "humbled" to be one of the honorary starters as a weather-delayed 86th Masters got under way at Augusta National.

Player, who embraced Watson and Nicklaus in a group hug after the trio had struck their drives, said: "I get quite choked when I get on that tee in the morning. "I have watched this ceremony many times with Arnie (Arnold Palmer), Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, and to be a part of this thing I am truly humbled." Player and Nicklaus both hit their tee shots in light rain, with Watson paying tribute to his playing partners before outdriving the pair of them at the par-four first.

Gary Player wore his iconic all-black jumper during the honorary starters' ceremony at The Masters with the Golf Saudi logo on his collar.

Golf's development with backing from Saudi Arabia has been one of the most controversial stories in the last 12 months. Gary Player wore his iconic all-black jumper with a Golf Saudi logo on the collar during the honorary starter's ceremony at The Masters. Gary Player wore his iconic all-black jumper during the honorary starters' ceremony at The Masters with the Golf Saudi logo on his collar.

Tom Watson didn't think eight major championships, including two green jackets, would be enough to join the company of Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus on the ...

Watson, with 72 next to his name on the standard-bearer at the first tee, took a moment before teeing off and considered how things have come full circle. Not like [Player and Nicklaus], but I had a pretty good career. "I had a pretty good career. "That meant a great deal to me." "I don't kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here." Even if it meant entering another phase of his golfing life.

The 2022 Masters officially started Thursday morning, but not before the ceremonial opening tee shots were struck.

Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod hit the first ceremonial opening tee shots, and other legends of the game such as Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ken Venturi, Arnold Palmer and Lee Elder have taken part since. But before the action started, there was one last tradition to observe — the ceremonial opening tee shots. Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing.

Gary Player believes Phil Mickelson is being unfairly treated for his controversial comments around the PGA Tour and the rival Saudi-backed golf tour.

Wouldn't surprise me if Tiger came back and won a major." He's a workaholic with his body, and he could come back. "And he makes a mistake, which every one of you in this room have made a damn mistake. "It's amazing. I said, 'Hold your head up high'. You've made a mistake. And he said he's sorry.

Legendary golfer Gary Player has thrown his support behind Phil Mickelson while bizarrely wearing a Golf Saudi logo on his clothing in his role as an ...

"My intent was never to hurt anyone and I'm so sorry to the people I have negatively impacted. "The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level. Mickelson is a three-time winner at the Masters, having finally broken his duck in 2004 before going on to win it again in 2006 and 2010. In a lengthy statement announcing his break from the game, Mickelson wrote in February: "I used words I sincerely regret that do not reflect my true feelings or intentions. The reigning US PGA champion apologised for “reckless comments” where he referred to the Saudis as “scary mother*******” and “have a horrible record on human rights”. But Player, now 86, said: "I have a special thought on Phil Mickelson. I think we live in a time now when we are such a judgmental society, a litigious society, a critical society, where people get crucified. “And he makes a mistake, which every one of you in this room have made a damn mistake.

Golf legend Gary Player claimed Phil Mickelson deserves forgiveness for his recent antics – and branded the sport's treatment of him “pitiful”.

“It’s amazing. It’s not right.” “And he makes a mistake, which every one of you in this room have made a damn mistake.

Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson hit the first tee shots at the 86th edition of the Masters Tournament.

“I was definitely the shortest,” Nicklaus would later say. “That a boy,” Watson said as Nicklaus’s drive flew off to the right. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee. “May I say something?” he asked as if anyone would ever think of stopping him. “If I can do this without falling over,” he said. How to watch the Masters But where the drives flew was immaterial. “I’m not embarrassed to say that.” “Yes, success!” I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here,” Watson recalled. “I personally just felt lucky to be out there. The good Lord willing the creek don’t rise.”

When asked about Phil Mickelson at the Masters on Thursday, Gary Player said Mickelson "said terrible things, but we all make mistakes."

“My intent was never to hurt anyone and I’m so sorry to the people I have negatively impacted. “I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and many have been shared with the public,” Mickelson wrote in his statement. “And he makes a mistake, which every one of you in this room have made a damn mistake. Speaking to Shipnuck, Mickelson called his new partners “scary motherf———s,” and he also insisted PGA Tour media rights be redistributed more equitably to Tour members. And he made a mistake, and for everybody to be — I’ve heard him. The greatest PR man on the golf tour in the last five or X amount of years has been Phil Mickelson. He has been the ideal man for a sponsor, for professional golf, for the public, the way he’s handled the public, with dignity and with love.

Three legends get things started at Augusta. In their wake came a bunch of Masters debutantes, plenty of whom flourished.

I really didn’t have the time that I feel like a lot of people had to get ready. He qualified for the Masters . . . on Sunday. He won the Texas Open in San Antonio as the pinnacle of one of those years-long struggles golf can wreak, with his age at 31 and his number of PGA Tour events at 147. “I get quite choked [up] when I get on that tee this morning,” said the eldest of the trio, Gary Player, 86, a three-time winner here. Consider Min Woo Lee, an Australian ranked 59th in the world, playing in his first Masters and second major tournament. “Unbelievable,” Lee said, and added of his shotmaking: “Every shot, I was pretty committed. “A lot of nerves,” he said, “especially with the lack of preparation I felt. Very committed to it. I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here.” They began a day on which second-ranked Jon Rahm shot a 74 and said: “Played great golf, got four mud balls. The enthusiasm is one of the great essences of life, and the enthusiasm here, you can’t compare it to anywhere else.” Well, he shot a 71, with an eagle at No. 13 and birdies at Nos. 14 and 16, and he said, “It’s just momentum, and that’s the great thing in sports.” As a contrast to Nicklaus-Player-Watson, consider J.J. Spaun, an American born in Los Angeles with Filipino and Mexican ancestry, ranked 103rd in the world.