This year, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player have been named as the honorary starters for the 87th Masters. They will tee off at 7:40 am (EST) on Thursday, April 6. The same group was the ...

Honorary starters Jack Nicklaus (L), Tom Watson (C) and Gary Player (R) pose with caddies before teeing off from hole No. 1 during the honorary starters ceremony at the Masters Tournament on ...

Honorary Masters starters pick McIlroy to complete Grand Slam By Rory Carroll April 10, 20257:06 AM PDTUpdated April 10, 2025 ...

Honorary Starters first made an appearance at the Masters in 1963. Since then, 11 golfers, each with extensive history at Augusta National Golf Club, have helped kick off the Masters with the ...

See more The trio have a combined 11 Green Jackets between them, as well as 140 Tournament appearances, with the World Golf Hall of Famers carrying on their Honorary Starter roles from 2022.

2023 - Adam Driver Adam Driver, the Indianapolis 500 Honorary Starter, waves the green flag on Sunday, May 28, 2023, to start the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The tradition of honorary starters officially began in 1963, when club co-founder Bobby Jones asked Scottish pros Jock Hutchinson and Fred McLeod to lead off the opening round.

Nicklaus has been an honorary starter since 2010, the longest of the current trio. Player joined him in 2012, but the group dwindled to two after the great Arnold Palmer passed away in 2016.

Palmer had been an honorary starter since 2007—going at it solo for three years before Nicklaus and then Player were invited to join him. He sat on the tee that day in 2016, wearing his green ...

A little-known honorary starter fact is that Ken Venturi, who twice nearly won the Masters as an amateur, pinch-hit for Nelson in 1983 as Nelson was tending to his wife, who was ill.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Honorary starters haven’t always been a tradition at The Masters, it just seems that way given how long ago the practice began. The start of the 2023 tournament marks the 60th ...

Now would seem to be a good time to restore some tradition at the Masters, a major already loaded with it. The practice of an honorary starter began in 1963, although it goes back even further.