The Masters is the best sporting event in Georgia, the South and probably the world

During the sporting calendar there are a few events that really stand out: the Super Bowl, the Champions League final, watching the yellow jersey tear down the Champs-Elysées. None of them quite compare to watching the best golf players in the world compete for that green jacket.

Firstly, the course itself adds to the spectacle. While other golfing events change location year on year – The British Open is at St Andrews every five years for example – the Masters stays at Augusta and we come to know, learn and love the course. Each hole has a special memory, be it Tiger Woods’ famous chip in 2005 on the par 3 16th or that shot by Bubba Watson in the 2012 playoff on the 10th.

Augusta is better than the Old Course

What makes the Masters so special is that you are following the individual journey of the players. I love a team sport as much as the next person, but over the course of the four days you find yourself forming an emotional bond with a particular player and living their experiences with them. Being a British golf fan, there was nothing more traumatic than Rory’s final round 80 in 2011.

Tennis is a sport I would put on a similar level to golf, in that it’s an individual sport with four majors in a year (obviously as sports they are entirely different). There is a key difference between the majors in professional golf and professional tennis.

For a tennis player, there is no one stand out major they would prefer to win. Ask any golfer, however, and the one they want to win is The Masters. Nothing can quite compete with that green jacket.

What we really love about golf is the sheer unpredictability. Anybody can win it. Anybody can lose it. If we compare tennis and golf, tennis goes through periods when particular players dominate the game. Either Federer or Nadal won Wimbledon between 2003-2010 and only once since 2000 has someone outside the top four seeds won Wimbledon.

Interviewing Tom Lewis in 2013

It is impossible to dominate golf like that. Of course there will be better players who win more majors, McIlroy (4), Mickelson (5) and Spieth (2), but you can hardly say they dominate when you compare it to Federer (17), Nadal (14) and Djokovic (11).

Predicting who will win The Masters is pointless. Who really saw Zach Johnson (who at the time was ranked 56th in the world) winning in 2007? Just to prove my point, after the first day in 2016, Danny Lee, ranked 38th in the world is currently tied for second place.

That is why Sunday at Augusta is unlike anything else. We watch because anything could happen and odds are, something will happen.