Augusta National virtually oozes with history. After all, it was co-founded by Bobby Jones, winner of golf’s grand slam in 1930. And, as home of the one “anchored” men’s major championship, the club has hosted more majors than any other course in golf history.
A place so steeped in history is reliant on a certain amount of institutional knowledge. That’s where people such as Kaye Kessler come in.
A Colorado resident for the last 28 years, Kessler has been a media fixture at the Masters since the early 1960s. In fact, this week marks the 50th Masters Kessler has covered, which puts him in some pretty rarefied air. Think of it this way: He’s spent almost a year of his life at Augusta National.
In the history of the tournament, no more than 10 journalists have covered at least 50 Masters, and Kessler is joining the half-century club this week at Augusta National.
Many golf fans consider themselves fortunate to attend even a single Masters. Yet, including this week’s tournament, Kessler will have gone to — and covered — 50 of the 77 Masters ever held.
Even at age 89, he wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“It’s the first breath of spring,” he said last week before departing for Georgia. “It’s a coming-out party, a rite of spring. And it’s the only one of the majors that’s anchored. The Masters tries to look better every year — and they seem to do it. It’s just kind of an awakening. And I think it’s still the toughest ticket around.”
Kessler, a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame (he’s pictured below the sign, above), first went to Augusta National in 1963. He’s missed just one Masters since, though he doesn’t recall which year. That was when his wife, Rosemary (Ro), was hospitalized. Coincidentally, the only Ohio State football game Kaye ever missed from 1946 through ’85 was likewise because Ro was ill.
That Kessler first covered the Masters in 1963 seems only appropriate considering that year marked the first of Jack Nicklaus’ record six victories at Augusta National. Kessler, a longtime sports writer in Columbus, Ohio, chronicled Nicklaus’ golf career starting in 1950, when Jack was 10 years old.
Not only will this year be Kessler’s 50th Masters, but his 120th men’s major championship. He’s also covered 38 U.S. Opens, 12 British Opens and 20 PGA Championships. But the Masters tops the list, and it’s the one that remains on the schedule of this 2001 winner of the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
Kessler, who served as the first media- and player-relations director for the International PGA Tour event in Castle Rock, has covered the Masters for a variety of publications over the decades. He started the run as a sports writer for the Columbus Citizen-Journal, but he’s also written about the tournament for such national publications as Golf Digest and Golf World, and locally for Colorado AvidGolfer.
While the Masters has long been a springtime ritual for Kessler, it wasn’t until several years ago that he took account exactly how many times he’d been to Augusta National.
On the Wednesday before the 2007 Masters, new chairman Billy Payne unveiled the inaugural Masters Major Achievement Award. That year, it was given to 14 journalists who had covered at least 40 Masters each.
Each of the 14 was given an engraved hardwood plaque made from a large tree which had stood on the second hole at Augusta National. The plaque, which depicts a carving of the clubhouse, looks warped because it’s made of wood peeled off the tree. Kessler’s award hangs in his Littleton kitchen, but there’s a larger permanent one that’s affixed on the Augusta National grounds.
Honored that year, along with Kessler, were current World Golf Hall of Famer Dan Jenkins, Furman Bisher, Nick Seitz, Dave Kindred, Edwin Pope, John Derr, Al Wester, Ron Green Sr., Horace Billings, Hubert Mizell, Dave Moffitt, Dan Foster and Art Spander. In addition to the plaque, each received a commemorative book.
Of the 14, Kessler at that point ranked 10th as far as number of Masters covered, and he’s moved up since because of attrition.
Kessler, who in the 1950s turned down a full-time job offer from Sports Illustrated because it required moving his family to New York City, obviously counts some of his Masters memories among the most notable of his sports writing career.
Asked the favorites among the Masters he’s covered and Kessler first points to the improbable 1986 victory by Nicklaus at age 46 in which he shot 30 on the back nine on Sunday.
Next best in Kessler’s mind was Ben Hogan’s last appearance at the Masters, in 1967. On Saturday of that year’s tournament, Kessler and fellow writer Tom Place decided to follow Hogan on the back nine. It was a decision they wouldn’t regret as the 54-year-old Hogan shot a then-record 30 on the back side at Augusta.
“It was just chilling,” recalls Kessler, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America. “He was damn near dying each hole (suffering the effects of age and his near-fatal head-on accident with a bus in 1949). He was weary as all get-out and was having a terrible time walking. Each hole, the crowds got bigger. It was an unbelievable sight. The word got around, and people know the roars at Augusta. On the (hilly) 18th, he has a 16-foot side-hiller for birdie, and he knocks it in for a 30 and a 66 that got him in the hunt.”
Alas, Hogan couldn’t recreate the magic in the final round and he finished 10th. A couple of months later, he competed in his final major, the 1967 U.S. Open.
All told, it’s been — and continues to be — a great ride for Kessler at the Masters.
“It’s an experience unlike any other,” he said.
