The Masters 2012: International Players Load Top of the Leaderboard

Located in a part of Georgia where “Yes, sir” and “No, mam” is mandatory, Augusta, Georgia, has been home to one of America’s great sporting traditions for parts of nine decades now. Augusta National is a relative infant in the world of golf, but it’s impact was immediate and lasting. For years, young American boys grew up with hopes and dreams rooted somewhere on those hallowed grounds.

They wanted to smell the bursts of life left by fallen pine needles in their last dying breath. They wanted to blindly take a shot at carrying Rae’s Creek in two, because the honor of watching the ball careen down it’s bank was nearly as great as watching it land safely on the other side. They wanted to win The Masters. Hell, they just wanted to play a round.

However, the lasting test for a place like Augusta National is when its beauty transcends home — when it transcends the people who are born and bred to love it. It didn’t take long for Augusta National, as well as The Masters, to pass that indelible test.

The course has come a long way since Horton Smith took home the first Masters title in 1934. In the world of golf, it’s become otherworldly, and its mysticism hasn’t been confined to Georgia or the beaches that form the boundaries of our great nation. Around the globe golfers have plotted life courses with Augusta National as a specific destination along the way, and it’s been that way for years.

Take a look at the leaderboard today at the end of Round One of the 2012 Masters. Six of the nine players at three-under or better hail from places outside our borders. It’s a testament to how far golf has come. It’s a testament to how far Augusta has come.

England, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and Scotland are all represented and those are just from the names stacked at the top of the leaderboard. The Masters has truly become an international event.

It’s still an American tradition, and some may look at this foreign presence in a tournament that has served as one of the pillars of American golf as an intrusion, but in sharing the mythos of The Masters with the rest of the world, we’ve actually grown what we ourselves hold sacred.

Floppy hats and pimento cheese, these are things that are distinctly Augusta. Georgia Pines and the Cherokee Rose — distinctly Georgia. A love for the outdoors and a personal connection to a landscape. That’s America. The Masters is a way to share all these bits of our culture with the rest of the world.

Obviously, we still take pride in seeing American’s win, but one of the great things about The Masters and Augusta National, is that tradition has always come first and foremost. So even when the green jacket doesn’t stay home, America, and golf, still wins.

We’ve seen 13 different international winners from 9 different countries in the history of The Masters, and we very well may see another this weekend. If that has to happen, with any luck, it will be a new winner from a new country. A place that will embrace those traditions that endear us to Augusta National. That endear us to The Masters.