Masters 2024: Best Champions Dinners from Hideki Matsuyama’s mouthwatering Japanese banquet to Tiger Woods’ sushi tribute to Augusta National as Jon Rahm prepares to serve up his Iberian feast
Masters 2024: From Hideki Matsuyama’s delicious Japanese banquet to Tiger Woods’ sushi tribute as Jon Rahm prepares Iberian cuisine at Augusta National, the best dinners for champions
Golf’s most exclusive dinner is held on Tuesday, and the only way to participate is by wearing a green jacket.
The first Masters Dinner was hosted by Ben Hogan in 1952 following his victory the previous year and was an opportunity to “reminisce, joke, and relax.” The conditions were to be a former champion, wear a “green coat” and arrive punctually at 7:15 p.m.
Since then, choosing a menu and paying has become a rite of passage for the reigning champions, who have served dishes ranging from the delicious to the bland and bizarre. This year, it’s Spaniard Jon Rahm’s turn. He hopes the menu of tapas, pintxos and Iberico Basque sirloin will live up to the tantalizing standards of his predecessors. Here, Mail Sport presents some of the best and worst champions’ dinners. In 2022, Hideki Matsuyama completely defeated this restaurant. The first Japanese winner presented a completely different menu from last year’s Dustin Johnson, which included lobster fritters, pigs in a blanket and filet mignon. With a Japanese menu, the banquet started with an assortment of sushi and sashimi.
Next, we moved on to miso-marinated black cod using a dashi stock made from water, kelp, and mackerel flakes. Perhaps the star of the show was the next dish. Wagyu beef rib roast with mushrooms and vegetables, sansho daikon ponzu sauce (a citrus vinaigrette with green peppers and radish). Our Wagyu beef has achieved A5 rank, the highest grade in Japan. A lunch fit for a champion ended with strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Matsuyama’s banquet was made even more special by how hard he worked to defeat his fellow champion. The 31-year-old, who speaks little English, repeatedly expressed how nervous he was to host the dinner, preparing and reading a three-minute speech to the guests.
Hideki Matsuyama’s banquet also included an assortment of sushi. For dessert, strawberry shortcake came out.
Tiger Woods is no stranger to showing off his culinary tastes to the golf world, and after five attempts, he finally succeeded. After becoming the youngest Masters winner in 1997, tying him with Jordan Spieth, Woods attended the first of five championship dinners the following year with a cheeseburger, chicken sandwich, fries, and milkshake. Now we have included the infamous menu.
While it wasn’t exactly Michelin star level, it’s worth remembering that Woods was only 22 years old, and what young rising star wouldn’t want a cheeseburger served on a silver platter at that age? ? But fortunately for Woods, after four more attempts over the years, by 2020 he had perfected the art of menu creation.
After his breakthrough victory at the 2019 Masters, Woods announced the Augusta, a sushi roll with shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado and eel sauce, named after the famous Georgian dish. I enjoyed finishing the road to redemption in the special. Mexican food and sushi have long been dinner staples in California, including quesadillas, chicken and steak fajitas, sashimi, and porterhouse steak.
After his fifth win at Augusta, Tiger Woods has mastered the art of menu selection. The Augusta Roll, loaded with shrimp tempura and spicy tuna sushi, was in all its glory, and Jack Nicklaus tweeted that he approved of Woods’ selection for the
2020 Champions Dinner.
