Tiger Woods corners the market on Masters jackets

It is perhaps the mother of all corners in a world of corners.

Think about it. There’s the Corner Store, kitty-corner, the corner of Buck and Main, Corner Car Wash, Corner CITGO, the Corner Cupboard, and the Corner Country Store. And those are just in our little corner of the world.

Not to mention, go sit in a corner, corner the market, painted into a corner, down on the corner (and out in the street), up around the corner, and turning the corner.

Of course, the biggest corner of them all is Amen Corner.

For those who do not kneel, facing south, for one week each April, Amen Corner sits in the middle of Augusta National Golf Club, home to The Masters.

Augusta National is talked about in reverent tones. Sometimes the word “hallowed” is used to describe the course, although that word should be reserved for such places as the Normandy beaches, Antietam and Monte Cassino.

It is, without doubt, golf’s most tradition-rich tournament. It is the most mysterious. And the people who run the tournament, the Augusta National board, are the most powerful group in golf. They control the tournament. Not the PGA and certainly not CBS, which televises it.

It is a by-invitation-only event. Black tie not necessary. (A tie would just get wet in your bowl of black-eyed peas anyway.) It is often assumed that the PGA Tour decides the makeup for the tournament. Wrong. The Augusta National board decides who plays there. It also decides who can and can’t broadcast there. Just ask CBS’ Gary McCord, who hasn’t appeared at the tournament since 1994 after making a couple of humorous comments the board didn’t care for.

They also have vocabulary unique to Augusta National, requiring CBS announcers to use the word “patrons” when describing fans. There is also no rough at Augusta National. No, but there is a “second cut” of grass.

The board also decides how much of the tournament CBS can broadcast, limiting the network to 31/2 hours on Saturday and Sunday as opposed to the six hours each day that NBC normally allots to the U.S. Open. It also limits the network in the number of minutes it can devote to advertising during its coverage.

And never, never ask a board member how much money the winner gets. He might be wounded to the point that he falls back into his plate of chicken-fried steak and gravy.

Bobby Jones designed the course. He was a god to the Augusta golfing world, and why not? Between 1923 and 1930 Jones won 13 major championships. He is the only player to have won all of the major championships in the same year. Jones came early in the line of golfers who at one time or another were considered to be the greatest player of all time.

And they all have walked Augusta National. The immortals. Snead, Sarazen, Hagen, Hogan, Palmer, Nelson, Nicklaus, Watson, and now Tiger Woods. The latest to wear the mantle of the greatest player of all time.

One wonders what Jones would have thought about this Woods guy. He is a man of color, and Jones, despite all of his greatness and talent, presided over a golf course that excluded people of color. Perhaps it was the times, but Jones, like many people who ran golf courses and clubs, would not allow people of color to become members in the club.

No matter. Woods now walks where the other greats have walked. The last greatest of the greats, perhaps.

Even Hootie Johnson, president of the club, told him they might wear out the green jacket by taking it off and putting it on Woods so many times in the future. It was a concession to the fact that Woods will likely win as many Masters titles as he wants.

Nicklaus has six, Palmer four, and Woods has three. It’s like Larry Bird at the NBA 3-point shooting contest, when he showed up wearing his warm-up jacket and asked his competitors who was finishing second.

Woods can do the same thing. CBS’ Jim Nance suggested that the other players quake in Woods’ presence. That’s about as much hyperbole as the hallowed ground stuff. But still, it will be part of Woods’ legend.

Woods is just 26. Just getting started, really, and without a competitor in sight. Tiger’s turning the corner.

Amen to that.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or at dperryman@bangordailynews.net.