MARLER: Azaleas, SEC stars, and the soul of Augusta
04/09/2025
By Chris Marler
Welcome to the best week of the year and the only week of the year you will hear me talk about azaleas and pimento cheese.
This week, roughly 40 percent of the male population in the United States will fall asleep to the soothing sound of another man’s voice and it will not be weird in the least. Thank you, Jim Nantz.
It’s Masters Week.
A beautiful Tuesday awaits at the Masters. #themasters pic.twitter.com/q7sY5SQ036
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 8, 2025
As a native of Georgia and someone living an hour and a half from Washington Road, the annual April call that Augusta National Golf Course sends out into the world is unlike anything else we have in sports.
We live for football in the south. Between the hedges and on hallowed grounds we pack stadiums every Saturday in the fall. We live for the traditions and the pageantry of the marching bands and moments we get to share with 80,000 of our closest friends.
All of that pales in comparison to Augusta.
My step dad grew up in Augusta, Georgia. His family owned the Thriftee Grocery Store, where each day during golden hour, shadows from the gates of Augusta National slowly stretched across their parking lot. One of my favorite things he used to tell me was, “There are few places in the entire world you can refer to and it is instantly recognizable. Augusta is.”
Manhattan. Paris. LA. Augusta.
It’s a small city tucked away an hour and a half East of Atlanta, and nestled up against the South Carolina state line. But, for one week a year it’s the capital of the sports universe. And, the world migrates to it like a pilgrimage announcing the official start of spring.
I believe it was the great American poet Happy Gilmore who once said, “Gold Jacket, Green Jacket, who gives a s***?” Well, for one week every year we all do. And, it’s beautiful.
So, as the world tunes in to the rolling greens and blooming azaleas of Augusta, it’s only right we highlight the SEC’s impact on the game’s biggest stage. From legends to rising stars, here’s a look at the conference’s best teeing it up at this year’s Masters.
Players at the Masters from SEC schools
- Sam Burns – LSU
- Nick Dunlap – Alabama
- Nicolas Echavarria – Arkansas
- Harris English – Georgia
- Brian Harman – Georgia
- Russell Henley – Georgia
- Billy Horschel – Florida
- Noah Kent (A) – Florida
- Chris Kirk – Georgia
- Patton Kizzire – Auburn
- Davis Riley – Alabama
- Scottie Scheffler – Texas
- Jordan Spieth – Texas
- Sepp Straka – Georgia
- Justin Thomas – Alabama
- Davis Thompson – Georgia
- Jhonnattan Vegas – Texas
- Bubba Watson – Georgia