Passing on experience has become Augusta National's unwritten tradition

Passing on experience to younger players has become an unwritten tradition at Augusta National.

The Masters Tournament is renowned for its many traditions, but there are also some unwritten norms that have become established at Augusta National.

One of these comes in the form of mentoring; of former champions and more experienced players extending help to newcomers. It's something which has been exemplified this week, through Rory McIlroy playing a practice round with Abel Gallegos, Phil Mickelson with Cameron Champ, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen with Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Adam Scott with Erik van Rooyen, Justin Thomas with John Augenstein, and Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson with J.T. Poston.

For players like rookie Gallegos, who won the Latin America Amateur, the opportunity to play with and pick the brains of a four-time Major champion was ‘incredible’.

He said: “Before, I knew them as players, but I got to know them as people this week. The advice that Rory gave me these last two days has been an incredible experience and something that I learned from.”

For Gallegos, the week got even better when he met Tiger Woods on Tuesday night, ahead of Woods' hosting duties at the Champions dinner. Posting on his instagram account, Gallegos wrote the caption 'sin parabalas', which roughly translates as 'speechless'.

The following day, Gallegos played another practice round, this time with Rickie Fowler.

While the second photo with Woods was just another unique highlight of Gallegos' first time experience at Augusta, the first was by no means a unique situation. Rather, it was just the continuation of a prevalent tradition at the Masters that began with Bobby Jones, who relished the role of mentoring players around Augusta National.

And other players have been dutiful in filling that role since. When Tiger Woods made his debut 25 years ago, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were the ones helping him.

“I got a chance to play on Wednesday with Jack and Arnold,” Tiger reflected on one of his first Masters appearances.

“At the time, I was a little punk college student, and we're playing for some skins, and I didn't have any cash in my pocket, and you know, Arnold makes a putt on 18. Takes all the skins away from us. And Jack and Arnold asked me, "Hey, do you want to go play the Par 3 Contest?" I said, "Well, I'm scheduled to go later." - "Hey, just follow us."

“Went over with them, went to the Par 3 Contest, and we played together, and that was awesome. You know, that was one of the most incredible memories I think that I've ever had, and the story that I always tell all the amateurs I've ever played with.”

And Tiger was sure to embody that spirit in the years that followed. When Jordan Spieth won the Masters in 2015, he played in a practice round with Woods, Ben Crenshaw and Carl Jackson.

“There's a bit of Masters experience in that group,” Spieth said. “I just was watching what putts they were hitting. I was watching where they were hitting chip shots from. They kind of seemed to be practicing on the only spots they'd miss it on. They're not practicing from the really bad spots because they're making sure they never hit it in those bad spots.”

Spieth's quick ascension to the list of Masters Champion has now put him in a position as one of those players who bears the responsibility of passing on their experience, and the transition is one he is still getting used to.

“Today I was with Zach Johnson and J.T. Poston, and Zach having played here however many years, he's a past champion, and J.T.'s first Masters, and just kind of talking about some of the pins, where you stay left of, where you stay short of, where you can be aggressive too.

“I'm still trying to learn myself, and I'm talking to Zach too. So I kind of had both roles today, I guess, a little bit. I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I hit certain pitch shots that I hadn't hit before. Every single time I go around this place, just to kind of see it in a different spot. Yeah, I guess it's a little bit weird, but at the same time, I still feel like I'm playing that learning role, and hopefully I always feel that way here.”

According to Tommy Fleetwood, that feeling of learning, and wanting to learn from players more experienced, doesn’t seem to change even when you become a more frequent visitor to the Masters.

The Englishman played practice rounds with former champions Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle here in the past when making his debut, but said even four years on he is still picking up new information from the likes of fellow Ryder Cup stars Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.

He said: “I played with Woosie and Sandy Lyle a little bit.

"They were guys obviously from the same kind of nation - Scotland, Wales, England. I knew them anyway, so I felt comfortable with them, and they kind of helped me straight off.

"I guess these days, because I've got friends like Rosey (Justin Rose) or Poults (Ian Poulter) that have been here a long time, you can always pick up snippets of information from those guys that have played it like 15 times or something.

"I think you can never learn enough around here. There's always something new. There's always like a little snippet somewhere that you hear, and you're like, 'oh yeah'. For sure, experience around this course plays a massive part.”

So while experience around Augusta National is acknowledged as important, it's clear that a more significant role for the players that are fortunate enough to have it, is the tradition of sharing it.