Fifteen former Masters champions who attended Augusta National without competing each received $25,000 in honoraria, with names including Faldo, Crenshaw and Langer among those sharing the $375,000 total
Winning the Masters does not just earn a green jacket and a place in history. It earns a lifetime invitation back to Augusta National every April, and, it turns out, a $25,000 honorarium simply for showing up, even if you never take a single swing in competition.
Fifteen former Masters champions attended this year’s golf tournament without playing, and between them they collected $375,000 from Augusta National’s $22.5 million purse, the same per-person amount received by players who made the cut and then finished last.
The honoraria are one of Augusta National’s lesser-known traditions, a quiet acknowledgment of the fraternity that a green jacket confers for life. It comes while ESPN questioned Rory McIlroy’s win after interviewing one of his former flames.
Among those who attended without competing this year were Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Trevor Immelman, Bernhard Langer and Mark O’Meara, five names that between them account for nine Masters titles and a combined career that spans half a century of major championship golf.
Crenshaw, now 73 and born in Austin, Texas, won the Masters twice in 1984 and again in 1995 in one of the most emotional victories the tournament has ever witnessed, coming just days after the death of his beloved mentor Harvey Penick.
He was also a four-time Ryder Cup player and captained the United States to one of the greatest comebacks in the competition’s history in 1999 at Brookline.
Sir Nick Faldo reacts on the second hole during the Par-3 Contest prior to the 2025 Masters(Image: Getty Images)
He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002 and went on to become one of the most respected course designers in the sport alongside Bill Coore.
Faldo’s record in majors remains the benchmark for European golf, or at least it did until this week. The Englishman won six majors between 1987 and 1996, including three Masters titles, two of them consecutive in 1989 and 1990.
His most celebrated Augusta moment came in 1996 when he overtook Greg Norman during one of the sport’s most famous final-round collapses.
He spent 97 weeks as world No. 1 and holds the European record for most Ryder Cup appearances with 11. With Rory McIlroy’s sixth major title claimed on Sunday, Faldo now shares second place on the European major winners list with the Northern Irishman.
Immelman, the South African who won the 2008 Masters with a wire-to-wire victory that held off Tiger Woods, has since built a prominent career in broadcasting and served as International Team captain for the Presidents Cup.
Langer, 68, made 41 appearances at Augusta before retiring from the Masters in 2025, winning twice, in 1985 and 1993, and becoming one of the game’s ultimate symbols of longevity and discipline, with more than 90 wins worldwide, including sustained dominance on the Champions Tour well into his sixties.
O’Meara, who won both the Masters and The Open Championship in 1998 at age 41 in one of the sport’s great late-blooming seasons, is also among the group and remains well-known as a close friend and early mentor to Tiger Woods.
The $25,000 each man received is modest by the standards of the overall purse, which saw Rory McIlroy take home $4.5 million for his second consecutive title and Scottie Scheffler pocket $2.43 million as runner-up. Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley, Justin Rose, and Cameron Young each earned $1.08 million for their share of third place.
