Masters 2011 TV Schedule: Honorary Starters Make for Great Television

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Golf's Greatest Living Legends Will Meet Up Once Again

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Together they've won 25 majors, and 135 PGA Tour stops. They are two of the most beloved figures in the world of sports. And since they've combined to win 10 Green Jackets--largely due to a stretch from 1960-66 in which they won five of six Masters played--they are intimately woven into the history at Augusta National.

So it's only fitting that they should be the men who serve as "honorary starters" for this year's edition.

For decades, a golf legend has opened up the tournament with a ceremonial tee shot, much like the baseball tradition of the "first pitch" in baseball, starting with Jock Hutchinson in 1963. Since Hutchinson, winner of the 1920 PGA Championship, Fred McLeod, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Ken Venturi, and Sam Snead carried on the tradition.

Palmer, now 81 years old, started doing so in 2007, 43 years after winning his last green jacket. His rival Nicklaus joined him for the first time last year and the two will share the honors again this Thursday morning.

With the game of golf coming more and more into the mainstream each year, the honorary starter is a nice way to fold in the game's history to those who don't know it. After all, how many of the people who pop EA Sports Tiger Woods 2012 into their Nintendo Wii or XBox actually know the faces of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus?

For more on the Masters, see Masters 2011: Top Five Young Golfers Looking for Their First Major Title Win

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