Sonny Seiler attends his 70th Masters tournament

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WTOC) - The Masters Tournament is headed to the weekend in Augusta with some familiar names on the leaderboard and a few familiar faces in the galleries.

There are eight former University of Georgia golfers in the field at the Masters this year and an even deeper Red and Black tradition on the course Friday.

Sonny Seiler, who started the Uga phenomenon at UGA, has almost as much history here at Augusta National.

Seiler is attending his 70th Masters this week - all consecutive except for 2020 when no patrons were here because of Covid.

He has hardly missed a tournament round in that time, preferring to set up next to the green on Augusta’s second hole, watching all the groups come through and reflecting on seven decades of Masters memories that started when he was a young volunteer holding the ropes lining the 17th fairway.

“‘53 was my first year, I was in law school at Georgia then. I was invited and assigned the 17th. It was a wonderful experience because they ran it well in those days. Thank God I’ve been coming back every year except for Covid year. I look forward to it, I think about it when golf isn’t even being played around here. But I know they’re getting ready for us. And they do a great job, don’t they?” said Seiler.

Seiler’s first Masters was Ben Hogan’s second win at Augusta - 10 years before Jack Nicklaus first won the green jacket.

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