The most famous tee shots in golf are ceremonial.

Every Masters since 1963 begins with an honorary starter hitting a shot they don't even play.

The tradition

Every Masters Tournament since 1963 has opened with an Honorary Starter hitting a ceremonial tee shot on the morning of Round 1. The first honorary tee shots were hit by Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod, two early-1900s champions invited to start the field.

The 2026 starters

The 2026 Masters opened with three legends on the first tee: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson. Watson joined the tradition in 2022. In 2021, Lee Elder was invited as an honorary starter in recognition of being the first African-American to play in the Masters in 1975.

Why this is the most-watched tee shot in golf

The honorary shots are pure ceremony. They count for nothing. They drift left, they go nowhere near the fairway, they sometimes do not get past the tee. Nobody cares. The shot is the marker that golf's most-watched week has begun. Tens of millions of people watch a 70-something-year-old man hit a half-swing drive at 7:45 AM Eastern. The tee itself, the wooden peg in the ground, gets more screen time than any tee in history.

What we take from this

The tee is the only piece of equipment in golf with a ceremonial role. Clubs are tools. Balls are consumables. The tee is the punctuation. Every Masters opens with one. Every range session opens with one. Every casual round on a Saturday morning opens with one. We are making the next chapter of that punctuation.

Source

The PGA of America's Masters Traditions feature documents the honorary-starter history.