Tuesday Champions Dinner has evolved into much-discussed feast

Tiger Woods served cheeseburgers and milk shakes. Sandy Lyle picked a slightly more exotic dish of haggis.

The Champions Dinner, or Masters Club, began as a simple gathering for former champions in 1952 and has evolved into a much-discussed culinary feast.

The Tuesday night affair pays tribute to all Masters champions. The defending champion selects the menu and serves as host for the dinner, which is open to the winners and the club chairman.

Ben Hogan gets credit for coming up with the idea, and in the early days the choices were pretty simple. But in the past three decades, an array of food has been served, including Moreton Bay Bugs for Australian Adam Scott.

2015 winner Jordan Spieth said he is leaning toward serving a Texas-style barbecue.

The most famous dinner in golf used to feature a traditional menu with a main course consisting of beef, chicken or seafood. Served on the second floor of Augusta National’s clubhouse, the Tuesday night tradition has become more exotic in its offerings as more winners hail from overseas.

Lyle, the Scot who served haggis at his dinner in 1989, even wore a kilt to his special night.

“That seemed to make quite a statement,” Lyle said of the delicacy. “The older guys, like (Jack) Nicklaus, had been to Scotland and knew what haggis was. But the newer ones, guys like Lar­ry Mize, they weren’t too sure about that.”

In addition to a hearty meal, the defending champion also receives an inscribed gold locket in the form of the club’s emblem.

Byron Nelson served as the dinner’s unofficial host for years, although Sam Snead would often steal the spotlight with some of his bawdy jokes. Now, two-time winner Ben Crenshaw is the evening’s emcee.

Perhaps no dinner drew more scrutiny than the one in 1998. Woods, then 22, selected a menu more suited to a drive-in.

“Hey, it’s part of being young,” he said at the time. “It’s what I eat.”

A few past champions went along with Woods, while others opted to order off the regular menu.

“I was surprised with the number of guys eating the meal; it was great, the chefs were great, and the food was superb,” Woods said. “It was a lot of fun, an experience I’ll definitely remember for the rest of my life.”

JUST A TASTE

 Take a closer look at some of the dinner menus champions have selected over the years:

Charles Coody, 1972

-- New York strip steak with mushroom caps

-- Brie with peach nectar

Bernhard Langer, 1986

-- Wiener schnitzel and spaetzle

-- Black Forest cake

Sandy Lyle, 1989

-- Jumbo lump crabmeat cocktail

-- Broiled pompano

-- Haggis

-- Neeps and tatties (mashed potatoes and mashed turnips)

Ian Woosnam, 1992

-- Leek and potato soup

-- Leg of lamb with sweet meadow hay

-- Apple pie

-- Ice cream

Jose Maria Olazabal, 1995

-- Collard green soup

-- Txitxarro en salsa verde

-- Prime New York sirloin steak

-- Roast rack of lamb

-- Broiled chicken

-- Asparagus

-- Baked potato

-- Roasted herb new potatoes

Ben Crenshaw, 1996

-- Certified Angus beef brisket

-- St. Louis-style pork ribs

-- Hill Country sausage

-- Peach cobbler

Tiger Woods, 1998

-- Cheeseburger

-- Grilled chicken sandwich

-- French fries

-- Strawberry and vanilla milkshakes

-- Strawberry shortcake

Vijay Singh, 2001

-- Seafood Tom Kha

-- Chicken Panang curry

-- Baked sea scallops with garlic sauce

-- Baked Chilean sea bass filet with three-flavor chili sauce

-- Rack of lamb with yellow kari sauce

-- Lychee sorbet

Mike Weir, 2004

-- Lobster in puff pastry

-- Wild boar and chanterelle mushroom bundles

-- Sockeye salmon tartare

-- White and green asparagus salad

-- Roasted rack of elk

-- Fried chicken

-- Filet mignon

-- Sauteed pompano

Trevor Immelman, 2009

-- South African spinach salad

-- Babotie with yellow rice: traditional curried meat with fruit

-- Chicken sosaties: grilled chicken and vegetables on skewers

-- Melktert: Traditional milk tart

-- South African wines

Charl Schwartzel, 2012

-- Sliced biltong

-- Boerwors with monkey gland sauce

-- Dauphinoise potatoes

-- Vanilla ice cream sundae

-- Crispy meringues

Bubba Watson, 2015

-- Caesar salad

-- Grilled chicken breast

-- Green beans

-- Mashed potatoes

-- Corn

-- Macaroni and cheese

-- Confetti cake

-- Vanilla ice cream

Sources: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta Chronicle archives