Master’s Golf weekend is something to celebrate in my family. We love the history of the tournament, the beauty of Augusta National Golf Course, and watching the competition amongst the golfers.
I’ve been golfing since I was 10 or 11, and earned myself a spot on the varsity golf team at my high school by the time I was in 8th grade. Both my brother and sister share a similar path and we have many golfers in our extended family, as well. (We’ve had a family tournament or two that are pretty legendary!) In fact, my niece, Audree, is on the high school golf team right now and has her first golf meet of the season tomorrow.
I have fond memories of spending summers at our local golf course, playing endless rounds with my brother or friends from school. Teacher Man is also a golf lover, which has worked out rather well over the years, and we started bringing Joe with us to the course by the time he was 4 or 5. I’m not sure he shares the same passion for golf, at least as of yet, but we all enjoy the family outing – usually! 😉
So it was a natural that we should host our first annual Master’s Golf party with my family – and we can only wonder why it took us so long.
After perusing some websites for recipe ideas and making a note that last year’s Master’s champion (Jordan Spieth) was going to hold a Texas barbecue for his Master’s dinner this year, we decided to create a Minnesota offshoot of this idea. Our menu included:
- Pimento Cheese sandwiches (cut in small squares for appetizers)
- Azalea Cocktail (traditional Master’s cocktail)
- Roasted Pulled Turkey sandwiches
- Green Jacket Salad (Augusta National recipe)
- Potatoes Au Gratin (The Pioneer Woman)
- Baked Beans (The Pioneer Woman)
- Augusta National Sour Cream Pound Cake (Augusta National recipe) with lemon curd (The Barefoot Contessa)
Most of these items could be at least prepped in advance so that I wasn’t in the kitchen cooking while everyone else was enjoying the party. The beans and potatoes cooked while the party started, and mixing up the salad right before dinner didn’t take much time. I don’t really follow a specific recipe for the pulled turkey, but I basically roasted two 7-pound bone-in turkey breasts in the oven on Saturday morning, shredded the turkey with two forks (and my hands), and then added a variety of seasonings, chicken broth, and some melted butter. I put the shredded turkey in a crockpot and just kept it warm until we ate later in the day. Easy peasy!
And I want to mention that the pound cake recipe is AMAZING. I added the lemon curd because my family loves lemon and it was a springy addition, but you wouldn’t even need it. The cake was fabulous in its own right – which is exactly how I ate it for breakfast on Sunday morning.
For fun, we set up a Putting Challenge in our family room, which we loved. (And not just because I won!) Teacher Man created a hilarious traveling trophy because I think it’s clear we need to make this Master’s Party an annual gig.
It must have been my lucky weekend, because I also won our annual Master’s Pool, too, so I share the money pot with Joe, who placed 2nd. 🙂
I’m sharing a few photos of the weekend below. The Master’s itself was pretty wild today – I didn’t think anyone could catch Jordan Spieth but then the final 9 holes happened and, well, everything changed in a hurry.
How was your weekend?
Lara
I made the pimento cheese sandwiches, cut them into little squares, and arranged them on my favorite cake plate along with some tees for a fun decoration.
The Azalea Cocktail is a great spring/summer drink – light, not-too-sweet, and such a pretty color!
Can you see my green pants in honor of the Green Jacket?
And of course we had our own version of the Green Jacket for the putting contest winner!
Our putting contest rules and tracking sheets were set up in near the putting green. Entry fee was $1/person and we had three rounds of 6 putts each. Each person had to record how many putts they sank for each round. Total number of putts made won the pot, the illustrious trophy, and a photo in the Green Jacket.
I forgot to take a photo of the contest while it was taking place (during the Master’s) but Teacher Man did a little practicing afterwards with our niece, Miss Morgan, watching very intently.
Our house smelled so good, thanks to these two roasted turkey breasts!
Well, hello there, Rory and Adam. 😉
Miss Morgan loves to help me in the kitchen! Here she is mixing up our Green Jacket Salad.
Here’s my handsome brother, who channeled his best inner Phil Mickelson in the golf fashion department!
That trophy Teacher Man made? I think it’s going to become a family keepsake! One of the golf balls is from the golf tournament held for my mom’s 65th birthday (“Toots Classic”, which is my mom’s nickname from her brothers); one of the golf balls is from my nephew’s graduation party (and is a shout-out to my dad who gave out napkins at his graduation party in 1958 that read “Thanks for the socks, you cheap SOB!”); and the golf ball in the back is also from the Toots Classic … let’s just say, one of our Texas cousins was giving us a hard time – all in fun, of course! 😉 (The “Oh S$%^!” golf ball came from Teacher Man – he found it on a course once and saved it, not really knowing why or what for – until this weekend!)
And here I am, the proud winner of the Green Jacket with my nieces, Morgan and Audree, and Joe!