What is Tiger Woods serving at this year’s Masters Champions Dinner?

The 2020 Masters Tournament is set to be a very different event this year. Normally held during the pleasing conditions of April, the famous golf competition will now take place during the cold November. And most surprisingly of all, there will be no spectators in attendance, which will be hugely disappointing for many people.

However, not all the important traditions have been affected as the Champions’ Dinner, thankfully, will take place the next month. First held in 1952, the Dinner brings together all the past winners of the prestigious competition who sit together for a meal and the reigning champion gets to select the menu. It will take place on 10 November this year, and Tiger Woods will do the choosing as he is the champion of the previous edition.

The legendary golfer has selected sushi and sashimi for a starter, while steak and chicken fajitas will serve as his main course with strawberry and vanilla milkshakes to follow. It sounds like an enjoyable menu, and Woods has already treated the winners with those dishes in the past. Given he has won the Masters five times; it is understandable if he struggles to come up with something new. 

When he first won the major championship in 1997, Tiger opted cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches, French fries and milkshakes for the menu, and later said about his food choices "They said you could pick anything you want...Hey, it’s part of being young, that’s what I eat."

His 2002 menu featured porterhouse steak and chicken with a sushi appetizer, and the next year he included the same dishes while also adding sashimi, crab cakes, salads, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. 

Tiger Woods’ 2006 menu featured steak and chicken fajitas, Mexican rice, and refried beans for the main course followed by apple pie and ice cream for dessert. 

Most of the champions prefer to feature traditional food from their home country, and if the winner happens to be a non-American, then often it leads to more inventive and first-class menus. 

The South African winner Charl Schwartzel’s 2012 menu could serve as a good example of a superior menu. Following a chilled seafood bar as an opening course, the 2011 Masters winner served braai, a mouth-watering barbecue that included lamb chops, steaks, and sausages.

While in 2017, English golfer Danny Willett chose a traditional British meal that was also quite first-rate. His menu included mini cottage pies as the starter, while the main featured a Sunday roast that is a traditional meal typically served on Sunday and consists of roasted meat, mashed potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding, etc as accompaniments. Apple crumbles and vanilla custard were served as dessert, followed by coffee and tea with English cheese and biscuits.

While the above two were examples of some cracking menus, unfortunately, the Champions’ Dinners have been more dominated by repetitive dishes than inventive ones. Over the previous 20 years, the most popular dishes have been Caesar salad (as a starter), filet mignon (as the main course), and vanilla ice cream (as dessert). This definitely will not help to dismiss the notion that golf players are boring.