From the age of eight or nine, I can remember myself, my brother Brian and a few other junior members at Zwartkop putting and chipping for The Masters and The Open Championship.

We used to get a movie a few months after The Masters and if I can remember correctly, it was sponsored by Shell. It would go to different golf clubs and because we didn’t have TV yet in South Africa, the members clamoured for a seat at the club to watch – even in those days it was the most beautiful golf course they had ever seen.

When I was nearly nine, we watched the 1961 Masters. This was very special for me because Gary Player had won it, and just a few months before, my father had taken my brother and I to watch an exhibition match between Tommy Bolt and Gary. At that point, Bolt had won the 1958 US Open and Gary the 1959 Open Championship.

Now it’s movie time. It’s Augusta National and the 25th Masters, and Arnold Palmer had overtaken Gary with a typical Arnie charge in the final round. Although not playing together, Palmer was three under for the day and Gary two over. They both missed the final green with their approach shot, but in typical Gary style, he got it up and down. Amazingly, Palmer overshot the green, played out the bunker and took a further three shots, making a double-bogey at the last, which allowed Gary to become the first non-American to win The Masters.

At the nine Masters Tournaments between 1958 and 1966, Gary won one, Palmer four and Jack three. Art Wall, who won in 1959, broke this amazing streak by the Big Three. Gary finished second twice, fifth twice and sixth once.

In that period, Arnold also had two second places, one third- and one fourth-place finish. He was never out of the top 10 for those nine years. Jack Nicklaus, who only turned professional in 1962, had one seventh-place and one second-pace finish. I’d be surprised if we ever saw an event dominated at the same level as the Big Three dominated at Augusta.

Let’s fast forward a few years to 1975 – I’d just finished second in the European Order of Merit, and won the SA PGA Championship and the World Cup of Golf with Bobby Cole. I was hoping this would be enough to get an invitation to play at The Masters. Well, one morning my dad calls me and says: ‘I have a letter for you that I think you would like to see.’ It was a simple invitation to play at the 1975 Masters.

I’d played at junior tournaments in the US and only one professional event – the World Open at Pinehurst. It was an eight-round event, and Gary Player and I were the only two international golfers to play all eight rounds.

Driving down Magnolia Lane I felt like I was dreaming. I’d imagined this for such a long time and now it was happening. I was overwhelmed by everything at Augusta – the organisation, the detail of the course conditioning, plus all the world’s greatest golfers who were there.

In those days they had two dinners before the tournament – the Champions Dinner and the Foreign Players Dinner, which I attended, along with Gary ‑ who, of course, attended both dinners ‑ David Graham, Bob Charles, Isao Aoki, Tony Jacklin, Peter Oosterhuis, Bobby Cole, Hugh Baiocchi, Graham Marsh, Takashi Murakami and Bob Shearer.

I’m sure I have never been more nervous for an entire week than I was then. Unfortunately, it showed in my golf – I shot 77 and 74, and missed the cut by two shots.

Since then I have watched The Masters on a couple of occasions as a spectator and many times for the television coverage. It never ceases to amaze me just how perfect everything is. Whether you want to shop for a memento or a shirt or cap, want to get a bite to eat or simply spend hours watching the golf, everything works perfectly. And every year they make a few improvements, although I’m not sure how they find anything to improve on.

South Africa can be proud that we’ve had winners of this prestigious Major. Three wins for Gary Player – only Nicklaus with six, Tiger Woods five and Palmer four, have won more. SA also had wins by Trevor Immelman and Charl Schwartzel.

The Augusta National details even go to the TV broadcast where they tell CBS how many advertisements they can carry in each hour of the broadcast. They have also always managed to keep ahead of the pack with media innovations such as apps and social media.

Thank you, Bobby Jones, for creating The Masters. Long may we get to watch great golf on the amazing golf course you built.