Past champions at the Masters Champions Dinner on Tuesday at the Augusta National Club. (Augusta National)
AFP/Augusta, Georgia
Two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw gave a great review to defending champion Adam Scott’s Moreton Bay Bugs from Australia in the Masters Champions Dinner.
The menu at the annual dinner, attended by former Masters champions, is decided on by the defending champion.
The seafood dish from Down Under came out a winner at Tuesday’s meal with Crenshaw, the 1984 and 1995 Masters winner. “They were little lobster claws, very good,” Crenshaw said Wednesday. “He went to a lot of trouble. That’s a long way to get those in. But they were very good.”
Scott himself also received a strong review from the 62-year-old American, set for his 43rd appearance at Augusta National.
“He’s such a gentlemen, I tell you,” Crenshaw said. “He’s a very polished gentleman. He really is. Wonderful guy.”
Three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo said the Moreton Bay Bugs “were great” while Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said “everything was good”.
Aussie Jason Day, who one day hopes for the chance to plan a champion’s dinner menu after taking third last year and second in 2011, has different ideas about what makes a meal from a land where kangaroos and crocodiles are consumed.
“I saw what they are going to eat and, to me, I’ll let him eat it,” said Day, who is allergic to seafood. “Hopefully one day I’ll be able to plan a dinner like that and it will definitely be, you know, a real Australian meal.”
Scott himself was more cautious with his choices, but said he picked the lobster because “they are one of my favourite foods back home”.
“I kind of picked nothing too exotic because I didn’t think any of the other guys would appreciate it, kangaroo and crocodile or anything like that,” Scott said.
“If I get another chance to do it I would love to serve some meat pies.”