Augusta, GA … Facial hair seems to be one of the biggest new trends in professional golf.
It’s taking golf back to the days of Old Tom Morris and to the early 20th Century when the likes of Harry Vardon, J.H Taylor and James Braid won The Open sporting very distinguished looking moustaches.
Canadian Graham DeLaet wins the award for the thickest and longest beard.
In fact, DeLaet would not look out of play up on stage with ZZ Top but then he’s not contesting this year’s Masters.
But there’s at least a dozen competitors in this year’s 89-player Masters field sporting either a beard and/or plenty of facial hair including the Irish trio of Darren Clarke, Graham McDowell and Shane Lowry.
There’s also a couple of talented England-born players with beards of sorts and that’s Lee Westwood and Andy Sullivan.
Among the contending Americans there’s ‘bomber’ Dustin Johnson, Ryan Moore while J. B. Holmes has a pretty decent ‘goatee’.
Lowry, who’s making his second Masters showing, gets the Augusta award for the thickest beard and reckons it will go well wearing a green jacket.

Shane Lowry sporting the ‘thickest’ beard at this week’s Masters. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“I’ve just go so used to wearing a beard and there’s no way I will be shaving off, certainly not this week,” he said.
“Besides I think I’ll look pretty smart in the green jacket.”
A lengthy time spent on the internet revealed just one player has won the Masters sporting any sort of facial hair, and I’m talking about overnight stubble.
That was Craig Stadler who won the 1982 Masters sporting his trademark ‘Walrus’ moustache.