There are few events in all of professional sports with as much tradition involved as the annual Masters’ tournament at Augusta National. But perhaps the most iconic tradition involved with the tournament may just be the longstanding theme song associated with the event.

The theme song, which is justly named “Augusta,” was written by Dave Loggins in 1981 after Loggins played the course that spring.

Unfortunately, Loggins passed away on Wednesday at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 76. But his legacy lives on thanks to a number of his hit songs, including “Augusta,” “Please Come To Boston,” and his 1984 “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do” duet with Anne Murray. On top of that, Loggins (also a distant cousin of Kenny Loggins) still remains the only unsigned artist to ever win a CMA award.

In a 2019 conversation with the Associated Press, Loggins detailed how he got the inspiration for “Augusta.” He said it was aided by the beauty of the historic golf course.

“I stopped for a minute, looked up at the pine trees and the wind down there was just different in some regards,” Loggins told the Associated Press. “Spiritually it was different. That course was just a piece of art. I looked over at some dogwoods and, man, I just started writing the song in my head which is what I do when I get inspired. I had the first verse before I even got off the course.”

Just a year after Loggins released it, “Augusta” was picked up by CBS and has been used as the theme song for the tournament ever since. In his obituary published by The Tennessean, the theme is named the “longest-running sports theme in history”.

“Augusta”, which CBS uses during broadcasts of the tournament without any words, actually does have words in the original version made by Loggins. These lyrics largely correlate with all of the sights and sounds around the course that CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz typically starts with in his yearly opening monologue of the event.

Golf fans and CBS alike would be much worse off without “Augusta” as the longstanding theme song of the Masters. So at least in the eyes of most of the sports world, Loggins has left quite an imprint.

[The Tennessean, Golf Digest]