Masters 2026: Fred Ridley sounds like he regrets Dude Perfect’s Amen Corner frisbee video
Simon Bruty
“We’re Dude Perfect. I’m Bryson DeChambeau. And believe it or not, welcome to All Sports Golf Battle at Augusta National.” [And then a lot of yelling for some reason.]
That’s how the 11-minute Dude Perfect's Masters video from 2022 begins, and to be honest, many couldn’t believe it. Augusta National, the home of secrecy, phone bans and a constantly expanding list of rules and restrictions, had just allowed several YouTubers to use croquet mallets as putters and toss frisbees around its sacred course. And now, four years later, Masters Chairman Fred Ridley is also a bit bewildered by the decision.
“I've referred to the tension in the past between respecting tradition and innovating, or in our nomenclature, continuous improvement,” Ridley explained in a Masters presser on Wednesday. “So I do think we need to be looking at nontraditional ways of promoting the tournament, but more so promoting golf.
“A few years ago, we had Dude Perfect playing frisbee at Amen Corner. In retrospect, I like those guys, but that may not have been the best idea. But it does point out that we try things every once in a while that are a little bit nontraditional.”
To be fair, the video has racked up nearly 20 million views and went viral the second it dropped. Is that what Augusta National and its intelligentsia want? It sounds like they’re still figuring that out. Perhaps that is why Pat McAfee was shut out from hosting his show at the Masters ... and also why Jason Kelce is romping around the Par-3 Contest this year. Clearly, things are still up in the air.
“My first reaction was, who are these guys?” Ridley said back in 2022 regarding Dude Perfect. “I’ve never heard of them.
“It was something that I got comfortable with very quickly. No. 1, these are very upstanding young men who, it was obvious to me in some discussions, some third-party discussions of people who had been dealing with them and things they actually said on video. They had the utmost respect and reverence for Augusta National.”
We get it. Things change. Since that Dude Perfect video, Rory McIlroy cemented a career Grand Slam and Scottie Scheffler won all of his majors, but we can say with relative confidence that Dude Perfect won’t be back to flip water bottles in Butler Cabin anytime soon.
