Dave Loggins, composer of the CBS Masters theme song “Augusta,” dies at the age of 76

There are few events in all of professional sports with as much tradition as the annual Masters Tournament at Augusta National. But perhaps the tournament’s most iconic tradition may simply be the long-standing theme song associated with the event.

The theme song, aptly called “Augusta,” was written by Dave Loggins in 1981 after Loggins played on the course that spring.

Sadly, 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 hits, including “Augusta,” “Please Come To Boston” and his 1984 duet “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do” with Anne Murray. Additionally, Loggins (also a second cousin of Kenny Loggins) remains the only unsigned artist to ever win a CMA Award.

In a 2019 interview with the Associated Press, Loggins detailed how he got the inspiration for “Augusta,” saying the beauty of the historic golf course helped him.

“I stopped for a minute, looked up at the pines, and the wind down there was just different in some ways,” Loggins told the Associated Press. “Spiritually, it was different. That course was just a work of art. I looked over at some dogwoods and, man, I just started writing the song in my head, which I always do when I’m inspired. I had the first verse before I even left the course.”

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

“Augusta,” which CBS uses without lyrics during its broadcasts of the tournament, actually has lyrics in Loggins’ original version. That lyrics largely correlates with all the sights and sounds around the course that CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz usually uses to begin his annual opening monologue of the event.

Golf fans and CBS would be much worse off without “Augusta” as the long-standing theme song of the Masters, so at least in the eyes of most of the sports world, Loggins made quite an impression.

(The Tennessean, Golf Digest)