AUGUSTA, Ga. — A concert at Augusta National?
Larry Gatlin — the famed country musician — stood beneath the Clubhouse Oak tree on Tuesday morning as clouds hovered over the Masters Tournament.
According to Gatlin, it’s been 40 years since he was asked to perform inside Butler Cabin, at an annual singalong called “The Friday Sing.”
“I stayed in a house with Ben (Crenshaw) at the 1984 Masters, and after Ben won, we were in the locker room with Charlie Yates,” Gatlin said.
Yates, whose member number at Augusta National was three, behind only Bob Jones (one) and Cliff Roberts (two), won low amateur five times between 1934 and 1942. By 1984 the native Georgian ran the Press Committee.
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Following Crenshaw’s triumph, the men ended their evening inside the locker room, where Yates connected dots.
Without hesitation, he abandoned his role as chauffeur and, undaunted by his company, Yates sang:
Just a closer walk with Thee
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea
Daily walking close to Thee
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be
“We all start singing with him,” Larry said.
After a first melody, Yates encored. Their next chart topper was “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.”
By the concert’s conclusion, Yates had asked Larry to return to Augusta in 1985 as his guest.
On Friday evening of Masters Week, after the cutline finalized, Yates would host a gathering inside Butler Cabin called “The Friday Sing.”
Tennessee Ernie Ford headlined the evening but Yates believed Gatlin would make an appropriate counterpart.
For one night each April, Butler Cabin molded into a dance hall, and when Yates died in 2005, Larry serenaded the funeral with “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”
The Friday Sing tradition ceased after Yates passed away.