We like talking about the Masters around here.
The tournament is still 55 days away but we always have time to discuss the best golf tournament in the world.
You can be sure there will be a lot more Masters coverage from us over the next couple of months. We are still getting emails from this story about the perfect one-day patron itinerary, and I’m always open to helping anyone who is attending or wants other advice (send questions, comments and/or hate mail to [email protected]).
After I wrote about the itinerary, a few people messaged me asking how I’ve been able to attend the Masters seven times.
Being extremely fortunate is the short answer. The longer answer is that I’ve attended three different ways, which should be illegal.
It’s tough to attend the Masters. For the most part, the odds are stacked against you.
Having said that, there are a handful of avenues that will put you on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National. I’m going to go through each of them and explain my experience.
I’m also going to leave out the obvious “just know the right people”—I think you could guess that one.
1. Winning the ticket lottery
OK, here is the obvious one. The Masters has an annual ticket lottery that allows a small portion of patrons to attend.
You can learn more about the lottery here, but the broad strokes are that you have to apply at this site anytime between May 30 and June 20. You will be notified of your fate around mid- to late July when winners will then be allowed to pay for the tickets. They will arrive in March, a few weeks before the tournament.
The cost is very reasonable—$100 for practice round days and $140 for tournament days.
You are allowed only one entry per residential address. If you really want to go to the Masters, round up everyone you know living in different locations and get them to apply with the understanding that you would go with them or receive their tickets. You don’t have to show your ID or anything—tickets can be used by anyone—so you might as well increase your chances.
I’ve never won the ticket lottery (and I never should) but got to attend the 2024 tournament because a close friend had won the lottery and a member of their group was unable to go.
Yeah, it’s a lot of luck.
If it’s any consolation, I’m convinced there are more patrons being allowed during practice days in particular. The Masters doesn’t report attendance numbers but I think the lottery is more lenient than it used to be.
2. Buying tickets on the secondary market
Cash is king. If you want to attend the Masters, you can—it will just cost you (a lot).
How much? It honestly depends. I’m seeing tickets on StubHub for about $2,000 (Monday/Tuesday) and closer to $3,000 the rest of the week. Wednesday tends to be the most expensive of the practice days in part because of the Par 3 Contest.
Prices can dip closer to the tournament but a lot of it depends on weather. For the most part, the Masters ticket market stays steady because it’s such a high-demand experience regardless of who is playing.
Many people will go to Augusta without a ticket and buy from distributers along Washington Road. The Masters changed back its re-entry policy a few years to permit only two entries per patron which dampened the same-day market because the same ticket can’t be resold multiple times throughout the day.
I would be cautious here. I’m partial to relying on a vendor like StubHub which has a venue in Augusta and is trustworthy.
My recommendation for those employing this strategy is to buy the day before you want to go. There are no guarantees.
Well, this one is tough for a couple of reasons.
You have to, you know, be a golf writer. That’s kind of a narrow niche of a career path.
And even if you are a golf writer, there are no guarantees about who gets a media credential. The Masters has a stringent process for approving media badges.
I’ve had the fortune of covering the Masters twice as an official media member. It’s really, really cool.
There is a massive media center—I’m assuming it’s the nicest media center in all of sports—at the back of the driving range. There you will find a cavernous auditorium with huge TV screens, unlimited free food (including all of the traditional concession items), a state-of-the-art press center with individual microphones at each seat, locker rooms, podcast areas and a ton of stuff I’m forgetting.
If you want to go to the course, you get shuttled on a golf cart underneath the patron walkways and through the “back alleys” of the Augusta property. You are dropped off at the big scoreboard along the first fairway. You can bring your phone to the media center but, like everyone else, you can’t bring it on the course (you also can’t go inside the ropes, which is an outlier for media covering pro golf).
If that is not enough, the Masters also lets 28 media members play the course the Monday after the tournament ends. (I sadly did not win this lottery either year.)
If becoming a credentialed media members is a step too far, there is another media-related path to attending the Masters that is significantly easier …
4. Becoming a member of the Golf Writers Association of America
Hear me out on this one.
The GWAA is a membership organization for golf writers, but that doesn’t mean golf writing has to be your full-time job.
You could become a regular member by publishing a minimum of 10 stories per year in GWAA-recognized publications. That list of recognized publications is not as strict as the Masters credential process so becoming a member is very realistic.
You just have to pay $80 annually to be a regular member.
If you do that and meet the basic qualifications, you can attend Wednesday at the Masters each year for free (aside from the dues). That morning, there is a GWAA meeting in the press building. After the meeting is over, you are free to go to the course for the rest of the day.
It doesn’t matter if you are credentialed for the tournament—GWAA members get that one day to attend.
Honestly, if you have any desire in contributing some articles to a site like MyGolfSpy or another publication, this might be the cheapest and easiest way to get a Masters ticket.
5. Becoming a member of the PGA, LPGA or GCSAA
If you are a member of any of these organizations, you are allotted one free ticket per day. So you could, in theory, stay in Augusta for an entire week and go to the Masters every day.
To the right of the security area is a separate entrance for members. Just show your ID and in you go.
The organizations are the PGA of America, LPGA and Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.
The first two are for Class A golf club professionals. There are many areas of this classification including those who are head golf pros, golf course general managers, instructors or college coaches. You can achieve the certification by going through a PGA Golf Management university or the PGM Associate program. It takes a few years to go through either of these and you need to complete hands-on internships as part of the course.
I attended North Carolina State University and went through the PGM program there with aspirations of being in the green-grass business. Upon graduating in 2014, I attended the next four Masters. At the time, I was teaching at a golf academy.
I eventually dropped my certification because you don’t really need it for the media side of the golf industry. And the dues were $575 annually which wasn’t money well spent in my opinion.
Also, with the ability to attend as a credentialed media member or a GWAA member, the allure of having a free Masters ticket didn’t carry the same weight as it previously did.
(Getting one ticket to the Masters can also be a conundrum. Going on your own is awesome but I’ve been enough times to where I now only want to go if I’m with other people).
The GCSAA is for all of those who work as superintendents taking care of courses. If you have any interest in that career, the mornings are hard but it’s a solid job.
6. Volunteering/working at the Masters
Wait, wait—you can just work your way to a Masters ticket? Yeah, technically you can.
The Masters has more than 700 volunteers each year. Hundreds of others work the many service jobs on property.
Once you become a volunteer, you are generally invited back every year unless you screw up somehow. They even have an opportunity to play the course during an appreciation week in May before the course is shut down for the summer (paid jobs do not get invited to play the course).
You have to pay your own way there and have to work the whole tournament but volunteering is a sweet gig.
As you might have guessed, becoming a volunteer is very difficult. Basically, you need to know someone. Good luck applying because you probably won’t hear back. They are highly coveted positions for obvious reasons so there is almost no turnover.
However, there are paid positions that offer good work experience and access to the tournament. That access might be limited but workers typically have the chance to see the course during breaks.
Of note, you have to work the entire tournament plus the Augusta National Women’s Amateur that precedes the Masters.
So those are the six main ways of getting access to the Masters.
Obviously, you could live in Augusta and know someone with badges. You could be an incredible networker or run in the right circles. You could be scoffing at this entire article.
Good for you, if that is the case. For the rest of the world, you will probably need one of these six avenues.
Top Photo Caption: Patrons enjoy a practice round prior to the 2024 Masters. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)
