The course is beautiful, the scenery spectacular, and even the concessions are super southern. The Masters at Augusta National is one of golf’s most impressive venues and it’s a tough ticket to get, but it’s not impossible. If you’re willing to spend the money…
You can get tickets to The Masters (excuse me, “badges” as they’re called on tournament days) from certain reputable sellers, online ticket marketplaces, and maybe corporate sponsors if you’re a valued client or “friend” (aren’t you something?!).
Augusta National also offers an undisclosed number of tickets and badges – though it’s safe to say it’s a very, very limited number – directly through their lottery if you’re feeling lucky. Sorry, they actually call it a “pre-qualification drawing” because they don’t give them away exactly. Those who win will get the option to purchase tickets for a practice round at $75 or a tournament day at $115. And you can only win for one day.
As it stands right now, online ticket marketplaces are selling full-week badges for The Masters starting at $11,250. Yeah, whew! If you’re trying to make it a little cheaper, check out practice round tickets for Monday and Tuesday, which are a more palatable at $500 to $850. Wednesday’s practice round tickets, however, may run you over $1000 because of the famed par-3 contest.
Masters Badges surge to $1600 to $1800 on tournament days. If you’re trying to hit Augusta for all four days of the real action, you’re looking at $6,800 for Thursday through Sunday play.
Fun Fact: There are no refunds if it rains or rain checks if they close the course for weather!
So how else do people get their hands on these coveted Masters badges? Well, many brave folks show up in Augusta and try to scalp tickets from guys who set up along Washington Road with those huge “Need Tickets” signs. And it helps that scalping is legal in Georgia, so long as you do it far enough away from the venue and with a licensed ticket broker.
Other clever and not-so-risk-averse people head to Augusta hoping to do a little badge swapping. They’ll simply wait around outside the course for other patrons who are exiting the tournament early. Then they ask (or offer to pay) for the badge of the guy who’s leaving so they can use it to gain entry to The Masters for the rest of the day. Like scalping, if there’s money involved, you’re only supposed to attempt this neat little swap outside of Augusta National property. At least 2,700 feet away to be exact!
Be Aware: New rules went into effect in 2017 to limit the number of times you can enter or exit the tournament on the same badge, potentially to curb all this swapping and moving around. The max is now three gate entries per day.
Some people even arrange to hand off badges to their friends or bystanders for free. And there’s no problem with that. Just don’t let any cash exchange hands too close to the course!
In essence, this is how it works when you buy a half-day badge from a broker. If you buy a badge for a morning at The Masters, you’ll exit the grounds around noon and return it to the same broker from whom you picked it up. He’ll then turn the badge over to another buyer who will use it from around 1:30 or 2:30 PM to closing time at 6:30 PM.
Sometimes it’s the same with full-day passes. You pick up your badge from a broker somewhere near the gate in the morning and just turn it over to the broker when you’re done for the day. Someone else will be wearing it the next day. This way, brokers can break up multi-day or weekly passes and sell them individually for more money. Prices can fluctuate like crazy on any given day.
Officially, “Augusta National Golf Club is the only authorized ticket source” and the club, as well as the officials behind The Masters, are supposedly really strict about the resale of tickets. On the tickets themselves, they’ve printed a warning that reselling your badges can result in ticket privileges being revoked for good. But somehow, there are always ticket brokers with badges ready to sell…
If you are lucky enough to be the one who ends up with a badge from The Masters at the end of the tournament, do yourself a favor and don’t lose it. Some of them have become quite the collectibles.
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