AUGUSTA, Ga. — When Masters week arrives in Augusta, locals can either welcome the golf world that descends upon the city—or leave town and cash in.

The short-term rental market spikes heavily around the first major of the year. The long-running joke in town is that a family can rent their home during Masters week and pay for that year’s mortgage.

Heading into the week, more than 16,400 nights at companies like Airbnb and Vrbo had been booked for April 7 to 13, according to data provided to Front Office Sports by rental analytics company AirDNA. 

That’s 11% higher than Masters week in 2024 and represents roughly $8.5 million in booked revenue for those seven days. For comparison, a typical month in Augusta, which has a population of roughly 200,000 people, generates between $3 million and $4 million. 

The Masters bump in Augusta extends throughout April, with additional events like the Augusta National Women’s Amateur the weekend before The Masters. From tournament visitors to players and golf agencies, short-term rentals are an increasingly popular accommodation alternative to rising hotel costs.

Once final booking numbers are in, AirDNA expects this month’s short-term revenue to surpass the $19.2 million generated in April 2024 and come close to, if not pass, $20 million.

The on-the-books average daily rate for Augusta rentals this week is currently at $514, which is well more than double the typical rates in the past 12 months, which are generally around $200 per night. While that’s lower than last year’s final figure of $575, AirDNA anticipates this year’s number increasing with high-priced last-minute bookings.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golf TV ratings are relatively hot heading into The Masters Tournament, which could mean a boost in viewership for the first major of the year after a noticeable dip in 2024.

Final-round coverage of 9 of the last 10 PGA Tour events has seen year-over-year viewership increases. That includes broadcasts of elevated fields at the Players Championship and three of the Tour’s four $20 million signature events so far this season.

That upward trend should bode well for The Masters, which last year saw its final-round TV ratings decrease by 20% to 9.59 million viewers on CBS as Scottie Scheffler cruised to a second Green Jacket with a four-shot victory.

Scheffler is once again the heavy favorite (around +450 at many sportsbooks), but TV ratings magnet Rory McIlroy is not far behind (around +650). Both of McIlroy’s wins so far this season, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship, have resulted in viewership spikes for CBS and NBC, respectively.

While CBS has Saturday and Sunday coverage, ESPN broadcasts the first and second rounds Thursday and Friday afternoon. In 2024, an average of 3.4 million viewers watched ESPN’s early-round coverage, the network’s largest two-day Masters average since 2018.

LIV Golf Bump?

This week, 12 LIV Golf players are being added to the mix, spicing things up for fans who don’t get to watch all of the world’s best golfers together regularly anymore.

“Anytime I get an opportunity to play against everyone, the best players in the world, it’s great,” LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau said Tuesday. “I think that’s what we’re all hoping for at some point is for that to be figured out.”

On Sunday, Fox averaged 484,000 viewers for the final round of LIV Miami, which represented the league’s most-watched telecast ever on linear TV. 

The key for strong TV ratings at The Masters will likely be a final-round leaderboard with big names, whether those are PGA Tour or LIV Golf players. 

South Carolina did not take long before bolstering its roster following a blowout loss to UConn in Sunday’s women’s national championship game.

Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson, the leading scorer in NCAA Division I last season, announced Tuesday that she is transferring to the Gamecocks. The incoming senior, who was ranked as the No. 1 transfer by 247Sports and ESPN, is reuniting with high school teammate Raven Johnson, a Gamecocks guard.

Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, the No. 2–rated transfer, also announced her commitment to TCU. She was the projected No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft, but just days after the Fighting Irish were eliminated by the Horned Frogs in the Sweet 16, reports surfaced that Miles had chosen to forego the WNBA draft to enter the transfer portal.

Miles will serve as the backcourt replacement for Hailey Van Lith, who is a potential first-round pick in the WNBA draft.

WNBA Draft Looms

The commitments from the high-profile transfers so soon after March Madness highlight the nonstop women’s basketball calendar. The transfer portal opened March 24, in the middle of the tournament, and it closes April 22.

“There will always be continued evaluation [of the transfer portal] to determine if adjustments need to be made,” NCAA VP for women’s basketball Lynn Holzman told Front Office Sports last week. “I expect it will continue to be a topic of discussion for both men’s and women’s basketball.” 

What separates the men’s and women’s game, however, is that the WNBA draft comes just eight days after the end of the tournament. UConn’s Paige Bueckers and South Carolina’s Te-Hina Paopao are two of the stars from the Final Four who have to make the quick turnaround between the tournament and the draft.

Texas guard Rori Harmon, who lost to Paopao and the Gamecocks in the Final Four, announced Wednesday that she will return to the Longhorns next season. The senior had another year of eligibility after her 2023–2024 season was cut short because of a torn ACL.

NBA head coaches don’t have much job security. Only three current coaches have been with their team for more than five seasons, so it’s not exactly a surprise when several coaches are let go each year.

However, the firing of former Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins and Nuggets coach Michael Malone over the past two weeks shocked the NBA, in part due to their historical success but mostly because of timing.

Jenkins was fired with about two weeks left in the season. Malone was let go with less than a week remaining—tying Hubie Brown, who was fired by the Hawks during the 1980–1981 season, for the latest point in a campaign that a coach has been fired, according to ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania.

Memphis and Denver are in similar positions: battling to avoid the play-in and directly qualify for the playoffs, but also underperforming compared to their performance in recent years. It’s unclear, however, whether the reasons for each team’s coaching change were related. But the abruptness of the firings begs for an explanation, especially because the Nuggets change also included not renewing the contract of general manager Calvin Booth.

The moves could be, in part, a result of the league’s complicated CBA and two-apron cap structure.

CBA Issues

Beginning in the 2023–2024 season, the NBA integrated a two-apron format into its salary cap structure. There is a first- and second-apron threshold above the league’s soft salary cap that comes with penalties restricting a team’s ability to make roster changes.

The first-apron penalties limit a team’s ability to execute trades or sign-and-trades, while the second apron comes with all the first-apron restrictions plus additional penalties like the ability to trade a first-round pick seven years in the future.

The Nuggets and Grizzlies are both in the crosshairs of the apron. Denver is projected to be a second-apron violator next year. The Grizzlies are first-apron violators but are due to reward Jaren Jackson Jr. with a five-year, $345 million supermax deal. That would lock the team to about $140 million in salary between Jackson, Ja Morant, and Desmond Bane by the 2026–2027 season.

Because of roster construction limitations, there is a distinct possibility that team owners are pointing at coaches and front offices as the easiest way to enact change.

The Celtics are projected to have a record $500 million payroll next year, and team governor Wyc Grousbeck said last month, following the team’s $6.1 billion sale, that Boston is just as concerned about the apron restrictions as they are about paying the bill.

“It’s not just the luxury tax bill, it’s the basketball penalties,” Grousbeck said Friday on The Greg Hill Show. He then pointed out the importance of Brad Stevens, the team’s GM and former coach, in maneuvering through the restrictions.

“It’s even more of a premium now to have your basketball president be brilliant and lucky. Because you have to navigate, because you can’t stay in the second apron. Nobody will,” Grousbeck said.