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Morning Edition

April 11, 2025

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Would you spend $17,000 for a week of hospitality at The Masters? 2,500 people did.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

From Green Jackets to Black Cards: Masters VIP Arms Race Escalates [[link removed]]

Peter Casey-Imagn Images

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National Golf Club may have fewer trees [[link removed]] this year, but off the course, the home of The Masters Tournament has gotten even bigger in several major luxury areas.

Map & Flag, what the club describes as “the official Masters hospitality experience,” has debuted a second floor at the 26,000-square-foot venue that opened across Washington Road last year [[link removed]].

With high-end food and beverage, tournament access, and its own merchandise shop included, around 2,500 weekly badges were sold at roughly $17,000 each—that’s more than $42 million in ticket revenue. However, several insiders speculated Map & Flag could easily have space for 4,000 ticket holders moving forward.

“The popularity of this venue inspires us to consider what else may be possible in future years,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday.

Map & Flag is a complement to Augusta National’s longtime ultra-exclusive on-course offering, Berckmans Place, which is a popular hangout spot for Green Jacket–wearing club members. Ticket prices for that VIP space, which is just off the fifth hole, are not public, but one source pegged it around $25,000 for this week.

The More, the Merrier

Speaking of add-ons, the addition of Bank of America as a fourth champion partner of The Masters meant makeovers for the hospitality buildings used by the other three top-tier tournament sponsors: AT&T, IBM, and Mercedes.

Hidden behind the trees just off the 10th fairway sit four two-story luxury houses with top-shelf amenities reserved for those Masters sponsors and their guests. Last year, there were just three one-story buildings. It’s unclear how much those projects cost and whether the incumbent sponsor homes were simply renovated or torn down altogether and reconstructed.

Augusta National also completed construction of a private underground parking structure for its two-phase players’ services project, which will see a state-of-the-art facility for Masters invitees and their families open in 2026.

Watch Party

With more global media-rights partners than ever before, The Masters welcomed more than 50 different production trucks (running an estimated 270 miles of fiber cables) that operate behind Augusta National’s content center that sits on the edge of club property.

Top broadcasters such as CBS, ESPN, Golf Channel, and Sky Sports don’t film from that compound—they record from TV towers, The Butler Cabin, and another house-turned-studio overlooking the practice area—but it is the hub for their TV production, as well as everything on the Masters app. Typically, the Augusta National digital team is roughly a dozen people, but around the Masters, that balloons to about 150, to pump out as much content as possible.

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Bear Market Booms at The Masters: $250 Teddy Resells for Thousands [[link removed]]

eBay / masters_city_cards

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Move over, Masters gnomes.

The tournament’s $250 teddy bear is the new must-have merchandise item patrons are grabbing as soon as they enter the gates of Augusta National this week.

Sure, the garden gnome that has skyrocketed in popularity [[link removed]] in recent years is still a hot commodity at the Masters golf shop. But hundreds of those are available each day, and it takes roughly an hour each morning for them to sell out.

Even more exclusive, though, is the limited-edition bear. There are only 500 available this week—up from 300 in 2024—with shop workers saying that sometimes only 30 to 40 are made available each day. Located in the “clubhouse” section in the back of the golf shop, the few teddy bears up for grabs are being scooped up within minutes of patrons getting in.

Each teddy bear has a specific number, so lucky purchasers get a one-of-one collectible. And while $250 may seem like a steep price for a stuffed animal, the resale prices online are wildly higher. On eBay, many 2025 and 2024 editions are listed for more than $800 [[link removed]]. One 2023 edition is listed for $3,000.

Garden Party

Even though the Masters teddy bear is more exclusive than the garden gnome, the latter is still creating plenty of buzz.

Patrons proudly carry around the Masters gnome, which costs $49.50 and is limited to one per person. Shop employees form an assembly line from the storage area to hand out the gnomes to customers who want them until they run out.

There is also a mini gnome that is less sought-after, which costs $29.50. Other tournament trinkets are embracing the garden spirit, too, with gnome salt and pepper shakers, as well as gnome Christmas ornaments, also available to purchase.

ONE BIG FIG Worldwide Affair

Katie Goodale-Imagn Images

26

The record number of countries and territories represented by the 95 players in the 2025 Masters Tournament field. A 27th, Fiji, would have been represented by Vijay Singh, but he withdrew Monday. The U.S. leads the way with 48 players, while England is second, with 7, led by Justin Rose, who took the first-round lead shooting a seven-under-par 65.

Why Augusta National Had a Say in Jason Day’s Masters Fit [[link removed]]

Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jason Day played the first round of the 2025 Masters Tournament wearing an Augusta National–approved outfit, after the golfer was asked a year ago by the club to remove a vest he was wearing.

Because of last year’s controversy, Day and his apparel sponsor, Malbon Golf, had to send his Masters clothing scripting, practice rounds included, to Augusta National ahead of this year’s event. “Yeah, there was a back-and-forth,” Malbon founder Stephen Malbon told Front Office Sports from his rental house a few miles from the course on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, Day shot a two-under-par 70 wearing a black hat and pants, and a colorful Futura poly performance polo from Malbon Golf’s collaboration collection with the artist formerly known as Futura 2000. The brand wanted Day to wear identical pants, but Malbon said Augusta National requested that the golfer either wear the patterned top or bottoms, not both.

Earlier in the week, Day addressed the issue himself [[link removed]] on the Dan on Golf show, and during a media interview at the course said that Malbon “kind of cut everything in half” for The Masters.

Second Act

It’s a much different process than Day’s first Masters with Malbon Golf in 2024, when a vest he wore in the second round [[link removed]] that read “Malbon Golf Championship” in extra-large print created the ensuing controversy.

Malbon said he didn’t realize that outfit would be taboo. “It was never our intention to do anything except make people maybe think, ‘Wow, if this dude looks cool, and he looks like me and I could be him, maybe I’ll start picking up golf.’”

The company was founded by Malbon, 42, and his wife Erica in 2017 as a way to shift some long-held trends in golf. “We’re a lifestyle brand inspired by golf, similar to how Ralph Lauren is inspired by polo,” he said. “But, most people who wear Ralph Lauren, historically, have never played polo.”

Several of Day’s outfits since the 2024 Masters have raised some eyebrows, too, like the sweatsuit he wore [[link removed]] at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “We got our hands smacked,” Malbon said of the reaction from the PGA Tour, which has a vague dress-code policy [[link removed]] that only requires clothing to be “consistent with currently accepted golf fashion.”

Day hasn’t been fined by the PGA Tour, Malbon said, “but it’s probably close to that point,” if he keeps wearing certain things. Day joined Malbon last year after he left longtime sponsor Nike following the 2023 season.

Seeking Change

Malbon’s frustration isn’t aimed at one specific tournament or tour but rather the overall long-held accepted fashions in golf.

“The governing bodies of golf and the traditionalists—they say they want to grow the game,” he said. “They say they want more diversity. They say they want younger people. They say they want more women. They say all of these things, but then they do things like they want different type of people playing, and the first time there’s someone that’s looks a teeny bit different, it’s like, ‘Here we fucking go.’”

Day is Malbon’s only ambassador on the PGA Tour, but the brand expects to add more soon at the end of this year. “There are some people [whose contracts] are up that we’re friends with,” Malbon said. Malbon also sponsors Charley Hull and Jeongeun Lee on the LPGA Tour.

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Conversation Starters Rory McIlroy gave his 4-year-old daughter, Poppy, a chance to putt at the Masters par- 3 contest—and she made it. Watch it here [[link removed]]. Take a look [[link removed]] at Scott Van Pelt and ESPN’s set at The Masters. Check out [[link removed]] all the private jets lined up at Augusta Regional Airport for The Masters this week. Editors’ Picks Dončić’s Dallas Return Delivers Top ESPN Game of the Season [[link removed]]by Colin Salao [[link removed]]It’s the most-watched regular-season game of the year on ESPN. Golfers Are the Latest Athletes to Avoid Questions. Is There a Price to Pay? [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]As golfers decline to take questions, interest in their game may suffer. Kalshi Gears Up for Legal Fight With States [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]Maryland followed at least five other states that have sent cease-and-desist letters. Question of the Day

How much would you pay for a Masters ticket?

<$100 [[link removed]] $100 – $500 [[link removed]] $500 – $1,000 [[link removed]] $1,000+ [[link removed]]

Thursday’s result: 38% of respondents said Rory McIlroy’s presence makes them likeliest to watch a golf tournament. 28% said Scottie Scheffler. 12% said Jordan Spieth. And 22% chose someone else.

Advertise [[link removed]] Honors [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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