Tee 2 Green with Barry Sharpe - - March 29/09

Growing up in a suburb of Toronto in the mid 1940's and 50's, when winter arrived in early November and you could still play hockey on natural ice in March, was the main reason for being a late bloomer when it came to learning about golf.

Because my father had purchased season tickets going to Maple Leaf Gardens to see the Leafs up close and personal was considered the pinnacle of entertainment. From the golds to the greys every game was a sellout. Having season tickets to the Gardens in Toronto---similarly to the Forum in Montreal to see the Habs---was a cherished honour. Season tickets weren't bought, sold or traded - they were inherited.

Such is the case with tickets to The Masters, now considered by some to be the hottest ducat in all of sport.

By Robert Bell
Staff Writer
news-record.com

On a soft spring day in Georgia, walking along one of those impossibly green fairways on the course that makes you feel as if you're standing at heaven's gate, Jude Richards felt like crying.

Augusta National will do that to you -- even if, like Richards, you've been making this pilgrimage for 28 years now.

"It always gets to me, it really does," said Richards, who made the trip from his home in High Point on Wednesday to this week's Masters. "I never take for granted what a gift this is for me to be able to be here."

Twenty-eight years ago, Richards inherited a family heirloom more precious than jewelry or stocks. When his father died in 1981, Richards' mother didn't feel like making the annual trek to Augusta for golf's most famous tournament. So she turned her two tickets over to her son, who's been going ever since.

Sports has its eternal debates -- Jordan or Chamberlain? Unitas or Montana? DH or let 'em hit? -- but there is no arguing the hardest ticket to come by: That would be this week's Masters. And each year only a handful of lucky Triad residents are privy to them.

"I call it a privilege because that's what it is," said Greensboro resident Blake Clark, a former Augusta National member, who's been to 40 Masters. "To be able to watch the tournament in person is something special."

The Masters is the only golf tournament where players must buy tickets for family or friends.

"I've got a better chance of winning this week than getting more (tickets)," golfer Luke Donald said. "They're like gold around here."

Actually, Luke, gold fetches a mere $885 an ounce. A Masters badge -- tournament officials disdain the word "ticket" -- could cost you almost twice that from scalpers on Washington Road outside the club. More if Tiger's on the leaderboard by the weekend.

Augusta National won't divulge the number of tickets it distributes each year, though reports put that number at about 40,000. Only members of the club's patron list can buy the plastic credit-card sized badges, which this year cost $200 a piece.

The patron's list was started by Augusta National in 1934. All golf clubs within 225 miles of Augusta -- Greensboro missed the cut -- were asked for a list of their members. Clubs that declined were asked to forward a letter from Augusta National to their members. Eventually the list was expanded to cover clubs in other states, mainly for people who wintered in Florida and would be returning North each spring.

Still, tickets remained plentiful until the late 1950s, when the rest of the world discovered the tournament, thanks to golf legend Arnold Palmer and television.

The first sellout came in 1967, and the patrons list was closed five years later. A waiting list shut down in 1978 as the list grew to "such proportions that any additions would not be able to receive tickets in the foreseeable future,'' according to Augusta National. It was briefly re-opened in 2000 and just as quickly closed again.

Most patrons use the badges themselves or loan them to close friends. That's how Greensboro's Lillian Govus got hers. Govus' grandfather was an Atlanta businessman who took Augusta National up on its offer to buy four badges in the early 1970s. Govus' grandmother now lives in Tryon. She's offered her granddaughter the badges in years past, but Govus, a Guilford County Schools employee and soccer referee, has never been able to work her soccer schedule around the golf tournament until this year.

Govus was in New York last month when she casually mentioned to some friends she would be attending the Masters.

"They were totally freaked out," she said. "They couldn't believe I was able to get tickets. I'm even having a hard time believing it. I'm just now coming to the full realization myself."

Greensboro has always had a connection with the Masters. Philanthropist Joseph Bryan was an early member of Augusta National and reportedly owned the first Masters badge ever handed out. Car dealer Bill Black is the grandson of golfing legend and Augusta co-owner Bobby Jones.

Lillian Weymouth, who grew up in nearby Aiken, S.C., remembers her father taking her to the Masters as a child in the early 1960s.

"My mother thought he was crazy buying those tickets," she said. "Nobody knew it would grow into what it is now."

It's still a thrill for Weymouth to open her mailbox in early March and find the plain white envelope postmarked Augusta with her badges tucked inside. She's heading down this morning and taking a high school friend with her.

Like most fans, she's never dreamed of selling them.

"I could never do that," she said. "What else would I do in the spring?"

Govus agreed: "Knowing what they mean to my grandmother, I could never do that," she said. "It would be like selling a family ring or something."