The final round of the 2023 Masters was watched by more than 12 million viewers in the U.S., cementing the prestigious event's place as the pinnacle of the golf calendar.
Most are relegated to watching the Masters from home, but a lucky few get the opportunity to see the event from beautiful Augusta National itself. "Lucky" might be the best way to describe them, as securing tickets to the Masters typically involves going through a lottery process.
While the Masters doesn't reveal official attendance figures, the 2023 edition was attended by far fewer fans than the PGA Championship, for example. It's simply a tough ticket to get, to no one's surprise.
Here's a closer look at how to apply for Masters tickets and how lottery selection works.
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How to apply for Masters tickets
The Masters says resale of tickets is "strictly prohibited" and says holders of third-party tickets "may be excluded from attendance" of the event.
So, what can a fan do to get into Augusta National? The process actually begins more than 10 months before the Masters, when the annual ticket lottery opens. The lottery to secure 2024 Masters tickets was open for a 20-day period in June 2023, allowing fans to put their name in the ring.
The good news? Tickets won through the lottery are largely affordable for such a prestigious tournament attended by only about 40,000 fans per day. Practice round tickets are $100, while tickets for Thursday-Sunday action start at $140. The bad news? Your chances of actually getting one are not great.
About two million people are estimated to enter the Masters ticket lottery each year, putting the chances of being chosen at less than one percent and close to 1-in-200.
Here was the process for how to apply in 2024, though dates will change for the 2025 event:
- Create or confirm a Masters account (June 1-20)
- Apply for tickets on Masters.com (June 1-20)
- Those who applied are notified with the results (Late July)
It's a simple process overall, but the odds aren't in anyone's favor as long as two million fans choose to take part.
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Masters ticket lottery odds
The estimated chances of securing a ticket through the Masters lottery is about 0.55 percent, Forbes reported through information from Bookies.com in 2023. That's barely more than a 1-in-200 chance, which doesn't offer much hope to anyone participating in the lottery.
Tickets to some of the biggest events in sports are unattainable to many fans simply because of price, but the Masters takes a vastly different approach. The tickets are affordable for many, yet still extraordinary difficult to secure.
How much do Masters tickets cost?
Lottery ticket prices
Tickets are generally $100 for practice rounds and $140 for tournament competition, according to Golf.com.
For such a prestigious event, the ticket prices are far better than one would expect. Without a lottery, there's no doubt they would sell for much more than just $140. Still, the Masters values tradition above all else and hasn't given any indication that its lottery system will be changing any time soon.
Series Badge Patron tickets
An estimated 40,000 fans attend each day of Masters competition, but far less than 40,000 tickets are awarded through the lottery. Select Badge Patrons are the primary reason for the disparity.
Select Badge Patrons are given lifetime annual passes for all four days of the tournament. Select Badge passes cost $450 for all four days of the tournament in 2024. Considering it covers all four days of competition, that's cheaper than tickets purchased through the lottery.
How do you get Series Badge Patron tickets? You don't, in all likelihood. The waiting list is so long that applications were closed in 1978, with one brief exception in 2000.
Perks of being a Select Badge Patron include a lifetime guarantee of purchasing tickets to the Masters. Moreover, any Select Badge Patron can also bring a junior to the event with them for free, a privilege not afforded to patrons who purchase tickets through the lottery system.
Select Badge Patron passes are non-transferrable, meaning once someone dies, they can't simply pass it on to their next family member. That allows the next person on the waiting list to have a chance at annual passes.
Third-party tickets
Third-party tickets are "strictly prohibited" by the Masters, but that hasn't stopped some from trying to sell them on certain sites. For example, there are a small handful of tickets for Friday's round available on StubHub for no less than $2,000 as of Tuesday, April 9.
