{"id":522944,"date":"2026-04-10T07:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522944\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T07:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:50:20","slug":"augusta-nationals-most-interesting-and-secretive-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522944\/","title":{"rendered":"Augusta National’s Most Interesting (And Secretive) Details"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 90th Masters Tournament is officially underway, so today\u2019s newsletter examines Augusta National\u2019s most interesting and secretive details.<\/p>\n

I began assembling this list years ago, but I could never have imagined what it would become. This is our most popular newsletter every year, and this year\u2019s list has dozens of new items. In fact, I actually spent a few days at Augusta National this week, talking to employees and touring exclusive buildings on the property. <\/p>\n

What you\u2019ll find below is a bullet point style breakdown covering everything you could imagine about golf\u2019s most iconic venue. I apologize for writing nearly 5,000 words, but I wanted to cover everything, including details surrounding Augusta National\u2019s unique media rights deal, a deep dive into the club\u2019s $500 million real estate portfolio, specific revenue numbers for merchandise sales and home rentals, and even insight into the club\u2019s membership process and initiation fee.<\/p>\n

If that isn\u2019t enough, we also discuss private jet economics for the Masters, $10,000 hospitality tickets, and Augusta National\u2019s network of secret underground tunnels.<\/p>\n

This newsletter is for paid subscribers only (because it takes me weeks to put together, and that\u2019s what they pay me for). But if you\u2019ve been thinking about upgrading, today is the day. This is the most comprehensive breakdown of Augusta National anywhere on the internet \u2014 and no matter how big a golf fan you are, I guarantee you\u2019ll find multiple details you\u2019ve never even considered.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

RFID Tracking Chips: Augusta National provides each media member with a badge upon arrival. These badges provide exclusive access to the tournament and media center each day, but they also contain an RFID tracking chip. This allows club officials to see exactly where everyone is located on the property at all times.<\/p>\n

Media Rights: The Masters has the most unique media rights deal in sports. ESPN and CBS don\u2019t pay any money to broadcast the tournament. Instead, they simply invoice Augusta after the tournament to cover production costs. Augusta then forwards this invoice to their sponsors (AT&T, IBM, Mercedes-Benz, and Bank of America), who pay approximately $5 million each in exchange for four minutes of commercial time per hour. Augusta likely sacrifices more than $100 million each year by doing it this way, but it allows them to control everything \u2014 from what broadcasters are allowed to say on television to what shots they show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 90th Masters Tournament is officially underway, so today\u2019s newsletter examines Augusta National\u2019s most interesting and secretive details.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-522944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}