A Masters Tradition Unlike Any Other: Gifting Tickets to Government Officials

Wall Street Journal

09-04-2025

Augusta, Ga.
Everyone knows the one thing that makes the city of Augusta, Ga. famous. For one week every spring, this otherwise sleepy town and its golf club come alive to host the Masters.
An event of this magnitude, hosting tens of thousands of fans, staff, players, and guests requires close coordination between the City of Augusta and Augusta National Golf Club. Roads are shut down, cops take over traffic and a tiny regional airport suddenly swells with private jets.
But, it turns out that the relationship between the local government and the world renowned private club is even closer than previously known. And those ties, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, test the limits of ethics laws that guide how public officials should interact with businesses within their purview.
For years, Augusta National has gifted scores of highly coveted and valuable tickets to high-ranking city employees and elected officials, according to emails reviewed by The Journal in response to public records requests and people familiar with the matter. Some of those tickets—the especially rare Masters Series Badges that grant access to all four rounds of the tournament—can sell for more than $20,000 on the secondary market.
Those who have received tickets include top officials in key departments and some of their staff, according to the emails and people familiar with the gifts. Augusta's commissioners also get them, and the mayor's office gets an allotment of tickets for him and more that he can hand out. In the past, even some local judges got them.
City administrator Tameka Allen said local government officials were unable to comment on what she described as 'unfounded ethical allegations.'
The club's gifting has been going on for decades and is considered so commonplace that it doesn't merit a second thought by city officials, several people familiar with the matter said. Those people spoke on condition of anonymity, because they feared retribution from the city, club or both.
The practice raised concern with government ethics experts, who say it puts Augusta's government at high risk for corruption and creates the appearance of a conflict of interest.
'This is a recipe for making sure that this powerful golf club actually controls the city,' said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics. 'This kind of culture is inconsistent with ensuring that we could have any kind of confidence that city officials are only acting in the public interest.'
In this city, Augusta National isn't merely another tony golf club. It's the engine of the local economy, bringing droves of tourists to a part of Georgia they would never otherwise visit, and the Masters is the most important week of the entire year for many businesses there.
It's no surprise that the city and the club must work hand-in-glove to handle the crowd swells and traffic snarls that come with hosting the first major of the golf season. Barely a day goes by without employees of the city and club exchanging messages about mundane business, according to the internal emails. The topics range from permit applications and tax matters to traffic plans and working with the local airport.
But the two entities are also formal business partners. For instance, Augusta National has taken over the local municipal golf course known as the Patch from the city. The club agreed to renovate the near-century-old course as part of a project to promote public golf. As part of that project, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley announced Monday that Tiger Woods will design a new par-3 course on the Patch's grounds.
'One of our core values is contributing to our community,' Ridley said.
City officials have said turning over the Patch to Augusta National will save the city millions, and Ridley reiterated that affordability will be a priority when it reopens next year. Still, skeptics view it as an extension of the club's efforts to take over more and more land around town. It's also the type of project that could present a conflict of interest given that it required approval from the same commissioners who have been on the receiving end of Masters tickets.
The city's ethics code prohibits employees and public officials of Augusta, Ga. from accepting 'a gift from a lobbyist, vendor, or any other person seeking to influence official action.' A gift is defined as 'anything of value, exceeding the value of $100,' with tickets 'valued at the face value.' There is an exception allowing elected officials to receive 'courtesy tickets' for their own use.
Most people who wish to buy Masters tickets at face value need to enter an annual lottery with only a slim chance of winning. Even a practice-round ticket for a single day, which lucky winners can purchase for $100, is selling for more than $2,000 on the secondary market this week. The exceedingly rare Series Badges have a face value of $450, but have floated around the resale market for over $20,000.
Not that top local officials need to sweat the results of a lottery. For some in Augusta, the tickets are delivered from the club by chauffeur.
In one 2024 email exchange reviewed by the Journal, a club employee told a top Aviation Services official that a driver would drop off sets of Series Badges for them and for Augusta Regional Airport.
In both 2023 and 2024, an assistant director for Traffic Engineering organizing the pickup of credentials for the tournament reminded the club that it also 'usually gifts Traffic Engineering some tickets for the practice round days.'
Allen, the city administrator, didn't respond to questions about the extent of the ticket-gifting practice, or clarify whether the city believes it is in compliance with the ethics code.
The mayor, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office, and most of the city's 10 commissioners didn't respond to several inquiries. Two commissioners declined to comment.
Write to Louise Radnofsky at [e-mail] and Andrew Beaton at [e-mail]