Ridley plays down hopes of pro Women’s Masters
The success of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament, which concluded here on Sunday, sparked speculation that a Women’s Masters could be in the pipeline. Not so, according to Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National.
“Our focus throughout our history, in terms of our efforts to promote the game outside of the Masters, have always been on amateur golf,” said Ridley, who played in The
Masters three times as an amateur, in the chairman’s annual pre-event address.
“I think what we would like to do, and hopefully will achieve, is doing things that will benefit professional women’s golf, and all of golf. But, by promoting women amateurs, the future stars of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, we’d like to think that that is something that’s going to benefit them as well, and I think that the LPGA would agree. So that’s the
track we are going to continue to take.”
Online scalpers are gouging Masters fans for exorbitant prices to attend the event, with the cheapest ticket to watch all four rounds starting at $10,000. The cheapest ticket on Stubhub for Wednesday’s practice round started at $2,500 while Thursday’s opening round will cost punters $3,300 and Friday’s second round $3,500. Fans wanting to buy tickets through Stubhub to attend both Thursday and Friday will have to fork out $7,500.
Even those blessed to work in the golf industry in St Andrews are blown
away by Augusta National. Hamish Ireland and Dominic Bodemeaid both work as caddies in the Auld Grey Toun, but are enjoying a first visit to the Georgia venue this week. “I don’t want to wake up – it’s just a magical place,” said Ireland.
As golf balls fly around Augusta National during Masters week, the skies above are also a hive of activity. Augusta Regional Airport handles 22 per cent of its annual private jet traffic around the season’s opening major, with almost 2,500 aircraft movements in the run-up and directly afterwards. The figures are on a similar scale to that of the Super Bowl.