The Masters “has been negotiating for years” how much of its past it is “willing to barter for its future,” and that has never been more apparent as golf and the world around it continue to change, according to Joel Beall of GOLF DIGEST. The tournament’s founders “understood something the rest of the world never quite grasped,” that patrons “are not consumers to be extracted from but guests to be honored.” They designed a “week around the experience rather than the revenue, and in doing so created the one sporting event in America that felt genuinely immune to the forces that had degraded everything else.” There is “still nothing like it,” but there is also “less of it every year, in the way you notice a room has changed before you can identify what moved.” It remains “one of the best well-run experiences in sports, and the traditions have held.” But the golf world has “changed around the tournament.” The money “got bigger, the access got democratized, the social platforms arrived, and suddenly the whole point of being somewhere was to prove you were somewhere.” Walking the grounds this week “reflects it.” The corporate hospitality footprint “keeps expanding, bringing with it a portion of the crowd whose primary relationship to the golf is ambient.” A pilgrimage and a destination “are not the same thing.” One group of patrons “cares about what the 12th hole means,” while the other “cares about getting a clean photo of it” (GOLF DIGEST, 4/8).
KEEP MEMORIES: YAHOO SPORTS’ Jay Busbee wrote Augusta National Golf Club “doesn’t make mistakes,” and if mistakes are made they are “simply rectified immediately and fade into memory, never to be mentioned again.” So it was “more than a little unusual” that Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley “disavowed, by name,” the club’s 2022 collaboration with Dude Perfect. Ridley said, “I like those guys, but that may not have been the best idea. But it does point out that we try things every once in a while that are a little bit nontraditional.” Busbee noted it is true that Augusta is willing to try new things, although “every once in awhile” is quickly becoming “every year.” This year, for instance, featured former NFLer Jason Kelce serving as a commentator for the Par 3 Contest on ESPN, and “making a spectacle of himself in the process.” Augusta National “doesn’t much appreciate when individuals -- particularly non-players -- make themselves the center of the show,” as the emphasis here is “on golf.” Or at least “it was.” Now, in an “era of social media flexing,” the emphasis “isn’t visiting Augusta, it’s making sure other people know you visited Augusta.” The club is “leaning into the moment, creating TikToks of its own” and even “edging into the treacherous world of fashion.” All of these little changes “add up to a significantly different feel at Augusta National these days” (YAHOO SPORTS, 4/8).
