Publications
Partners
When you talk Masters golf tournament, you think of the Green Jacket, of Magnolia Lane and Amen Corner and of Tiger Woods and other superstars.
But for the patrons – as the Augusta National Golf Club that annually hosts the season-opening major insists on calling the fans – lucky enough to secure one of the sought-after tickets, there is another thing that is as important to them as the Green Jacket. And that is the pimento cheese sandwich.
Augusta local Philip Tussey, who has managed to get tickets to the Masters – albeit “only” for Wednesday’s practice rounds and the Par Three contest – for the second time in a row, explains that the pimento cheese sandwich is something special.
“The pimento cheese is the best, it is definitely the way to go. You can’t get it nowhere else. Not the Masters pimento cheese. It tastes different. It is difficult to describe, but it just tastes awesome.”
As much as the pimento cheese sandwich is part of Masters tradition, it is part of Masters tradition not to speak about Masters tradition. So the Augusta National Golf Club will not disclose the recipe, nor will it say how many of the sandwiches – or for that matter any other sandwich or beverage – is sold during Masters week.
US regulations state that the ingredients have to be made known on the green wrapping, so a white sticker says that it is “made fresh daily” and that the spread between the white bread sandwich includes extra sharp cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, mayonnaise, cream cheese and pimentos.
For Tussey and his friend Grant Thurman, who is at his first Masters, as remarkable as the taste is, so to is the price. It sells for $1.50 (about R17.75).
“You go to an NBA game, or a football match and they hit you for four or five dollars. Here all the food stuff is really good and really cheap. Even a beer sells for five dollars. At most other sporting events, you would pay at least seven or eight dollars.”
Exclusive merchandising
Nobody quite knows why the prices are so much lower compared to the NBA or other competitions. Mark, who is the supervisor in the main concession hall at the main entrance and preferred not to give his surname, said that the Masters has always looked after its fans.
“The club prides itself that the prices are fair. The patrons should have a great experience.”
Thurman has a different take on the issue and said he believed that it could be, because Augusta does not need the money from food sales.
“They make enough from selling merchandising in the golf shop, they do not need to make more from the sale of their food.”
The golf shop is another story altogether. There the patrons can buy T-shirts, Polo shirts, the Masters flag from the greens, Masters chairs and numerous other Masters mementos. So the Masters is not unlike the Football World Cup or a big club or such like in that regard. It is, however, very unlike in another regard.
Masters merchandise is sold exclusively during the one week on the course.
There is no Masters shop in downtown Augusta (if the city of 200 000 inhabitants even has a real downtown) and there is certainly no internet shop. Again, the club offers no explanation why that is the case.
Scott Franklin, who comes from Atlanta to Augusta every year to watch the Masters, believes that the club has decided to go down that route to ensure that the merchandising that they do sell remains exclusive. “The whole tournament is surrounded by this aura of mystique and exclusivity. Everything the club does feeds into this. They give no information and look after those lucky enough to be a part of the tournament. Others can watch it from afar, but remain afar. That ensures that people become even more determined to ensure that they are lucky enough to get tickets.”
And for those who do ensure tickets to the Holy Grail of golf, the reason why Augusta choses to sell their food and beverages at such cheap rates and why merchandise is not available outside the Masters week, matters little.
“It is just great being here and I am so pleased that I got tickets,” says Thurman, as he bites into his $1.5 pimento cheese sandwich.
