A patron trying to enter Augusta National for the Masters was stopped at the gate after a resold badge beeped on scanning and investigators had already noted its number. Before his day could begin, security told him it was over and ushered him toward the exit.
The badge had been bought off eBay, and the encounter laid bare how seriously Augusta National now treats resale of Masters tickets. A guard said, “You’d be surprised” how many people try to run at this point, a sign that the club’s enforcement has become part of the tournament’s front-line security.
At Augusta, Masters tickets are called badges, and they are among the hardest tickets in sports to get. The club holds a lottery each year for badges for the next tournament, and anyone with a unique mailing address can enter for a chance to buy one. A badge purchased for $100 can fetch 30 or 40 times that amount on secondary markets, which is why resale has long tempted lottery winners and long-term badge holders alike.
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Augusta National says it is the only authorized source and seller of tournament tickets, and that badges may not be offered for sale, bartered, sold or rented through third-party resellers including ticket brokers, travel agents, hospitality entities or scalpers. The club says that whenever it catches a resold badge, the original purchaser is banned for life; if that person won it in the lottery, they will never win another, and if the badge came from a long-term holder, the punishment is even harsher.
The crackdown has changed a once-robust secondary market. Masters tickets remain coveted because they are accessible in theory but elusive in practice, and the resale trade once gave some winners a way to turn a $100 badge into a windfall. Augusta National says tighter enforcement has almost completely dried up that market, but the latest gate stop shows there are still people willing to gamble on getting through.
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The question now is not whether Augusta will keep watching — it already is — but how far buyers are willing to push their luck when a scanned badge can end a Masters day before it starts.
