Charlottesville
June 26, 2022
The 2023 Masters ticket lottery opened on June 1 and ran for three weeks giving everyone an opportunity to be a patron at Augusta National next April. At least, in theory.
In reality, you've probably got a better chance of winning the actual lottery.
The year's first men's major has always been considered one of—if not, the toughest ticket in sports, but a new study from Bookies.com confirms that with rather bleak numbers. If you've applied for tickets for next year, this is the part where you might want to look away.
According to the study, your odds of winning the Masters lottery for a single-day tournament ticket is 0.55 percent. That's ZERO point 55 percent. Or, half of one percent. Or, about 1 out of every 200 applications. So, yeah, not great.
Of course, there are ways to obtain Masters tickets through a secondary market, but they're going to cost you. A LOT. And that's if you don't get scammed.
Anyway, the survey arrived at this depressing figure by estimating that of the approximate 40,000 patrons per day (the Masters has never disclosed official attendance figures), 18,000 are weekly badges and 22,000 are single-day tickets. And it used an estimate of 2 million applicants for those tickets based on previous years.
But hey, you could always get lucky! Or maybe no one will think they have a chance now and Augusta National won't get many applicants for next year. Either way, good luck! Just don't get your hopes up.
I was fortunate enough to attend the 2003 Masters as part of a corporate event. Also got to attend the 1996 Olympics the same way. I once had a vendor offer a trip to the British Open. I turned it down feeling it would look improper. It was the right decision.