Today marks the start of The Masters' 90th edition.
Golf isn't a sport I've ever followed too closely, but looking at what The Masters has built over ninety years from a brand and cultural perspective, it's hard not to take notice. So when my turn came around for our weekly Monday Morning Meeting at Ten Toes, it felt like a timely opportunity to look at one of sport's most quietly fascinating brands.
On paper, I wouldn't expect The Masters' approach to produce one of the most prestigious and enduring brands in sport.
It's a phone free event. It has no online merchandise store. It sells sandwiches for $1.50. You have a 0.55% chance of getting a ticket. By every conventional measure of how you build reach, grow an audience and maximise revenue, The Masters goes against the grain at every turn.
And yet. 19.9 million peak viewers last year. $70 million in merchandise from one temporary shop. Tickets reselling at $15,000. A waiting list that hasn't opened since 1978.
None of it is by chance. For ninety years, the intention has never changed. The details may have evolved, but what The Masters is trying to protect, and the feeling it's trying to create, has stayed exactly the same.
It's exclusive without ever saying the word. And that's precisely why everyone wants in.
As a result of the no phone policy, there's no fan phone content on the ground, and in that gap their team posts 150 pieces of content in two weeks. A bird on a branch. The course at dawn. The lunchtime buzz in the canteen. The $1.50 sandwich being handed over. In an age where most sporting events are watched through thousands of screens rather than your own eyes, Augusta is one of the last places where you simply have to be present. Because so few people will ever actually get to experience it, every insight feels personal.
What's also interesting is the wider effect this has had on golf as a sport. It's having a genuine cultural moment in the UK, and you can see The Masters' fingerprints all over it. Manors Golf, a London brand built on golf's quiet, aspirational aesthetic, just raised £3 million backed by Andy Murray, Ant & Dec and Theo Walcott. Big Wedge Golf, featuring three of the Sidemen among six of the UK's biggest creators, already has over 600k subscribers and is currently the highest performing golf channel in the world. England Golf membership is at an all time high. Junior membership is up 34% in a single year.
A sport that once rarely made waves beyond a traditional audience is becoming harder to ignore, making its presence felt in spaces it rarely reached before. And I've definitely picked up on it.
The Masters is now underway for its 90th edition. Whether you end up watching or not, hopefully understanding a bit more about the tournament gives you a new appreciation for it.
It certainly gave me one.
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