Augusta National Golf Club enjoys a reputation as one of the world’s most exclusive courses. The initiation fee alone is reportedly US$40,000 / AU$54,000… there isn’t an application process to become a member, although your chances apparently “plummets” once you ask about it… and some of its most notable regulars range from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to billionaire investor Warren Buffett. As you can imagine from an establishment of its calibre, sinking a hole-in-one at Augusta not only attracts a certain level of attention — it also opens a few otherwise difficult to unlock doors.
During a recent episode of Barstool’s Behind The Greens podcast, the fellas opened the submission inbox to fans who had killer Augusta stories. And safe to say, a few eye-opening reveals stood out from the crowd.
“A good number of the emails that we got for the emails we got about Augusta stories were: ‘My buddy went and played Augusta as a guest and got a hole-in-one,'” says Barstool’s Sam “Riggs” Bozoian.
“One person – I believe – is usually allowed to have a phone or a camera, people take pictures throughout the day, you can’t share ’em anywhere but you have ’em for your own personal use. Some people take photos, whether it’s a shot of them at the tee or whatever.”
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“Augusta took one of those photos – and there are multiple stories of this – and they said, ‘We’re going to get this all framed up, Augusta-fy it, and like whatever, and send it to you.’ So they took a couple of months and they got a painting of it. Not an actual photo.”
But the story doesn’t end right there and then…
“The envelope and the information which came with it said, ‘We invite you to keep this painting but here’s what it’s going to cost.’ And the invoice for it was like $50,000.”
“Both parties said – and, again, this was from multiple emails – the guest thought about it for, like, weeks. Like, that’s an amazing amount of money. ‘I don’t know what to do.’ But then both of them were ultimately like, ‘It sucks, it’s hard, but I’m going to do it. That means the world to me.'”
“They paid the $50,000 for the painting, Augusta then responded to that by inviting both of them to be members of the club because they proved how much it meant to them. To get an ace in Augusta National… These were to completely separate emails.”
So there you have it. If you want an easy shortcut to securing that coveted Augusta National Golf Club membership, all you need is to sink a hole-in-one and US$50,000 / AU$67,666.
