How Masters Merchandise Became the Ultimate Status Symbol in Golf
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
As I stood in line inside the sprawling Masters golf shop, the man in front of me pulled out a folded-up index card with names of his grandchildren and their sizes to refer to while shopping. All around me, customers were piling their tote bags high with products emblazoned with the Masters logo—t-shirts, sweatshirts, golf polos, towels, mugs, and so, so many hats.
If you ask anyone who works at Augusta National Golf Club how much merchandise they sell during the Masters, they’ll smile and politely decline to answer. “Just the right amount,” one told me. It’s estimated that Augusta will sell over $70 million in merchandise during the Masters—that’s $10 million a day, or $1 million an hour. The average purchase a shopper makes is roughly around $1,000. (That’s a lot of $34 hats!)
Masters merch can only be purchased on the grounds of the club, and isn’t available online. “The Masters is probably sacrificing money in the short-term from restricting merchandising to in-person only, but in the long-run the exclusivity ensures that the annual spend during the tournament week remains and even grows from the current levels,” Alessandro Oehy, who writes about the business of sports, explained.
Buying gear and collectibles with the Masters logo is “one of those cool little privileges you get if you are lucky enough to win that lottery to get a ticket to go down there,” Noah Kortkamp, a golf content creator and the host of the Golfers Anonymous podcast, tells T&C. Wearing the merch outside Augusta becomes a status symbol—the ultimate if you know, you know golf gear.
There are layers to the merch, too; Berckman’s Place, a private club within Augusta national, has its own separate products and branding, complete with a distinct Berckman’s logo, a variation of the classic Master's emblem that doesn’t have an outline of the U.S., and is often encircled. This year, Masters sponsor Mercedes-Benz made their own merch for the first time: A limited run of 1,200 black hats that features the Masters logo in black and silver. The hats weren’t for sale, only given out to VIPs, but I heard of one woman who wore hers on the course and was approached by a fellow patron to buy it off her in cash.
The majority of merchandise visitors purchase comes from one of two gift shops on the course. Kasey Funderburg, a sports reporter, has attended the tournament numerous times over the years, has a game plan when she goes into the store. “I’m probably the worst person to be around in there,” she jokes. “I know exactly where everything is at this point. I just beeline it to wherever I’m trying to go. People who have never been there before, they’re looking around. I’m like ‘Get out of my way! I’m trying to get a hat!’”
Social media has increased the desirability of these products, with “Masters merch hauls” gaining popularity on TikTok. California native and golf fan Kara Bradley went viral two years ago with an over-the-top haul, showing off everything her family of ten had purchased during the week. She’s not only a creator of this type of content, she’s also a consumer of it. These videos are “mesmerizing,” Bradley says. “I definitely look for them. I watch them. The algorithm serves them. To me, it’s cool, and it’s also just cool to see everyone’s individual style of who grabs what.”
New this year is a special “by invitation only” tier of access, which I was lucky enough to experience as a guest of Mercedes-Benz at the tournament. Instead of waiting in the (very long) line to even get into the shop, I presented my “fast pass” card, and was taken straight in. (Unfortunately, even with the most exclusive of passes, I was still beholden to various queues inside.)
They took me in through the design studio—they work about 18 months ahead, so the merch for next year has already been finalized—and the back “room,” which is really a mini warehouse with stacks and stacks of extra stock. It’s the same entrance members of Augusta National Golf Club use, along with players, caddies, and their families. “I had to learn the hard way,” Alayna Finau, Tony Finau’s wife, jokes. A few years ago, she was waiting in the line when another golfer’s wife spotted her, asking her what she was doing. “Oh, I’m just waiting to go inside,” Alayna recalls telling her. Her friend pulled her out of line, saying, “No, no, no! Go to one of the workers and they’re going to take you inside. They’re going to let you shop.” Inside, the workers even helped her to snag a gnome, though they had seemingly sold out.
The Masters gnomes, which stand at 1 foot tall, were first introduced in 2016. They have become a collector’s item in recent years, reselling for thousands on the secondary market, and guests are limited to just one per person. “People just kept telling me, ‘Alayna, you need to go get the gnome,’” Finau says. “And I’m like, ‘What gnome are they talking about?’ It’s so crazy, now I find myself right when I get there, the first thing I’m trying to hunt for is the gnome!” The design of the gnome changes each year, and they sell out fast each morning. “I think that’s why everybody loves the merch, because it’s so hard to get and it changes. They go for the gnome because the outfit is never the same,” Finau explains.
While the gnomes are highly sought after, most patrons of the shop are looking to buy a variety of items. “The Masters tees and sweatshirts are the softest and comfiest items I own so I will be snagging some more of those,” Juju Chan, who is dating Sahith Theegala, tells T&C ahead of the 2025 Masters. “I also decided our first year to collect a hat from every year we go! Everyone wants Masters merch because it is so hard to get. Everyone who goes spends thousands of dollars on merch because they don’t know if they’ll ever get the chance to go back.”
To be clear, what distinguishes Masters products from other golf wear is simply the logo. There were plenty of Peter Millar performance polos for sale, distinct only for their embroidered Masters emblem on the chest. “You can’t just go on nike.com and buy a Masters shirt, you can’t even go on the Masters’ website and buy it. And they crack down on people who try to sell it or who try to use their logo on fake merch,” Funderburg says. “I don’t think that anything there is just so special necessarily, but it’s because it’s the Masters. It’s definitely not made of gold or anything like that!”
It may not be made of gold, but it is unlike any other merch in golf, or in sports more broadly. Before I went (sans phone, of course), I wrote down all my family members’ sizes and requests. (My brother wanted “whatever looks cool,” while my Dad requested a quarter zip, golf polos, and a hat.) Inside the shop that felt more like a department store, I pulled out my notebook, and made sure I was fulfilling all the requests in the right sizes and colorways. As I checked out, the cashier smiled at my overflowing bag and asked, “First timer?”
You Might Also Like
