Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Masters has increased ticket prices for the 2026 tournament, marking a steady upward trend over recent years, but cost is not the primary barrier to entry.
- Augusta National has intensified its efforts against unauthorized resellers, leading major platforms to withdraw from offering tickets and drastically reducing available inventory.
- Gaining access now hinges almost entirely on winning the highly competitive general ticket lottery, with millions applying for only 20,000 available spots each day.
The Masters is a tradition unlike any other. Augusta has produced its own on-site traditions, like the iconic badge hat. Patrons tack years worth of badges and paper tickets to a hat, representing their history as a fan. It might take longer for people to coat their hat in tickets as it's become much harder to get a ticket at all. And it's not because of prices.
Augusta National did raise prices again this year but that certainly hasn't dissuaded fans from trying to get their hands on some. Instead, the crackdown on resellers and touts has made tickets much more difficult to come by. One major reseller platform opted out of offering tickets at all this year and there were fewer tickets than ever on the ones that did. The Masters has shown they mean business by questioning patrons about where they got their tickets, even denying entry to those with resold tickets.
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Official Masters ticket prices for 2026
Event | Price |
|---|---|
Monday (Practice Round) | $125 |
Tuesday (Practice Round) | $150 |
Wednesday (Practice Round/Par 3) | $150 |
Thursday (Tournament Round) | $160 |
Friday (Tournament Round) | $160 |
Saturday (Tournament Round) | $160 |
Sunday (Tournament Round) | $160 |
Tickets for the tournament rounds rose from $140 to $160 in 2026. That's a $20 increase, which doesn't seem all that much until you consider prices in 2022 were $115. They jumped to $140 for three years before another increase hit.
The increase was even more substantial for the practice rounds, which were $100 last year. Monday went up by $25. Tuesday and Wednesday rose to $150.
In the grand scheme of things, those prices aren't unreasonable. The average ticket price for an Atlanta Falcons game is $174. Paying for tickets isn't the primary issue, even as prices rise. It's getting a chance to pay for tickets at all that's the challenge.
Masters ticket lottery explained
There is a patron list with permanent badges, but for the vast majority of people, getting a ticket for the Masters involves winning the general ticket lottery. There are approximately 40,000 patrons at Augusta each day of the Masters. At most, 20,000 of those gained access through the lottery. Millions of people apply for the lottery, so you can imagine how tough it is to win a spot.
What are the odds of winning the ticket lottery?
We don't know the exact number of tickets the Masters awards in the lottery and we can only guess at how many people apply exactly. So odds aren't exactly easy to calculate. Suffice it to say, someone who enters the lottery is looking at less than a one percent chance to get tickets.
How to get a Masters ticket without winning the lottery
If you don't win the lottery, there are other ways to get tickets. You can shell out for a hospitality package to get a legitimate ticket. Then, of course, there are the street brokers who sell tickets outside the venue but jack up prices exponentially.
In the past, it might have been expensive (extremely so) but fairly straight-forward to just hop over to SeatGeek or StubHub to get a ticket. That's not as viable as it used to be.
Reseller crackdown: Why it's harder than ever to get Masters tickets
StubHub has one ticket available for Sunday's round. It's more than $11,000. Just to put the rarity and expense into perspective.
Augusta had turned a blind eye to reselling for a long time, but they're paying attention now. Frustrated by professional resellers charging thousands of dollars for passes, they're putting the squeeze specifically on the practice of "renting" series badges.
There are an estimated 20,000 or so people on the patron list. They get permanent access to tickets that'll run them just $525 for the week. They aren't at the mercy of the lottery, making those badges perfect for reselling and turning an absurd profit. August is now flagging those badges they suspect were resold and interrogating patrons.
The White Building: On-site verifications are a reseller's nightmare
There is a small white building near the North Gate where Augusta officials take patrons with flagged passes, as detailed by Front Office Sports. There they question the pass holder, asking for the name and address of the original ticket holder as well as their relationship to them. If the patron can't answer those questions satisfactorily, their pass is confiscated and they are turned away.
The consequence of a series badge being caught is significant to the original pass holder. Their right to buy tickets in the future is revoked.
SeatGeek declined to offer tickets to the Masters
The risk to resellers is so high, SeatGeek has stopped offering tickets to the Masters entirely. If a fan gets caught with a resold ticket, SeatGeek has to refund them. Since tickets sell for tens of thousands of dollars, that's a massive refund to consider.
Moreover, the ticket flippers have less reason to post their tickets on a resell platform, for fear of being caught, having their badge confiscated and their access to tickets revoked.
StubHub and other platforms are still offering tickets, but inventory is extremely low. What used to be a robust reselling market has evaporated overnight.
How to apply for tickets to the 2027 Masters
It's never too early to start crossing your fingers and hoping you can get tickets to next year's Masters. Applications for the ticket lottery for 2027 open on June 1 and remain open until June 20. Patrons will find out if they won in July.