This enjoyable Masters custom simply obtained new wrinkle for 2026

Picking a favourite Masters custom can really feel a bit of bit like having to select a favourite little one.

Pimento cheese sammies? Par-3 Contest? Ball-skipping at 16? Grand rituals all! For the fourth property, although, there’s a transparent winner within the Masters Traditions Bracket Challenge: the media lottery throughout Masters week that affords just a few fortunate ink-stained wretches, photogs and creators of all ilk the prospect to play Augusta National on the Monday after the Masters. Breakfast within the clubhouse. Real property within the Champions Locker Room. Range session. Sunday pins. A triple at 12. Stories for a lifetime.

So, relaxation assured when an electronic mail from the Augusta National Communications workplace hit inboxes at roughly 1:15 p.m. ET Thursday — with “Press Lottery” within the topic line — the communiqué loved a excessive open fee.

Then got here the curve ball.

“This April,” the observe started, “in addition to our traditional media lottery to play Augusta National Golf Club on the Monday after the Masters, we are pleased to offer another lottery for an opportunity to play Augusta Municipal Golf Course.”

A lottery to play a muni would possibly sound oxymoronic — however AMGC isn’t any run-of-the-mill muni. If you’re a daily on this web site, you’ll know that Augusta National has pumped thousands and thousands into the beloved metropolis property, identified affectionately because the Patch. Designers Tom Fazio and Beau Welling oversaw a rerouting and sprucing-up of the course, and Tiger Woods contributed a nine-hole par-3 course. Among the opposite additions are a Trackman-equipped vary, a placing course (coming quickly!) and even a intelligent new emblem that depicts a head of cabbage on a tee. “We are leaning into the nickname the Patch,” stated Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley.  

There’s additionally a brand new (and newly positioned) clubhouse.

According to the Patch’s slick new website: “The most significant decision came early in the project when the clubhouse was shifted from its old location at the south end of Daniel Field’s 5/23 runway to the highest point of the property. . . . From this new vantage point, the first tee of the golf course and clubhouse offer tremendous views of the property’s 150-foot elevation change, providing stunning views of the course.”

Sounds kinda like one other course on the town, proper?

That’s to not counsel anybody will mistake the new-look Patch for Augusta National, however, gosh, do they share some similarities, from large taking part in corridors to pine-needle beds lining the holes to blindingly white bunker sand. Browse the course’s homepage and also you’ll discover one other nod to ANGC: a Masters emblem underneath “Project Partners.”

The course is ready open to the general public on April 15 however two days earlier than that the press will descend for a sneak preview.

Fret not, fellow scribblers! According to the Thursday dispatch, “entering/winning the Patch lottery does not make you ineligible to enter/win the Augusta National lottery.”

Bon probability!