The Re-Making of the Masters?

What has The Masters mastered—what might it be losing along the way?

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and cohost Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") take a loving but honest look at Augusta National. No guest this week—just Matt and Kevin in full golf-sicko form, unpacking why The Masters still feels like the best executed tournament in golf: the beauty, intimacy, reverence, memorable recovery shots, and the no-phone policy that makes the patron experience feel almost sacred in a distracted world.

But they also ask the harder question most golf coverage avoids. As merch culture grows, premium access expands, and the tournament’s narrative becomes more curated, is some of Augusta’s old magic being chipped away? From Magnolia Lane and Rory’s recovery shots to pimento cheese, boredom, agronomy, and a sneaky Athens, Georgia lodging tip, this is a soulful, sharp, and affectionate conversation about spectacle, stewardship, and what makes Masters week unforgettable.

The conversation dives into:

🌺 Why Augusta still feels beautiful, intimate, and deeply reverent

⛳ Why recovery, contour, trees, and strategy create golf’s most memorable shots

📵 How the no-phone policy changes attention, memory, and the patron experience

🧠 Why Augusta gets inside players’ heads and produces a different kind of pressure

🛍️ Whether merch culture and consumerism are starting to crowd out the old magic

🎟️ How hospitality tiers, access, and control may be changing Masters week

🌱 Why Augusta sets a seductive but unrealistic agronomy standard for everyday golf

🏡 A sneaky Masters-week lodging idea for golfers: Athens, Georgia

🏌️ A quick detour on Titleist SM11 wedges, fittings, and why turf interaction matters

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Chapters

00:00 Jim Nantz, Augusta trips, and Masters week logistics
07:56 What has The Masters really mastered?
08:19 Titleist wedge fitting and why turf interaction matters
11:36 Beauty, class, intimacy, and reverence at Augusta
17:41 Why Augusta produces unforgettable golf shots
24:12 The course as the crown jewel
28:40 No phones and the patron experience
32:56 Boredom, presence, and conversation on the grounds
35:15 What Augusta may no longer master
39:31 Merch lines, consumerism, and the changing crowd
45:56 "Skip it," contrivance, and the loss of spontaneity
51:47 Magnolia Lane, hospitality tiers, and access
57:26 Power brokers, secrecy, and corporate influence
62:56 The agronomy standard Augusta sets for the rest of golf
65:06 Augusta's impact on the local economy
66:21 Rahm vs. Xander

What is The Bag Drop?
The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community, and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insight for passionate golfers at every level.

What is NewClub?
Founded in 2017, NewClub blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf, bringing to life the first premier golf society in the U.S. with local chapters in Chicago, Atlanta, and Northeast Ohio and others coming soon.

Creators and Guests

Host

Matt Considine

Founder of NewClub and our resident feel player. Matt’s junior golf career led him to the University of Akron where he met our co-host. During his junior year, Matt Studied abroad in Ireland and discovered golf societies. Subsequent trips to Scotland fed his passion for the history, ideals, and culture of accessible, affordable, and sustainable golf, a concept he would later bring to the U.S. with NewClub. Known for his interviewing style, quick wit, and compelling storytelling, Matt brings thoughtful, reflective conversations to The Bag Drop. His professional journey before NewClub included multiple leadership positions in growth-stage startups, where he managed teams responsible for more than $250 million in revenue. Matt actively gives back to the game as a Board Member of the First Tee of Akron and past chair of the Evans Scholar Foundation. Proudly based in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, Matt finds inspiration in family life with his wife, their three children, and their golf dog, Gypsy.

Host

The Professor

NewClub's Chief Ambassador and every golf sicko's favorite educator. Kevin is a thoughtful and deeply curious host. His studied, constructivist approach adds intellectual enrichment and balance to the show. As a professor of Math Education at the University of Georgia, Kevin's background in applied mathematics and cognitive psychology uniquely informs his insights on golf strategy and performance. Originally from Ohio, Kevin was a Division I collegiate golfer at the University of Akron, where his passion for understanding mathematical thinking began. After earning his doctorate from Arizona State University, he combined his analytical expertise with his love for golf by co-founding Golf Blueprint, an organization aimed at helping golfers optimize their games through data-driven strategies. Kevin enjoys balancing deep philosophical discussions with simple pleasures, such as indulging his sweet tooth, cheering on college football, and spending relaxed evenings with his friends, his wife, and their beloved dog, Nole.

What is The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf?

Weekly stories from the communities and characters shaping the game. The Bag Drop blends thoughtful, honest perspectives of Matt Considine (Founder of NewClub) and Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") with expert insights for passionate golfers at every level. Produced by NewClub and supported by our members, each episode welcomes guests from clubs, courses, and the lesser-known corners of the golf world for thoughtful discussions on all things golf and life.

Founded in 2017, NewClub is the first of its kind golf society in the United States; blending the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability more typical of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions, and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, along with signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is on a mission to revolutionize golf membership, making the game more meaningful for everyone who loves it.

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Matt Considine (00:03.136)
Welcome to the Bag Drop Untold Stories in Golf. I'm your host, Matt Constine, here with our co-host, the Professor. Professor, it's Lonchia. Good morning,

The Professor (00:13.212)
I really expected you to do your best Jim Nance impression there given that you have a voicemail from the man himself.

Matt Considine (00:19.016)
maybe we, maybe we play that on this episode. We'll see where this one goes. I could bust out. I'd have to search for it. I

The Professor (00:25.436)
I feel like you have that readily handy. You know exactly where it's at. then within a minute or two, you could, you could definitely pull it up.

Matt Considine (00:32.13)
Well, I have like multiple areas where it's saved because I think I have it hard. Every device, everything when, what the professors alluded to here is, I once worked for a guy who was at a cocktail party during March madness, like the week before the masters with Jim Nance. he knew I was just a golf sicko, love this week, love the masters. And he, went over them and asked.

The Professor (00:37.968)
You can never be too redundant with it.

Matt Considine (01:01.966)
I think he wrote something down on his phone. Like it was the year after bubble one. And so he wrote down whatever Jim would have said when bubble made his putt and he injected my name. So I have Jim Nance reading my name. I do have it. actually I'm technologically impaired. So I don't know if I can pull it up right here. Yeah, we'll see. We won't torture them with that.

The Professor (01:22.308)
Or figure out how to play it for the audience. What's cool is, what's cool is it's pre-AI, right? If you could receive that in today's world, you'd be like, that's not real. That wasn't actually Jim Nance, but this is, yeah.

Matt Considine (01:34.274)
man, that he, and he actually there's imperfections in, in that would make it so right. It's like, you know, you can hear the banter in the background and his mispronunciation of constant Dean. how are you doing this morning? How's, you're, you're, we're jumping on here. Let me give the listener some insight. I mean, just casually, I'm texting the professor as I always do.

The Professor (01:41.886)
That's right.

The Professor (01:48.839)
You

Matt Considine (02:03.638)
during the week about, know, what are we gonna talk about tomorrow? He's like, well, I'm just getting home from the tournament. What tournament? It's Augusta National Golf Club. I'm like, this guy just casually goes, like Kevin, the rest of us have this bucket list lottery that if we win, we're just like, my gosh, I gotta change my whole year around just to make this pilgrimage to Augusta. You're just like, yeah, I'll head over to the tournament.

The Professor (02:27.518)
So the best thing I ever did was move to Georgia in terms of Augusta, because that way when friends and family win lottery tickets, well, I got a bet for you. Won't cost you penny, just will cost you a ticket.

Matt Considine (02:37.229)
Yeah.

You know, here's what I want to know. Cause as we were getting ready to talk a little bit about Augusta and the masters day, the lodging situation is still a nightmare around Augusta. Right? So here's what I want to know from like market research. What timeframe are you getting all of the golf friends you've made and everybody that might win the lottery, are they like texting you in March? Like, Hey Kevin, what's up? Or, or is it.

Because I've heard if you wait till like February 1st, it's too late. You are not getting a hotel room. You're not getting a house. Is that true?

The Professor (03:18.91)
I think so over in terms of anything, Augusta, Aiken based, because they're just also limited in size, Definitely hotels have popped up. They're there just for the week and it's a regular thing for families to Airbnb their entire house. make the numbers I've heard anywhere from three to nine months of mortgage, you know, they can make depending on where their house is, when the Airbnb it. So it's a difficult get to lodge over there. It's also difficult to lodge nicely over there as we experienced our first time ever going over where

We ended up in a construction apartment. So one of those apartments set up for construction workers to use and they were between projects. So it was empty. While the previous construction people had not emptied the apartment, it displayed their bodies empty in it. And we walked into that disaster. That was something.

Matt Considine (04:05.004)
That smell is still stuck in my left nostril. The science experiment growing in that refrigerator, I will never forget. That was like a thing of just grotesque, but also impressive. You're like, I didn't know that. could grow something like that.

The Professor (04:22.482)
I just remember putting a blanket down in the corner of the room and just sleeping on the floor. like, it was this guy. But no, I think, okay, so I get, I love this week because I get to host people a lot. So people are coming through Athens, you know, come play the clubs. So this weekend, I think I hosted, I don't know, about three or four groups. Just, you know, getting them out at Athens Country Club, great place to play. So you get those last minute ones that are coming out, hey, I'm flying in next week. You know, any chance I could come out and play, you know, striking out because tee times are off.

Matt Considine (04:26.606)
You

The Professor (04:50.6)
hard to get Atlanta all the way over to Columbia and up through like Greenville. But I think the people that win the lottery know that happens what June and July people win the lottery really quick to reach out if they're looking for a place to lodge because I will say for those out there that get tickets you should check out Athens as a potential lodging spot. You'll very affordable.

We've got several good golf courses around that, you know, do have some masters tee times, but nothing like the rates that you'll get elsewhere. And you're going to get a far superior town to most of the other options that you choose. You'll get great food, good food options, good bar options, plenty of things for people to do that aren't necessarily playing golf. So low key secret. think we, Athens actually whiffs a little bit on that advertising themselves a little bit more as a city to come stay out for the masters. Door to door, we left at 5 a.m.

You know, with a pit stop, we were pulling in at 630, 35 into the parking lot at Augusta National. I do push the speed a little bit, but nothing crazy. So you're not too far away. So definitely, I think I've well kept secret for those looking to attend the Masters and don't want to deal with the hassle of booking way out in advance or paying a lot of money for sort of a just standard rate hotel, nowhere near food and dining where you could choose a hotel in Athens and be walkable to everything you need.

Matt Considine (05:50.648)
Mm.

The Professor (06:13.917)
while you're here.

Matt Considine (06:15.778)
Yeah, that's a, that is a sneaky, because I've done it with you and it, I mean, you're so amped up, an hour and a half drive or so, right? Maybe two.

The Professor (06:26.206)
Yeah, hour 45 to two if you're going just speed limit the whole way. But if you go straight down to I-20 and get on the Talladega of the south that I-20 is, can, know, everybody's buzzing 90, 95 over there because every car is going to the Masters.

Matt Considine (06:30.605)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (06:40.652)
Yeah, yeah. Well, before we get more into your experiences yesterday, because it did stem our topic for discussion today, which is like, you know, what is the Masters mastered? think we all know it's one of the most special sporting events in golf, but what have they not? Because I think you had some comments that made me think and I think our audience will appreciate a different perspective on some of these things.

Some housekeeping though, wanna say thanks to our partners at Titleist, the SM 11 wedges professor. I know you're vibing, I know you're acquainted through the first quarter of the year, the weather's turning, are you guys now BFFs? Who's your favorite child of the wedge lineup?

The Professor (07:19.642)
up loving them.

The Professor (07:29.702)
I got my 58 degree tee grind, where I was struggling was about 60 to 80 yards. So they hooked me up. We messed with some different shaft weights, found something that meshed with my irons a little bit better in terms of the weighting of the club. now, yeah, we're going to make all those birdies that I didn't help us out with wedges. And when we were playing the four ball, they'll be back in play this next year.

Matt Considine (07:54.146)
Yeah, I, getting your wedges fit is, such a monumental move for every level of player. think there's a founding member of new club here in Northeast Ohio. Shout out to Mark Weiss and the Titleist team here. they, they, they have a tremendous crew of fitters, different partners. And we had kind of a, we're not yet, we're launching the Northeast Ohio chapter for new clubs. So if you're a member in the area, we will have fittings.

you next year with our partners at Titleist. But for this year, we were just looking to help a particular founding member out who remain nameless. However, this wedge set up Kevin, was a crime scene. Like he is just mixed and matched and just like four knives to eat dinner with. And so I pinpointed it. He was looking for assistance. We got him a fitting.

with Justin Long out at Windmill and getting wedges. I think you can do a pretty good job now with Trackman and even on the chips, hitting seven yard carries and stuff, you can get a sense of what a bounce is gonna do. So I'm not totally anti indoor fitting, but if you play majority of your time on bent grass, Bermuda grass, go get the wedges on that stuff. And it's so eye opening. I think about my own fitting experience with Lucas Breaux out at

The Professor (09:15.454)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (09:21.122)
TPI man, wow, it's like a wedge lesson. I mean, it's like somebody saying finally, not commenting on your swing. Maybe there's a couple elements of that, your descent angle into the ball and how that affects things, spin rates, of course, but just how do you use a tool? It's like someone teaching you how to use a protractor or someone teaching you how to use a tool, a computer. It really truly is once you understand how these things are designed and how.

The Professor (09:40.53)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (09:50.158)
the clubs are meant to be utilized to help you with your golf game. It really becomes fun. It really does. And then you start to grow that relationship that you have with your family of wedges. So go check it out for yourself. Head over to tidalist.com, find a fitting specialist near you and get fit for your SM11 wedges here in 2026.

Let's head down to Augusta, driving down Magnolia Lane. you ever, on all your visits, have you ever driven down Magnolia Lane? No one gets to, right? Is that?

The Professor (10:23.55)
Never, never. No one gets to, which will be a point of the conversation a little bit later too. yeah, nobody, like never, not even a sniff of it thus far. You know, someday I'm hopeful too, there'd be just a, you know, in terms of iconic experiences in golf. I think that's up there, you know, with pulling in the town of St. Andrews and seeing the course, pulling into the Sweetins Co. parking lot and having it just open up to you.

I'm sure, having been to Pebble, I'm sure pulling in the Pebble, it's the same sort of thing and seeing the cliffs. You know, there's some other famous entrances in golf, but I definitely say the Magnolia Lane stands up there with the, in terms of the best entrances in golf and anyway, that's done and I think that's the same thing.

Matt Considine (11:07.586)
Yeah. Where do you want to start this? would just be, what's your favorite thing about the masters?

The Professor (11:12.35)
I mean, that's yeah, that's starting on the positive side because the masters is amazing. Like to you, if you had to just give some adjectives towards the masters and you've been there several times, you know, but either being there as a patron or just watching the masters, like what are, I don't know, out three or four or five adjectives, evoke feelings, affect the responses that you get when you think of the masters, what's What's that pull up in your loins?

Matt Considine (11:39.944)
I think about beauty comes up, just the scenery, the ornamental azaleas and dogwoods and all the flowers. Obviously, the horticulture is the word. I don't know. That's one thing. Beauty. Class. There's just something regal about the place, similar to like a Wimbledon or...

The Professor (11:44.189)
Yeah.

The Professor (11:58.067)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (12:10.476)
There's something there, politeness. There's also just like a demeanor and, everybody is, is happy. I'll golf Disney world, but also, and I think this stems from, you know, the staff and the way you're greeted. I'll give a great example. I, I don't know. I've been there a handful of times now and, always early every chance I got, I'd get that right at the gate.

The Professor (12:13.053)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (12:37.948)
up.

Matt Considine (12:39.436)
you know, early as can be. And right off the hop, the way that the security and the staff are speaking to you is such it almost like lowers the your adrenaline pumped, but they almost kind of bring everybody to our intentionally probably try to bring everyone down. And then they clearly communicate to you, you know, there's not going to be any running to to where there's no hurry. Why don't you enjoy yourself today at Augusta National Golf Club and being a guest.

The Professor (12:47.87)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (13:08.776)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (13:09.018)
You feel like a real guest. know patron's the word, but I do think there's a welcoming politeness. Those are all the words that come to mind for me.

The Professor (13:20.284)
Yeah, I think you had on some of that I think of too. I would add, you know, of all the years watching it and attending it, like things that I associate with their intimacy that somehow they make it feel like an intimate event regardless if you're watching it through the TV or if you're actually there on the grounds any of the days there's that level to it. History, history, right? They're great at showcasing history. And so I always think of

history and reverence for the game, know, in the tournament, right? This is a tournament, an invitational, and that just permeates everything they do with the Masters. And then a broader reverence just for the game of golf, always associated with Augusta National. You know, that tournament is to feature the game of golf competition, akin to a lot of the Scottish clubs, right? And why, you know, they were founded and what their major purpose was at the beginning of socializing around the game of golf. And they're in that sense,

golf being a competition to be played amongst your peers and colleagues in a competitive spirit. But with socialization that would occur before and after it. I think the Masters Tournament by far has, over the years, a lot of my experiences, embraced that more than any other tournament I've ever been a part of, I would say at the amateur level or pro level. They've done a great job with that. So think those are some good adjectives to set the tone for the conversation. We can probably return to these.

Matt Considine (14:41.699)
Yeah.

The Professor (14:47.248)
As we think about, what do they do well? You know, what have they mastered to take the tagline that you introduced there? And then think about, okay, what don't they do so well? Or have they maybe lost track of along the way as, we've evolved over the years? We can maybe return to some of those. But let's start on the positives. And I said, we could just kind of go back and forth and throw out what we love the most about it in terms of when we've been there or watching it. And I'm going to start where probably predictable areas, just the golf course.

just and I get we can nitpick the golf course to pieces and should it go back to some of the 30s and 40s features? Absolutely. But let's put all that aside and say to this day, even with the golf course they have, know, that's sevens a little trash and 17 is a little bit bland 18 could be maybe improved. But jokes aside, like the golf course is amazing. What what it presents as a tournament. I was thinking I was really thinking yesterday when I was on the ground like why is this golf course so well? Why does it produce such

good golf. And I'm gonna ask you a question like name like, real quick, five very memorable shots of Augusta National for you just like your top five that come to mind. What might they be?

Matt Considine (15:54.285)
Hmm

Matt Considine (15:59.47)
You know, it's funny, because I was almost about to cut you off on seven. There's, I think in our circles of golf nerdery, people, the trend has obviously been tree removal and Augusta that has not. It has been adding, bringing in trees. Um, famously a couple of years ago, a lot getting blown down that were not, didn't have very deep root systems because they were planted.

not too much, pretty close to the date. But I think about these memorable shots and as no one we're talk about this, I did read KVV's article on the Forward for the Fried Egg about the most memorable shots. So you get in his top 15. Kevin, the amount of shots that are moving around trees that are the most memorable shots are, you know, really,

The Professor (16:50.119)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (16:58.094)
sit in my memory bank and honestly for my own golf that's true too when I'm playing a course where I had to move it because there's a vertical hazard in my way or I had to get over I had to hit a window those are tremendously memorable shots and so Greg Norman on number 17 I think it was 96 but he split the two trees low and ran it up to 12 feet

and stayed in the hunt of whatever year that, not 96, that was his collapse. This was probably 80 something, but that's one. Rory, everyone talks about Rory at 15 last year, roping it around. VJ had one very similar to that in 2000. Jack, well, no tree in play, but Rory and VJ both had to rope it around. Very memorable shot, obviously, that we'll remember. But here's one that if you didn't watch the round again, rewatch,

The Professor (17:23.335)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (17:52.716)
Number seven last year for Rory, hitting it through that window and Harry trying to talk him out. That was a remarkable shot and, and, you know, brought Rory to his leaves, knees and laughter because he pulled it off. I, I, I think Augusta makes a very strong argument for vertical hazards and more trees and not, you know, these aren't wall to wall trees. There's room to miss. most people would still regard it as a fairly wide golf course, but

The Professor (17:54.098)
Yeah, amazing.

Matt Considine (18:20.15)
It's getting tighter and tighter and a lot of that has to do with the trees. And it creates a lot of creativity in a game that, let's face it, there's more of a one shape now and we don't get to see those guys do that regularly. But anyways, those are some of the tree shots that are coming to mind.

The Professor (18:39.656)
So let me, I'll circle back on that. Let me ask you the same question. TPC Sawgrass Player's Championship.

Matt Considine (18:45.725)
wow. Interesting.

The Professor (18:46.942)
Five very memorable shots.

Matt Considine (18:51.672)
Gosh, I just have Cam Young's drive of this past year because of recency bias. I have Ricky Fowler.

The Professor (18:56.902)
Yeah, yeah, can't be removed this year's like ones from memory, you know, like.

Matt Considine (19:01.472)
Yeah, Weirdly, the 18th tee shot does come from Justin Thomas hitting that rope three wood, Tiger hitting his stinger iron, know, tournaments on the line, they got to hit that tee ball, obviously 17, but honestly, all the shots at 17, like I'm even thinking about Ricky and I know he stuck it a couple times, but there's like, no.

The Professor (19:12.222)
Beautiful camera presentation too. Yep.

The Professor (19:22.438)
Yeah, but do you can you can you visualize a shot like can you replay it in your memory?

Matt Considine (19:28.022)
Yeah, there's not much there. And then, you know, I have a couple that come to mind on 16 that were bad, like balls bouncing through in the clutch.

The Professor (19:36.476)
Or Freddie's good luck, like the good bounce Freddie got off the bank, you know, up there to make eagle on 16. I think he made that for eagle. At least made birdie.

Matt Considine (19:41.442)
Yeah.

But then you get to the rest of the golf course. And I actually think, I know a lot of our fellow podcasters, maybe more professional podcasters, they almost take for granted that we know TPC Sawgrass inside and out, because they go there every year. Honestly, dude, I watch it every year. And those holes do not sit in my memory even remotely close to Augusta. So I don't have much else memorable, to your, I think, I guess that's the point you're making here. I don't have a whole lot.

The Professor (20:09.213)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (20:13.902)
that come to mind. And that course has changed, feels like significantly. And so I don't know if those holes even look the same as they did 10 years ago.

The Professor (20:23.55)
Yeah, so the reason I bring it to TPC Sawgrass is not the bag on TPC Sawgrass. I think it's a fantastic tournament golf course. I think it tests the game like in terms of the pro game, you know, where it was at when it was built and to this day, it might be the most exacting test that is out there. So I think it's a fun, phenomenal course. It's going to be a fifth major with the field strength and the narrative, you know, especially with the new CEO of the PGA Tour. Like that's coming, we better accept it or we're going to have to because it's going to keep getting hammered down our throats. And I think it's

you know, at end of the day, it's probably deserving when you look at everything the players feeling swords it the field strength, the prize, like, sure, fine, whatever. But so to say, I'm not bagging on to be sawgrass. But the difference there is yeah, like, I bring it up because some people might claim like, well, Gus and national, we know because they go there every year. And it's a big tournament. TPC sawgrass, we've gone there every year for 50 years or whatever it's been. And

Matt Considine (21:04.471)
You

The Professor (21:20.784)
we do not get memorable golf shots. Why is that? And this is because Augusta National, the point you made is recovery with good architecture makes for fantastic golf shots in a competitive environment. All right. The fact that, yes, it's gotten a little over-treated, but they've pulled that back. Think of 11, like 11, they wiped out almost all the trees down the right. And what they've always, not always done, for most part done very well, having trees, but having recovery be enabled from the trees.

Left of 14 being an exception other than Tigers awesome, you know shot the one year but by and large across a lot of the course if you're in the trees you can hit wonderful recoveries the slopes and the grounds allow for those And that's on top of plenty of heroic shot opportunities Sometimes from those recovery shots like Rory's in the 15 and our times you're down the middle of 15 You still have to hit a heroic golf shot there, right? So it's a strategic choice in the context of a heroic shot

Matt Considine (21:49.091)
Yeah.

The Professor (22:16.264)
So lots of variability, lots of margins, lots of opportunities for recovery. And that's all thanks to the course and our presentation of the course. And that leads us with we could go through and Bubba's, know, miraculous shot. Think of Tiger's chip in. Think of different putts people have made. Jackson 17, putts on 18. We go through the list. The only time we're going to name a drive is

Matt Considine (22:23.502)
Hmm.

The Professor (22:43.774)
possibly bubbles on 13 when he got lucky and he just crushed it but hit it 20 yards 30 yards left and he went right through the trees and he had wedge in or nine iron in right if you go through the rest of it probably not gonna name a drive you could you know recency bias you might say Rory's two drives on 18 just to stay in the tournament especially the one to play off like I've been easy one old Rory to sort of hit a quack hook or just blow it up right but you know the course itself just makes it so we were gonna see

Matt Considine (22:49.857)
Interesting.

Matt Considine (23:01.186)
Yeah.

The Professor (23:12.274)
great golf shots, fills from the pine straw, right? Like, it's just go through over and over and you're going to be able to name off golf shots like that because the course is set up to allow that with its contouring slopes in opportunity for recovery. So I got to say that's to me is like through and through the crown jewel of Augusta National is the course and what that does for a golf tournament.

Matt Considine (23:26.147)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (23:34.606)
Yeah. Yeah. There's, and all these guys always say it's so rare. You know, we have this and I think they even mean rare to the majors, right? That's a uniqueness they've stewarded as a club. They've, they've made sure to protect, um, the strategic intent of the golf course. And, uh, despite, you know, advancements in technology, buying up 13

The Professor (23:54.333)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (24:02.99)
13th T you look at those 1930s pictures, man, you're walking forward from 12 T to 13. Now those guys are going what 70 yards backwards. So, you know, it's cost a pretty penny, a lot, a lot of buying up of property, Augusta national golf goes had to do to ensure that it, that it has that strategic quality you're talking about, but yeah, it's, um, it's, it's unique in that way for it, for these guys to be a challenge in that way. And, uh, also makes.

I think he said the positive side of recovery, but it also makes meltdowns really interesting. Doesn't it? I mean, I have a theory on that. Actually, maybe we get to it a little bit later, but that there's part of that specificity of why we see so many meltdowns at Augusta and not as many elsewhere. I think the Course does have something to do with it. I think there's another psychological reason.

The Professor (24:36.263)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (24:56.574)
Yeah, and your point about 13, are you going, like, what's something positive to you in terms of having been there attending, watching, like, say, like, they've mastered this, they've done this well.

Matt Considine (24:56.91)
up.

Matt Considine (25:07.522)
Yeah, I think similar to the protection of the strategic golf course that they have from Alistair McKenzie. I think also the design of, I would love to pinpoint the moment they decided we will not have any cell phones. When they made that decision and when they had to uphold it, right? You got the dumb phones, the flip phones, the...

The Professor (25:26.866)
Mm.

Matt Considine (25:37.114)
Zach Morris saved by the bell phone. Like, was that in the eighties? They're just like, all right, we can't have these stupid looking things here. Yeah. Or was it not a conscious decision? it just looking maybe back at whatever time? Is it, you know what? We just are nostalgic for this time where phone booths, we're going to phone booths on our course. And maybe there always has been, and they just kept with that, you know, similar with it, with the price. So

The Professor (25:38.418)
Yeah. It's I was like, no, we will not. Someone carrying around a bag phone can go plug it in at the concession stand.

Matt Considine (26:07.306)
I think that's the masterpiece is, you know, a lot of great organizations, great companies, great sporting events. I guess this falls into institutions. They leave a lot on the table. And I know I don't want to slip too much into the business side of that, because that's maybe something I would say is on the negative front. I've started to see perhaps.

The Professor (26:24.69)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (26:36.392)
On the experience side, customers aren't always right. People are gonna ask to have their cell phones. People are going to ask for certain things and they just don't. You just don't bring your phones in there. And that is such a rare, anybody that goes and like, let's just ask you, you were there yesterday. How did it feel not having your cell phone in your pocket?

The Professor (26:42.27)
Yeah.

The Professor (27:01.296)
I mean, it's amazing. like, I've definitely the first time I went there and going multiple times, it always reminds me of that feeling, which is a major reason I don't attach myself to my cell phone, you know, regularly. And that's thanks to going there and attending and being like, because the number no less than five times that I hear people talking about that, and talking about how great it was not to have their cell phones on there and like talking about, I keep going down the reach from it, but it's not there. And then being like, just how present I am in them, you know,

just seeing, looking around and those sorts of things. that's where just on the broader side, I think they nail in a lot of ways the patron experience. And that's one of the small things they do. And you've brought up so many already, the welcome you get, the attitude of the workers that are there. And I think they use the Be Our Guest training that Disney also uses in terms of training their workers to just put you at ease and make you feel a part of what you're walking into.

going back to the course, right? All that ties into your patron experience. I think the limited field actually plays into that where, one, you're not overwhelmed by the number of players in the field. It also helps guarantee the horses at the top that week, right? By having a limited field, it's like, okay, there's 10 to 12 that are going to probably have a chance of winning this week, which just leads to that sort of pack leaderboard at the end or not necessarily pack, but a good name leaderboard at the end where if you have 150 of the best players in the world,

like Sawgrass has, you can get these leaderboards where the top 11 guys, you've got two or three notables. So like I just think, yeah, all that they do at the patron side, dialing down all the way to the phone example you bring up just makes your experience be intimate, be part of the grounds, part of the tournament and feel part of the invitational itself as a patron.

Matt Considine (28:50.05)
this might resonate for a lot of, we got a big response from our dopamine addiction conversation you and I had. Our brains need to be bored and they're just not anymore. Boredom actually allows your brain to recover. It makes memories more vivid. We are just never bored with our phones, always at our disposal. And I...

The Professor (29:03.368)
Yeah.

The Professor (29:07.57)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (29:15.438)
You know, it's been a little while for me since I've been back to August. think 2017 or 18 was the last time I was there. But I remember then just being a little bored. think I was, last time I was there was practice rounds and it was early in the week. It might've been a Monday and there was just a break. And you know what I did? I just sat there and I listened to birds chirp and I looked at the wind below the pines and maybe had a conversation with a stranger next to me.

If I was, and I'll contrast with another sporting event I've been to and I absolutely loved, but for totally different reasons, the Ryder Cup. If you're a stimulus junkie and you like adrenaline, the Ryder Cup's amazing. But guess what? I had in one year, I was listening to the radio, the other one I'm checking, you know, updates over here. It's hard to watch golf sites at the Ryder Cup, but it's constant adrenaline. You know, the fans, the chants, blah, blah. There's like a patience to Augusta that you have to wait.

The Professor (29:52.326)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (30:04.455)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (30:14.402)
You have to sit in your boredom. Yeah, go get another pimento cheese, but you also can just walk and not watch golf shots. That's so different than the modern day sports experience.

The Professor (30:15.164)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (30:29.676)
yeah, you bring up conversations and thinking about all the conversations having yesterday with a stranger because you had downtime, there's no player on the whole. And, know, they're sitting in someone else's chair and you're just start chatting it up randomly with someone you would have never chatted with if you had the phone on you. That's a fantastic example.

Matt Considine (30:47.286)
Yeah. What about, we're getting long into our window here. Should we jump to what's, what if they not master? What's not so good about, I feel like, and I just want to say this. They are so good. I mean, it is deep art, your relationship with the masters, my relationship with the masters. is so deep. And I was listening to Webb Simpson on the normal sport pod this week doing his master's prep. It dawned on me, know, Webb had this really deep relationship with Augusta.

The Professor (30:52.637)
Yeah.

The Professor (30:56.592)
Yeah, that's

Matt Considine (31:16.934)
You mentioned intimacy. They are above all else, the best marketers in sport. They have told this story. They control this story. CBS can't do anything without who the powers that be at Augusta national, you know, controlling the narrative. And I think about that from the standpoint of Disney, Disney is the cop here. Like why does my daughter. Yes.

The Professor (31:28.062)
that control the story.

The Professor (31:42.179)
who they've consulted with extensively.

Matt Considine (31:46.082)
they are holding an intimate place in all of our minds. So as golfers, I think we, I hate to say it, cause it might be more cynical, but they have controlled our memories and they have controlled our, and then not in a completely negative way. think it is a lot of it's aspirational, a lot of it's really good human qualities of caring about these people on our TV sets and the...

fabric of history, as you put it too. That's all part of the narrative, which I think is good for society. However, I think it blinds a lot of us from asking harder questions. And so I think I just got to that point of what there's not anything is perfect. Not everything is what it seems to be. What are some things we don't like about Augusta?

The Professor (32:32.688)
Yeah, that's, again, a huge reverence for Gus and Ashall. And, you know, maybe I'll never get it back on the grounds after this episode and we go down this segue, like that's possible reality here. And we're going to put aside like this is not going to be a narrative on like the Gus's history and, you know, the checkered aspects of that. Because to go back to a positive, they do set some example. You know, oftentimes that example is in the context of something that's maybe a negative thing that they're addressing.

Matt Considine (32:41.548)
I didn't think about that. yeah

The Professor (33:01.47)
So, Anne was a great example of that, right? Like that's an example of like championing the Windman's game, which they didn't have to do, but it also was responding to some of the criticism they took. And I think that's important that they did that because they do set an example and other people are going to follow. So, all this part of this narrative, I'm putting aside all history aspect and the social narratives, all that, just focusing on the execution of the tournament itself. They've mastered so much of that and I am completely okay with them controlling the narrative.

It's a sporting competition. isn't this isn't, you know, the White House and whatever and politicians running things in Congress and what their control over the country is. This is a sporting competition. Let them control the narrative and build that what they want it to be. Right. This isn't like super serious in our life. So I have no problem with that. With that, not with that, no problem with that. So putting that aside, you know, all these stuff we've touched on, I

having gone a lot of years over the last 16 years. Man, it's really starting to feel like another place that VCs have just infiltrated. That it's just a, what's the dollar amount right now in eyes this right, the analytics, what the numbers say right now that's pumped that. Yeah, that's, okay, that's getting more eyes on it, pump that harder. that's not getting eyes, stuff that.

man, it's getting I just feel like it's getting worse and worse. Kind of across the grounds as a patron, especially when you're there. It's man, it's totally different. And this is where I'll start with. Give a very concrete example.

Matt Considine (34:39.032)
Hmm.

Matt Considine (34:43.694)
Yeah, give me an example. I hear that there's the cultural piece of chasing metrics, which, you know, with their partner IBM, they promote that, right? But give me an example.

The Professor (34:54.458)
Yeah, and then go read Filter World for a good breakdown on what that means and how that devolves a product into being khaki and everything becomes the same. this comes, okay, so I think a good example of this in terms of just becoming more commercial, you know, would make a way to say this. All right, you know, no long, you know, go back to 2018, maybe even.

I remember going to the event, walking, you know, parking at the normal 630, seven o'clock, whatever the first time you park there, flowing right through the entrance, going right through the merch at the time, only the North merch was the main merch, the one by the main entrance, going right through no line, know, checking your stuff, going out, going back to the merch, no line walking in, yada yada. Once the merch, I think I looked at my receipts four or five different times, not a single line any of the time.

All day on Monday. so the previous 2018 was also a practice round. They might have had some rollover. So they might have few more people in terms of the rain rollover from last year. So there might have been a few more people on the grounds, but there's no way this would explain this. We're now talking about 60 to 75 minute merch lines all day. So people queuing at 6.45, 6.30 or before.

You're standing in line for an hour to get in, you know, they're doing by batches and they do it great how they flow you in, but you're still waiting now an hour. Merch lines already backed up when we left the grounds at 430, they're still backed up 60 minute long. They have two major merge lines or stations now South in North. It's just like what every adjective we used, there's not a single argument to say that that setup and phenomenon.

fits with those positive adjectives that we use. There's nothing intimate about that. There's no class to that. There's no reverence there. There's no enjoyment to that. That's just straight consumerism through and through, which Augusta National has never been about. The tournament, the invitational, the execution of it is not about consumerism. They've actually countered that in a lot of ways. But man, on that merch side, it is full leaned into that's the eyes, that's the dollar amount.

Matt Considine (36:54.318)
Hmm. it's amazing. It's like a million.

Yeah.

The Professor (37:14.302)
crank that to a 12 and that's let people just run wild with it. And even at the patron level, it's gone. That's not being a patron. That phenomenon has nothing to do with being a patron of the invitational in a golf tournament.

Matt Considine (37:19.682)
Kevin, I...

Matt Considine (37:25.496)
Yeah.

Matt Considine (37:30.586)
Yeah, the operations of it are incredible. Like as a business nerd, which I am, it is wild. A million dollars an hour in merchandise sales during tournament week, open for 16 hours, you 16 million a day. That's 80 million over the week. And those are numbers probably from what I remember a couple of years ago. But the buddies that I know who have been a part of that operation.

The Professor (37:36.126)
Crazy incredible. Impressive.

The Professor (37:53.35)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (37:59.146)
It's remarkable the efficiency that they operate at and where I was going, a lot of this stuff has become mainstream through social media of today. We just, again, there's more business nerds out there, golf's an affluent thing that people love that. But have we as consumers ruined it? Did we make it, they don't sell online, obviously that's leaving.

hundreds of millions of dollars off the table for Augusta. That's one way that they've maybe said like, okay, we're not gonna fully go this direction. I just, anytime I have friends that are going, they're all asking me like, hey, what do you want? What can I get you? And I almost had a principal. I'm just saying, no. One, I'm not letting you buy the t-shirt from the concert for me. Like I gotta be at the concert. And two, enjoy yourself, man. Like don't go shopping for me.

while you're there, you know what I'm saying? Like there's the cultural pieces of this because that information is out there. We're now almost all obsessed with the merch when it's like, go, the thing is that go enjoy the course, go enjoy the day.

The Professor (38:58.654)
Yeah

The Professor (39:06.696)
thing.

The Professor (39:12.146)
And I think you hit a spot on like, we are the problem here. The people, the consumers, the patrons, let's be clear, we're the problem. The number of people with these long lists that they're holding and getting for people and all that, we are the problem. This is not Augusta National is the problem in terms of my criticism. Our consumerism, our just habitual aspect of that one, the posts on social media have that cool item. I'm wearing a fricking hat I bought there that I love. And was like one those, I can't wait to wear this hat and show it off.

Matt Considine (39:15.95)
Look in the mirror, Professor.

The Professor (39:41.957)
I fall into this trap as well. And I got my Pebble Beach old school, store all the Chuck E's closet thing. Like, yeah, I love merch and you know that about me. So it is our problem, but this is Augusta Nationals problem to solve, to maintain every adjective that we brought up because like you brought up earlier, we don't know what's best for us. We don't know what we like as humans. And this is clear. We have plenty of research to back this.

Matt Considine (39:44.248)
Very Gen Z of you. see they're getting style, more modern. I love it.

The Professor (40:11.742)
Right. But in this case, Augusta, I would argue has leaned into our greatest vices in a way that does detract now from the intimate patron experience of the invitational itself and everything that goes into it. And I saw this across the board. Like you could tell the staff was a bit stressed out. All right. They're being overrun. You could see, I mean, I'll use this. I love the skip it down at 16. I love to sit there now.

people are yelling skip it before the players even have left the main tee box right there and know, skip it, skip, skip where it used to be organic, the players would just walk and they would just do it and if they got a few steps past where you'd skip it, then the crowd might start yelling skip it right but no, Augusta Nationals in here selling his hats and say skip it. What do we think the consumers are gonna do when now that's being put forward right? The bigger and bigger build outs that are going on and I could just see like

some of the staff trying to organize the crowd, you see like, they're actually having to like, do stuff and like tell people, no, you can't do that. And they're frantic a little bit on it. So it felt like it's moved much towards TPC Scottsdale 16. Then like, I'm not saying it's become that, but it's moved that, it's moved that, that's right. It's moved that direction where like a lot of the crowd that was there, the way they were behaving. And again, I'm not saying they were behaving poorly at all.

Matt Considine (41:26.082)
I think that's the cliff that's gonna get us banned from Augusta. They don't wanna hear that.

Yeah.

The Professor (41:37.791)
let's be very clear. wasn't I'm not criticizing the crowd out there. But the nature of the crowd, the phenomenon that was there. It's moved towards that feel. And you can see that in the staff, you can see that and people just trying to get to the merch, buy all the merch, right? And like, check it like that's what it's about versus the, I'm gonna get in here, I'm gonna eat my dollar and 50 pimento cheese sandwich. I'm gonna sit in this chair, we'll watch guys skip it, we're gonna hoot and holler when cool stuff happened, we're gonna talk to the person next to us. We're gonna casually walk up, get another pimento cheese sandwich. that that's

thing that was $300 that I was never going to buy, but now I've had two beers and you know what? $300 charge on its own versus a $300 charge with all the other merch I bought, can now, I will go get that $300 thing because I don't have to wait in line for 60 minutes. It's just like, oh man, it's, I don't know. I feel like the, all the organicness, the naturalness, the just intimacy, the uniqueness is sort of being chipped away by this, by leaning into the merch, to our worst vices.

Matt Considine (42:18.375)
yeah.

The Professor (42:37.086)
mine included because I've got a merch problem. They've leaned into it rather than setting the story. Again, go back to you, they should control the narrative and this is a case of like, no, we're not going to have 5,000 hats that have every name on it. We're going to have two. They could be doing things and not lean into it is what I would argue.

Matt Considine (42:52.962)
What's?

Matt Considine (42:56.908)
Yeah, and I'll combine what it's become, even not from the spectator experience of being there, but even watching at home, there's the cadences of Masters Week, and they're all built around traditions, which traditions are a huge part of storytelling. It makes us all have that relationship with it, the identity with it, you know what to expect with it. But it is interesting to hear

You talk about now these column, newer cultural traditions of spending $5,000 in the merch tent and buying for other people, because it's so rare and exclusive. The skipper is being more of a expectation now than a, yeah, it's an order.

The Professor (43:44.314)
It's an order by the crowd, right? We're ordering you to do it than a like the thing the players are choosing to do because

Matt Considine (43:50.626)
Because if it doesn't happen, think about this, Kevin, though, if it's your only time at Augustine, it doesn't happen, you were just short changed, because you know that the skippers are a tradition that exists, and the reason you know that is because of social media and these stories of how the skipper started as a tradition that will actually come from Master's account. And I think there is just this, man, I hate to give it this word, but it's what's on my mind, contrived.

The Professor (44:15.646)
You have to.

Matt Considine (44:16.334)
part of this that stems that actually does stem from control that does stem from these guys. We all now know they are incredible operators what they've built there and they have a control over all these things from you know the joke about the weather but truly you know the subair systems and controlling firmness on the course all the way to your

the way that you're gonna navigate through Augusta, it's a lot of control that actually starts to, when you understand that it's control, you lose the magic. And that is directly with the, you know, I've talked to parents, I'm fearing going to Disney World, because I have these childhood memories of Disney World, but as a parent, you lose a little bit of the magic because you start to realize, it's all just kinda set up this way.

The Professor (44:59.517)
Yeah.

The Professor (45:10.716)
I think, another, I'll give two other examples of how that magic is eroded a little bit. And this one comes from a fellow friend of ours that I'll keep nameless that we were talking this morning about this phenomenon and just take even the players, how they arrive. They used to all come down Magnolia lane, get out of the car and workout clothes or whatever. But now they have the underground parking for the players, right? That they can park underground, do their thing. And they emerge to practice. like that as a person watching at home, you're no longer getting those video cuts of someone coming down Magnolia.

And that's a sad thing, right? Another one I think that's eroded is, know, they've, I think one of the neat aspects of Augusta National, it exists in a huge class of system, the club itself, but then during that week, you know, historically going back a ways, you had what, clubhouse passes or?

general grounds passes, right? And a few other nuances in there. So by and large, patrons were patrons, right? If you wanted to watch, they don't have stands up that are hospitality stands, right? Like if you want to watch the final plan 18, everybody has an equal chance. Like everybody has an equal chance to set up their chair there no matter who you are. Now, if we think about it, okay, Berkman's Place has been introduced, huge high dollar amount, gets fast access to entry.

You've got a couple other clubhouse passes and that sort of bigger tiers that are there. Even on the merch side, you now have, you do have your standard merch stands on the course, which I'll give them props. So if you just want to go buy a flag or a standard thing, you can do that sort of, could imagine a world in which they're like, we're not going to do any bespoke stuff, just like we're going to keep it standard merch and not lean into our worst vices. But they have those kinds of stands on the course, which is nice. So you don't have to go stand in the huge long lines if you just want to pick up a dad hat or something like that. But they have that.

Then the standard merch places, then the Berkman's merch places. So like they're even introducing classes, systems within the merch situation, the Pro Shop merch on top of that, where that's dividing things too. And again, I think that's just chipping away at everything that made the invitational have a lot of the adjectives that we brought up earlier beyond just the golf that occurs on it, that we're creating this leaning into this, again, very VC oriented world that we've moved into, like let's focus on the short term, you know.

Matt Considine (47:23.15)
Hmm.

The Professor (47:33.983)
pumping the short-term things that are working, aka making money and getting eyes and just pumping into that and not looking at a 20 to 40 year window because we don't care about that, right? We want to hit our multipliers in however many, you know, the next several years and keep hitting those metrics. And 40 years like, wouldn't make any sense. If we're hitting those multipliers, you would never think of the times 20 million multiplier that occurs after 40 years because that doesn't sound realistic. So you just focus on the short-term pumps.

Matt Considine (48:02.508)
Yeah, you know, their desire for secrecy and protection, it feels like in the last decade and they've lost a lot of that. And I think in society, it's really hard to maintain.

The Professor (48:16.54)
Yeah, this is is an us problem, right? It's social media, it's people pumping out everything they consume and experience and not checking that.

Matt Considine (48:22.746)
We know that Berkman tickets are 10 grand a day. These are things that Gustav would love for folks to probably not even think about. And my earliest experience is going to the tournament, did I? Absolutely not. I was thinking about the history, the reverence. That's why I have a deep relationship like so many golfers with that place. And I think that depth is what is in jeopardy.

The Professor (48:31.752)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (48:49.356)
because I think we're starting to understand the industrial complex of this and the corporate. I I'll give you one example. I think we all become a little bit more cynical as we age, right? That's pretty normal. And you question things more, you have more experience, more failures, so you gotta ask more questions. But you and I have met members of the RNA and I've met a couple of members of Augusta and...

The Professor (48:49.438)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (49:03.686)
Yeah, yeah.

Matt Considine (49:19.362)
You know, at the RNA, you can still, and I have met someone who, well, how did you become, wow, you're a member of the Royal Ancient? Like, what are you? Are you the CEO of XYZ? And you you still will meet members that, no, was an agronomist that opened the Superintendent Association for Asian countries. And the RNA really,

The Professor (49:44.658)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (49:47.446)
respected my work there and I've stayed in touch and I was invited to become a member. Like you hear those stories of stewardship and I'm not saying, mean, Augusta views themselves as the steward of the game. It's everything from where they fall in the calendar to the thing they're doing with the patch and great. know, Anwar, there's so many things that they're honestly making up for in terms of history, but when you hear about a new member at Augusta, what is it?

that's the Delta airline CEO. That's the Amazon CEO. That's Warren Buffett, Bill Gates. It is just power brokers. I don't know Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and how they feel about the game of golf, but my guess is they're not doing a whole lot of stewardship for its future. know, my guess is they want that notch in their belt and they want to be around the table with the most powerful people in the world. And just that alone, Kevin, really. Degregates that that relationship that

The Professor (50:28.154)
Hahaha.

Matt Considine (50:43.934)
golf heads like you and I have with Augusta national. I, that's the heart, I think of what I'm starting to realize is every time I see, you know, the, commercially quiet, we all love that there's not many commercials for, for Augusta, but then I start to really let my cynical brain dive deep. Well, IBM, you know, Mercedes and AT &T, those big guys, boy, it's not that they're not getting their money's worth here. And,

that's in ways that are maybe counter to the tournament itself. It's quiet in some regards, but it's prevalent and it's serving those customers first and foremost. Yeah, it's a tough, a tough thing. The influence there of corporate America that obviously is kind of, they're a corporation themselves. mean, Guston National Golf Club created, they're not a member of 501C3 club.

The Professor (51:36.359)
Yeah, that's right.

Matt Considine (51:42.156)
They are a corporation for that control, for that privacy. So it shouldn't be that surprising to any of us that, boy, they serve that audience really well this whole week.

The Professor (51:55.583)
Yeah, it's hard not to become when you're a corporation addicted to growth, right? That is the American way. I'm not saying that a badder. That's a non-judgmental statement I'm making there. That the American way is to think about growth, growth, growth, and can grow a company and it's a very hard decision just be like, we're just going to sit where we're at. And yeah, we're not going to follow multipliers or try to do more or make more and that might cost us even a little bit in the long run, we might lose a little bit.

But we're going to stick to this because this is what we want this presentation to be. Some companies, invitationals, organizations, missions do do that. And that should be should be okay as well, in my opinion. But not saying that Gus is neither right or wrong in terms of what they're doing. It's their prerogative to do what they're doing. And they they do what they do very well. But as a observer, that's been there, you know, going there for 16 years or so.

Those are my observations in terms of changes that have been made that are definitely I'm biased against in terms of, yeah, I look at what the tournament grew up on in terms of intimacy and aspects like that, and that's being chipped away.

Matt Considine (53:08.3)
Yeah, the, you know, one mark of this, and I know we got to drop here, but one mark of this is the players. One reason, I will come back to my point I made earlier, is that we see so many meltdowns. And one reason is that intimacy is very real to these players. They grew up, a lot of them will say, Jason Day said today, that's why I'm here. Watching Tiger win on this course made me a golfer. This is...

The Professor (53:22.93)
No,

The Professor (53:30.277)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (53:33.802)
is deep for me and people feel that. That's why we see more nerves here than anywhere else. I wonder if this, negative aspect of things as they've changed is happening, will that, I think that might be the true test, will kids 50 years from now feel that those same deep nerves or are they gonna be able to get the, because.

It's their inability. Why did Roy take all those years? It was his inability to separate that intimacy, to separate the storyline. I mean, we all know you can't be thinking about Jim Nance calling your name on the 18th year when you're just trying to roll a putt. You gotta be focused on what you're doing. You gotta be focused on this 20 footer that breaks three feet.

The Professor (54:17.348)
or hit a wedge in the 13 green that you've hit 5,000 times in your life and you would never dump where you dumped it.

Matt Considine (54:21.07)
I'm out.

And so we see things and where does that come from? That comes from their marketing. That comes from the storytelling. That is deep within all these players in the field. And even the ones that grow up in Asia and South America now, and it's like, wow, what a global success story of telling that narrative. But if these things take center stage, if the new media highlights more of it and it kind of degrades away from that, yeah, you'll start to see less choke jobs. You'll start to see people

you know, another week, another tournament. got it. Which is not easy to do. I'm not saying we're anywhere close to that, one, maybe, can I say my least favorite thing about Augusta? Last point.

The Professor (55:02.748)
Last point, yep, last point and I gotta help some people with some exams.

Matt Considine (55:08.344)
They set every year a ridiculous and costly standard for our golf courses and their agronomy practices and herbicide use, chemical use. They're very talented. Their team are world class at what they do and they have on top of their skill set,

endless budget. But my goodness, I hate talking the weeks that follow people shitting on their golf course saying, you know, the conditions out here are terrible. It's May 1st and you live in Minnesota. Why don't we give it some time? You know, just can we somehow acknowledge that what happens at Augusta is not a standard

The Professor (55:31.902)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (55:57.442)
that can be achieved across our golf courses and accept a different level of appreciation for what our golf courses are, that it doesn't take away from your experience that we have to control our costs. If you don't want to pay $1,500 in your membership dues every single month, then maybe you got to look at that cost line of what chemicals you're injecting into your golf course, how many people are on staff.

The Professor (56:07.261)
That's.

Matt Considine (56:26.252)
Like we just don't do a good job of separating those two things. It would be like looking at Disney World and saying, well, my house doesn't look like Cinderella's castle. Let's get that fixed. Come on, let's up. And man, I think we'd just be happier golfers if we all could separate from that. That's my last piece.

The Professor (56:26.364)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (56:36.702)
That's right.

The Professor (56:50.654)
Well, here's to never going back to Augusta again.

Matt Considine (56:51.086)
Sayonara, professor. We just sealed our fate. This episode may never reach the airwaves. might. You and I will be enjoying Master Sunday this weekend and going, hey, buddy, could we burn that tape? I hope it wasn't released anywhere close to anywhere in there. I will say, let me end on one last positive. Augusta National or sorry, Augusta, the city. What's the population there? It can't be more than Akron, Ohio.

The Professor (57:19.486)
I don't know.

Matt Considine (57:20.63)
Is it like 200,000 maybe?

The Professor (57:25.138)
Yeah, probably 2, 300 about metro maybe.

Matt Considine (57:27.726)
Wow, we're right on it. 201,000. I gotta say one thing I love about the Masters, $120 million hits this economy in Augusta every single year. What they're doing with the patch is awesome. I love tournaments. Big talk with the PGA Tour that we're gonna start going to big markets. We gotta go to the big markets, go to the big markets. We grew up in a place that really always identified with the professional tournament that came to town.

The Professor (57:38.206)
Mm-hmm.

The Professor (57:42.301)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Considine (57:57.184)
And my God, was it special? And I know how special it is. I've met families that Augusta's at a whole nother level of that, but we're talking about Augusta, Georgia here. You we're not talking about, I think that's super, super cool. I can't think of another, you know, major sport venue that goes back again and again and again in a town like Augusta with 200,000 people. That's cool. I wanted to just toss in a positive to end this here. Professor, thanks for firing us up here.

The Professor (58:15.005)
Yeah.

The Professor (58:24.382)
And here's to watching my second favorite tournament. I only prefer the open because of the playing style. But this is the best executed tournament of the year. So here's to looking forward to watching it all weekend with the wife, Claire.

Matt Considine (58:36.326)
We did this a while ago. No idea when this will release, but give me one name. Who's gonna win this week? See if we're right. By the time this releases, we will know.

The Professor (58:42.494)
I'm gonna go... I'm gonna go... I'm gonna go John Rahm.

Matt Considine (58:49.036)
Well, okay. I'll go Xander, shawfully. Time will tell. Thanks everybody for listening. If you're enjoying the show, we got some really fun episodes coming up from some awesome guests. Give us a like, subscribe, send us an email even at thebagdrop at newclub.golf. We'll look forward to catching you guys in the next one. Thanks to our partners in Titleist, the number one ball in golf. And we'll check you guys soon.

The Professor (58:50.718)
Yeah. All right.