Masters tickets

phishcakes wrote: »

Hey folks,

Just wondering how the ticket registration lottery thing works on the official website, I’ve registered for tickets every year the past few years and have never been picked, is it actually a draw or is it more of a waiting list??

Has anyone here ever managed to get picked ?

It appears to be a draw, but like yourself I've been in the last 3/4 years and had no luck.
My thinking is hopefully if I keep going for the next 10/15 years I'll eventually get lucky. If not I'll just pay for some package deal, it's definitely a bucket list event

i lived in the states and got drawn for Wednesday tickets in 2014. couldn't go as my son was born couple of weeks later so gave to my dad.
my brother in ireland and brother in law in UK got drawn for 2018 tickets, Tuesday and Wednesday, so i took one of those and went down for both days. fabulous experience.
definitely worth signing up for the lottery and also asking your family to put names down...

tropics001 wrote: »

i lived in the states and got drawn for Wednesday tickets in 2014. couldn't go as my son was born couple of weeks later so gave to my dad.
my brother in ireland and brother in law in UK got drawn for 2018 tickets, Tuesday and Wednesday, so i took one of those and went down for both days. fabulous experience.
definitely worth signing up for the lottery and also asking your family to put names down...

I enter the lottery every year and so far not successful. I never select the practice day options as I think if I'm making the trip over I'd like to be there on a tournament day. How did you find going to a practice day?

poteen wrote: »

I enter the lottery every year and so far not successful. I never select the practice day options as I think if I'm making the trip over I'd like to be there on a tournament day. How did you find going to a practice day?

i really enjoyed practice days. you can bring a camera, which is not allowed on competition days.
tuesday i planned to walk the course in sequence then follow various groups. i ended up coming in from car park around the 15th hole so had to shield my face from the temptation of looking back at amen corner! made my way to the first hole and the spaniards were teeing off... sergio, olazabal, niemann. followed them for first few holes then heard mickelson would be playing with tiger.
i figured i would slow down and let them catch up to me but they were only playing the back 9 so that screwed that plan. i made my way over to the grandstand at 16, got a coffee and waited for their group to come through. practicing flop shots on the 15th green, skipping balls on the pond... beautiful weather... outstanding morning.
after that i returned to the front nine and resumed the sequence. had a few beers after lunch and followed mcilroy down the back 9 in the afternoon. i'd love to know how many steps i walked that day because i lapped the course a few times and then walked a mile back to airbnb.

wednesday more of the same, weather was cloudy so different experience. the course emptied out around 2 pm and everyone headed over to the par 3. i grabbed a masters flag and got some signatures hanging out by one of the greens as the players passed. very relaxed and good viewing.
some day i'll hopefully get back for the weekend but i would certainly recommend the practice rounds.

Mcilroy on 10th green. You can see here the slope of the fairway.

On a practice day - did you hear a big clatter from the camera shutters when the players were teeing off? I know you can silence the noise on a mobile phone but you typically can't with your average consumer (non-professional) camera.

phishcakes wrote: »

I’ve registered for tickets every year the past few years and have never been picked, is it actually a draw or is it more of a waiting list??

To answer your question.....

The people who get tickets every year are called 'patrons'. As they die and/or fail to renew their subscription for tickets, they used to be (possibly still are) replaced by people on the waiting list. Up to about 10-15 years ago, the patron list and the waiting list were full and no new applications of any kind were being accepted.

Then, out of the blue, they started accepting applications for an annual lottery for practice day and tournament day tickets. I have applied every year and like a lot of posters here, have had no success.

It's possible that the patron list is now closed to new applicants and as people die and fail to renew, those slots become available for the lottery. It's also possible that only a fixed, small number of tickets are made available via the lottery and the patron system (backfilled from the waiting list) still operates as before.

If anyone can shed any light on the current system, I'm sure we'd all like to know.