TALES FROM TEE-TIME: Sleek new hospitality venue opens in Augusta but costs more than £13,000 for a weekly pass – while AI is set to feature in the cover and a buried coin inspires a golfer

This year sees the opening of Map and Flag, the course’s first off-site corporate hospitality venue.

A premium facility located at an intersection a seven-minute walk from the course, it costs around £13,600 for a weekly pass.

This figure includes “chef-inspired food concepts” as well as beverages.

Described as a giant sports bar, it also houses an all-important retail store for that premium customer experience.

AI IN AUGUSTA

Artificial intelligence has arrived in Augusta. Fans watching the tournament online can hear the AI ​​narration in Spanish and English.

Computer giant IBM will also offer a feature that will reveal how each hole has been played in the tournament today and over the past eight years, using a memory bank of more than 170,000 shots.

BIBLICAL REMINDERS

Guests regularly receive reminders that they are in a Bible Belt country on roads off the course.

Vans with giant – and often dark – religious signs painted on the back, such as “Creator Repays Sin with Global Catastrophe” are regularly seen on Washington Road.

GOLD INSPIRED PAVON

Fifteen years ago, Matthieu Pavon’s mother went to the Masters and buried a coin on the Augusta grounds in the hope that it would entice her son to play there.

It seems to have done the trick. The 31-year-old from Toulouse is here after his victories on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour over the last six months.

“I’ll probably get a coin myself, bury it somewhere, wishing that one day my son would come play here,” he said.

A SAD LOSS

A rite of passage for many visitors to Augusta is a visit to TBonz Steakhouse, considered the 19th hole. This year will be the first without co-owner Mark Cummins, who died in October at the age of 66. Cummins was very popular with shopping carts – largely due to its willingness to stay open late.