Not that he needed any, but Mike Foley had an extra incentive to beat prostate cancer last year.
His stepson Jerry Wells had just been transferred to Augusta, and the 72-year-old Omaha, Neb., man had a shot at finally seeing the Augusta National Golf Club course he had watched on television for years.
"I just moved here in December, and as soon as I got transferred he said, `I'm coming down, I'm coming down,''' said Mr. Wells, 34.
Now, all Mr. Wells has to do is find a reasonable price for two Masters Tournament practice-round tickets for today.s The best offer so far: $250 each for the $16 ticket, $100 more than Monday's price and $100 cheaper than Wednesday's, he said.
``The thing that gets me is it's just a practice round,'' said Mr. Wells, who got a number of calls from his classified advertisement seeking tickets. ``You don't know who's going to be out there.''
It was simple once. You showed up at Augusta National in the early spring morning, strolled down the magnificent, magnolia-shaded lane and plunked down a sawbuck to watch your favorite players practice for the Masters Tournament.
On the way, you ran into thousands of your closest friends. You all had a few beers and pimento cheese sandwiches. You jostled your way around the greens. And as the mystique of the Masters and the popularity of golf grew, you started to realize that the crowds were just a little bit deeper than the year before.
That all changed after 1994, when the club realized things were getting out of hand. Spectators were waiting in line for hours to use the bathroom or buy a drink. Washington Road was clogged with fans desperately searching for a place to park.
Two national tour companies flew 6,000 golf fans into Augusta, flooding Bush Field airport and overflowing the golf course.
The party was over.
Since Augusta National stopped unlimited practice-round sales and began a lottery program in 1995, decorum has returned. Things are a little quieter. Lines are a little shorter.
Ticket prices soar
And black-market tickets are a whole lot more expensive.
The escalation of ticket prices and the jump in the number of agents and brokers in the second-hand market, can all be traced to the closing of the practice-round tickets, said John, 32, an agent for a national sports tour company who asked that his real name not be used.
``There's a lot more people doing this than there were four years ago,'' John said recently. ``The Masters has really exploded.''
Fans who were already closed out of the waiting list for tournament admission badges now found themselves competing each year for a limited number of practice-round tickets, making them more willing than ever to pay high prices from ticket scalpers. And the increasingly high cost of black-market tournament badges means that many settle for scalped practice-round tickets, creating a second tier on the black market.
``The last year you could walk up and buy tickets was the first year we realized you could do that,'' said Greg Daniel, a West Virginia man who drove 14 hours round-trip to see a single day's worth of golf during the Tuesday practice round in 1994. ``Then the next year, they went to the lottery, and I haven't been able to get tickets since.''
This year, he placed a classified advertisement on the Internet, searching for someone with tickets to sell. The problem is, he doesn't know whom he can trust.
``We're having a problem with figuring out how to get the tickets,'' he said. ``I don't want to turn over the money without seeing a ticket, and I'm sure no one is going to want to send a ticket without seeing some money. And I don't want to drive all the way down there and find out they're not going to sell it to me.
``And I also worry -- how do I know these tickets are real? What if they're fake and we have some problem getting in?''
A few weeks ago, Mr. Daniel had received four responses to his advertisement, with people offering practice-round tickets for prices from $125 to $400. He hadn't agreed to buy any of the tickets yet, he said.
Plenty of first-timers
The crowds that actually get in seem much the same for the practice rounds, said Dave Thiel of Boise, Idaho, who serves as a gallery guard along No. 5 at the golf course.
``Every year I've been there, it seems there's plenty of first-timers,'' said Mr. Thiel, a guard for three years. ``They can't believe the place is real. They can't believe how green the grass is.''
And they remain the most well-behaved and knowledgeable golf gallery, though there is always the casual fan just happy to be out there.
Such as last year, when ``this lady walked up and asked, `Can you direct me to The Tiger Woods?''' Mr. Thiel said, chuckling.
Ticket brokers offering practice-round tickets this year are quoting prices as high as $450 for a single Par 3 Contest ticket -- a markup of more than 21 times its $21 face value. But that's 10 times cheaper than four-day tournament series badges, which are going for $5,000 or more on the black market.
``I was able to find eight tickets this year -- four for Wednesday and four for Tuesday -- from local people who got them through the lottery,'' said Greg, an Atlanta man who placed a classified ad on the Internet searching for tickets. ``I'm keeping two, and I'm looking to sell the rest to brokers. If you sell them to a scalper, you can make more money than if you sell them on the street.''
Greg, who was concerned about being black-listed from future lotteries if his full name was used, said he has twice attended the practice rounds with tickets he gained through the lottery. But in 1996, shut out of the lottery, he and a friend drove to Augusta to buy scalped tickets on Washington Road.
``We didn't realize at the time what a deal we were getting,'' he said with a laugh. ``We bought them on the street on Tuesday morning for $50 each. I could sell to a broker for $200 apiece. I would tell anybody, if you want tickets, go stand on Washington Road.''
Jerry Wells is trying to avoid that scenario, preferring the security of showing up with ticket already in hand -- even if he doesn't know what to expect once he makes it onto the course. But knowing his dad's feelings, he thinks he will work it out somehow.
``My mom promised him if he was all cured, he could go,'' Mr. Wells said. ``He went through six months of chemotherapy, and last month was all clean.''
And if he is still a little weak, that will probably disappear the minute he steps on the course and realizes his dream. Even if it is only a practice round.
Practice round tickets don't come cheap
