Tiger Woods will be absent from the Masters because of his recent DUI arrest. While Tiger Woods will miss the Masters for rehab, masters of the universe and sports legends alike will still descend on Augusta National Golf Club next week, disappointed that the star isn’t playing.
“Billions” co-creator Brian Koppelman once called The Masters “Coachella for CEOs” in Sports Illustrated.
Tiger Woods holds up his ball after playing out the 18th hole during the first round at the Masters golf tournament on Thursday, April 7, 2022, in Augusta, Ga. AP Agencies like CAA or WME host hospitality houses and tents, while power restos and popular watering holes from NYC pop up to accommodate the VIPs. We hear CAA Sports will host clients and partners via “a massive hospitality program” this year, “spanning more than 50 houses and a tented event space,” said a golf insider.
Rao’s — the impossible-to-get-into red sauce joint in NYC — has a pop-up at a private location where expected guests include Eli and Peyton Manning, WME Group president Mark Shapiro, Russell Wilson, Wayne Gretzky, Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg, former chairman of CBS Sports Sean McManus, NFL coaches Brian Schottenheimer and Mike Macdonald, and more.
Said a snobby source, “You think Shinnecock” — the golf club where the 2026 U.S. Open will be held in Southampton — “and you know there’s gonna be good restaurants.” In Augusta, “It’s like this sleepy town. What are you gonna be eating, Applebee’s?” (Local faves apparently include a steak place called T-Bonz, while a Hooters parking lot was where golf great John Daly traditionally set up shop and sold merch, but it closed down when the brand went bankrupt.)
Either way, another NYC classic, sawdust strewn McSorley’s Old Ale House (the oldest saloon in NYC where you very well may have hurled as an intern) will have an inaugural pop-up this year as well.
Attendees rent houses or condos due a lack of hotels, bunking up together and creating some unusual roommate mashups to the delight or disappointment of the high-flying lodgers from famous athletes to execs.
There’s also perhaps another, darker side to the scene… “I heard the last time I was there that there was a lot of, like, drugs in town,” said a source. “Like major narcotics. I guess that’s a thing?” (Indeed in early December, deputies in Augusta seized more than 27 pounds of meth, plus cocaine, marijuana and oxy across Augusta-Richmond County, authorities said.)
