Masters tickets sold out

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 68

Masters tickets sold out

NZPA-AP Augusta, Georgia As usual, you can forget about getting a ticket to the Masters. You can even forget about getting a place to sleep. The first of tens of thousands of golf fans yesterday began arriving in Augusta for the city’s premier event, and one of the game’s most hallowed traditions. “We’ve been booked for Masters Week since the tournament last year,” Isaid Cindy Bryant, the desk host at the 114-room Bradbury Suites hotel. Kathy Sommers, of Shoney’s Inn, said there were only a few rooms available on Monday. Starting yesterday, forget it. “We’ve been booked up for months,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of the CBS (TV) people here, and they come in at different times, but all the rooms are booked up.”

In Louisville, 72km, from Augusta, a golf fan, Bill Merritt, checked in at the Louisville Motor Lodge. It was the best he could do. Two days and 1126 km ago, he was back home in St Charles, Missouri. For those who missed out on the Augusta room rush, like Mr Merritt, it takes a good map, and a lot of phone calls to find a place to stay. Mr Merritt got a listing of area hotels, and worked the phones, starting with places right around the Augusta National Golf Club. • Thirteen players will be making their first appearance in the Masters this week. The first-timers include United States professionals Jim Benepe, Mark Brooks, Bob Lohr, Andrew Magee, Blaine McCallister Dave Rummells, Tom Sieckmann and Greg Twiggs; and United States

amateurs David Eger, Ralph Howe 111, Eric Meeks and Daniel Yates 111. The British amateur

champion, Christian Hardin, of Sweden, is the first man from his country to play in the Masters.