Think you might be able to score some cheap lodging since the Masters has seen a last-second shift from its typical April slot into the cool climes of November?
Think again.
The metro Augusta region had been holding its breath since Augusta National Golf Club postponed the Masters Tournament in March. Now it can finally exhale.
The club on Monday officially announced potential dates for the tournament – Nov. 9-15 – giving an uncertain community an actual target date for the region’s biggest event of the year.
Augusta-area hotels, which are booked solidly during the tournament week and implement special-event pricing, implemented higher rates in October, according to a review of online booking services. Those higher rates have now been applied to the targeted week in November.
“Certainly, it’s really, really good news,” said Sue Parr, president of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce, which coordinates the local leg of the state’s Red Carpet Tour economic development event as well as the Masters Housing Bureau, a home-rental service on which many golf patrons rely for lodging.
“It will be a tremendous economic boon for this community and we’ll be able to do what we’ve always done,” she said.
For example, the Ecco Suites on Claussen Road, normally priced at $89 a night, was listing rooms for $793 per night during the new tournament dates.
The Rodeway Inn on Jimmie Dyess Parkway, normally $49 a night, listed rooms at $1,000; and the Residence Inn by Marriott on Marks Church Road, normally $219 a night, was posting rooms for $1,499 during tournament days on Monday.
A limited-service hotel manager, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said he has had to cancel reservations that had been made before rates were adjusted. He said he believed many who made the initial reservations were “rate squatters” and resellers acting on reports made last week by national golf magazines, based on speculative media reports published after the club’s initial announcement.
Bennish Brown, president of the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Monday’s official announcement was a bright spot for the hard-hit hotel and restaurant industry, which earns a large percentage of its annual income during tournament week.
“I am just happy and pleased for this community overall,” he said. “I think the community is just finally glad to hear an announcement. Nothing is final and nothing has traction unless it is announced directly by the Augusta National.”
Cal Wray, president of the Augusta Economic Development Authority, which hosts prospective industry leaders and site-selection consultants during the tournament through the state’s Red Carpet Tour, said a November tournament is better from an economic development standpoint.
October, he said, is generally a busy month in the economic development community because of trade shows and other meetings. Wray said the authority’s plans for the week could easily be shifted if the pandemic continues and causes another postponement.
“We’re going to be cautiously optimistic,” he said. “We’re going to plan as if it’s going to happen.”
Jane Fuhrmann, the owner of Tournament Housing & Events, one of several area companies that book home rentals for visiting Masters patrons, said she was “thrilled” to hear official dates were announced. She said she believes most of the 2,000 homeowners she works with will roll their April contracts over to November rather than issue refunds.
The determining factor will be whether area schools adjust their calendars.
“Otherwise, it wouldn’t work for the house rentals,” Fuhrmann said. “It takes a village, the village of Augusta, to make this tournament work at the level it works.”
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Speculation over a new tournament date has swirled since the club made its March 13 announcement amid the growing coronavirus pandemic. Many speculated on a tournament date in October that would coincide with local schools’ fall breaks, as a large number of the tournament’s temporary workforce – more than 6,000 people – are area high school students doing everything from picking up trash to working registers at gift shops.
Area schools also annually plan their spring breaks to coincide with the tournament so families can take vacations and rent their homes to golf fans and tournament-support staff.
The 2020-2021 school calendars for Richmond, Columbia and Aiken counties have already been set, and none have built-in November vacation time outside the Thanksgiving holiday. Those calendars are likely to change based on Monday’s announcement.
Abbigail Remkus, director of communications for the Columbia County School District, said the school system “will be reviewing our school calendar and talking with our stakeholders to determine what the best approach will be.”
“We recognize the need to adjust our calendar and we will,” she said. “We will be sure to announce changes once a decision has been reached.”
A message left with the Richmond County School System, the metro area’s largest, was not immediately returned Monday.
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