The Masters Ticket Lottery Is Open; What Are The Chances Of Winning?

The annual ticket lottery for the Masters Tournament opened today, offering aspiring patrons a three-week window to apply for a chance at purchasing one of the most coveted single-day passes in the sports world.

It’s a June tradition for many golf fans who hold out hope that they’ll get the opportunity to visit (or revisit) Augusta National Golf Club for the golf season’s second men’s major championship.

But what are the odds of having your name picked in the Masters ticket lottery?

According to sports betting information website Bookies.com, it’s less than 1% for one of the four tournament days. It’s actually closer to 0.55%, to be more specific.

To get this estimate, they worked through a number of independent, and unconfirmed, variables. Key to their math is the number of daily attendees (widely estimated to be about 40,000 for each of the four tournament days), the percentage of those who are already lifetime badge holders (possibly in the neighborhood of 45%), and the number of applicants who enter the ticket lottery in the 20-day window. That final component is probably the hardest to pin down, but Bookies.com offers a well-reasoned rationale for its guess in the neighborhood of 2 million.

With an estimated 22,000 available daily passes available and each ticket lottery winner having the option to buy two daily tournament tickets for $140 apiece, this comes out to 11,000 winners per day (among the projected 2 million hopefuls).

The good news is there are also three days of practice round tickets available at $100 apiece, with ticket lottery winners permitted to purchase up to four per day. The selection for practice rounds and daily tournament tickets will take place after the June 20 application deadline. All applicants — lottery winners and losers — are notified by Masters Tournament organizers in late July when the process is complete.

If the Bookies.com math is remotely accurate, the odds your name will get picked this year to buy tickets is around 1-in-200. That said, consider that oddsmakers were giving Phil Mickelson about a 1-in-280 shot at winning the Masters earlier this year and he ended up tying for second place behind Jon Rahm.

Good luck.