- Finance bros and the ultra-wealthy missed out on the tumultuous stock market moves of this week while they were at the Masters. Patrons of the iconic golf tournament aren’t allowed to have their cell phones with them at Augusta National, so they missed out on real-time major market movements spurred by President Donald Trump’s decisions about tariffs.
Unless you’re hiking a mountain so high you lose cell service or embark on a wellness retreat like the White Lotus, it’s pretty challenging to completely unplug. But one iconic sporting event forces its patrons to leave their cell phones behind: the Masters.
While normally it’s a welcomed time to ignore pings and enjoy a longstanding tradition, wealthy finance professionals attending this year’s golf tournament were shocked to learn of the stock market turmoil resulting from President Donald Trump’s tariffs—and subsequent pause on them.
Although stocks tanked earlier this week on the news of Trump’s tariffs, they made a triumphant rebound Wednesday when the president announced a 90-day pause on most his aggressive rates.
“I guess they say it was the biggest day in financial history,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, after the S&P 500 jumped by more than 9% just hours after the announcement. However, stock market volatility remains.
Meanwhile, Masters spectators were none the wiser to the stock market roller coaster their peers were experiencing in real time. That’s because Masters patrons aren’t allowed to bring their cell phones to the course, and only courtesy telephones are available.
“It’s a respite from negativity,” Steven Vernon III, a finance professional, told WSJ. “It feels so good to be surrounded by a bunch of people who disconnected.”
A reprieve from watching markets is likely welcomed by finance professionals—considering junior workers put in 80-plus hour weeks.
It wasn’t until a Wall Street Journal reporter told spectators Trump had paused tariffs that they realized the stock market was ripping.
Spectator Brett McAtee, a retired business unit director from Phoenix, told WSJ his portfolio had lost about $250,000 when stocks tanked earlier in the week, but he “honestly [hadn’t] thought about it” while trying to enjoy the Masters.
“It’d be nice to get some of that back,” McAtee told WSJ after learning about the market recovery Wednesday.
The Masters is notoriously filled with well-to-do spectators, and tickets are exceedingly difficult to get your hands on. If you’re lucky enough to be a member of Augusta National—one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world—you can get early access to tickets, at which point they cost $450.
But like other highly sought-after events, some people who get early access to tickets turn around and sell them on third-party platforms, like StubHub. A week-long badge can set a patron back a whopping $20,000, according to Golf Magazine, and even just a pass for a practice round can cost more than $1,000. That doesn’t take into account airfare and hotel stays, which can also get costly due to the popularity of the event.
That’s why the Masters has become a magnet for billionaires, millionaires, and otherwise wealthy individuals. They see the experience as ultra-exclusive. In fact, Augusta-area airports become somewhat of a parking lot for private jets for the wealthy attending the tournament.
“The Masters is one of the busiest weeks for private aviation in the Southeast, with Augusta Regional often seeing over 1,500 private jet arrivals over the course of the tournament weekend,” Joel Thomas, president of private jet company Stratos Jets, told Simple Flying. “Direct access to the regional airport puts travelers just minutes from the course and gets them in and out of Augusta faster.”
