Masters flagSHAUN BEST
It's going to cost more to watch Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and friends next year in Augusta, Georgia.
The Masters Tournament raised prices for a four-day ticket to the 2015 event to US$325 from US$250, a 30 per-cent increase and the first price jump since 2011, the Augusta Chronicle reported.
Masters Tournament spokesman Steve Ethun didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the price increase.
The 2015 Masters, the first of golf's four annual Grand Slam events, will probably draw additional attention as McIlroy, winner of last year's British Open and PGA Championship as well as the 2011 U.S. Open, seeks to complete the career Grand Slam with a Masters win.
A victory at Augusta National Golf Club would make the 25– year-old Northern Irishman just the sixth player to win all four of golf's modern major titles. Bobby Jones won the U.S. and British Amateur and Open titles in 1930, the only player to accomplish the feat in a single year.
Woods was the last player, and the youngest ever, to secure all four major crowns when he won the 2000 British Open by eight shots. Masters tickets that year cost US$100 for a four-day pass. A similar four-day pass to this year's U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, costs US$400.
Along with McIlroy, who tied for eighth in this year's Masters, and 2014 winner Bubba Watson, next year's Masters field is expected to include Woods, a four-time winner who missed this April's tournament due to a back injury. Woods, 39, has recovered from surgery and has begun working with new coach Chris Como.