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The Masters pimento cheese sandwich scandal

122 points by ecliptik 6y ago

geoah 6y ago
I honestly don’t know what to make of this article. Interesting story of something completely unimportant. There is a recipe for said sandwiches at the end which I will try out.
- exhilaration 6y ago
  I think the lesson for HN readers is that if you're going to fire your best talent, make sure they document everything well ahead of time.
  - tacker2000 6y ago
    True! At least they kept some sandwiches in the freezer to reverse engineer later
  - tantalor 6y ago
    It's more like source code, but anyway the vendor was presumably under contract which did not include divulging the recipe. I wonder if they could have sued to recover the recipe as a "work for hire", where typically the employer is the owner of the work product. The law covers "instructional text" which sounds like a recipe to me. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf It depends on the nature of the original agreement, whether the recipe was created especially and exclusively for the event, or the vendor developed it on their own time.
    - tzs 6y ago
      In the case of the original sandwich maker, Rangos, clearly not. He was making his pimento cheese and selling it in his store before the Masters ever hired him. In the case of the second sandwich maker, Godfrey, who replaced Rangos and developed his pimento cheese recipe for the Masters, probably not. First of all, work for hire concerns who owns the copyright to something and recipes are not subject to copyright. It is possible, though, that there is some expression in the way that he wrote the recipe that could be copyrighted, so let's say the Masters wants to make a work for hire argument that they own the copyright of that. To be a work for hire, something must either be (1) made by an employee within the scope of their employment, or (2) fall into one of several categories and be declared a work for hire by the parties in a written instrument signed by them. It doesn't sound like the pimento cheese provider is an employee of the Masters. He sounds more like a contractor. That would take out #1 of the two ways something could be a work for hire. As far as #2 goes, first they have to explicitly have said in their signed written contract that the expression of the recipe will be a work for hire. That seems unlikely. But let us say they did, and let us assume that the particular expression of the recipe counts as an instructional text. Let's say that means that the Masters owns the copyright on that particular expression of the underlying, uncopyrighted, recipe. So what? That just means they get to stop people from making and distributing copies of that text. It doesn't give them any power to compel someone who has a copy to turn it (or a copy of it) over to them.
      - redis_mlc 6y ago
        > recipes are not subject to copyright. The ingredient list and directions (process) are not copyrightable on their own, but if you add narrative text, like the history of this recipe as used at the tournament, that would work. :)
  - BobBagwill 6y ago
    And test the recipe with relatively unskilled staff. No proper chef would ever reveal the real recipe. :-)
- bombcar 6y ago
  If it wasn't for knowing the website I'd call it standard recipe blog spam - but it's an interesting read. I suspect that the secret isn't the ingredients but instead how it's made - and the way the cheese is handled may be it.
  - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 6y ago
    It could even be specific sources of the ingredients that lend to the secret. It's all well and good to get the exact recipe and even detailed instructions, but if the ingredients are sourced from a different place, it won't quite be the same.
    - jasonpeacock 6y ago
      The bane of every HW engineer, when "like" parts are substituted by the manufacturer...
- wiredfool 6y ago
  That's basically the entire point of atlas obscura.
- technofiend 6y ago
  If you're just looking for a good pimento cheese spread, go to Costco and get the Palmetto original flavor. https://www.pimentocheese.com/palmetto-cheese-12-oz/ https://www.pimentocheese.com/palmetto-cheese-12-oz/
  - mjcarroll 6y ago
    Palmetto is no longer available at Costco. Some have attributed it to the founder (and mayor of Pawley's Island) making some less-than-tasteful comments about BLM protests in a neighboring city. I don't know that Costco ever officially confirmed that, though. Source: https://news.yahoo.com/costco-pulls-palmetto-cheese-120-153424231.html https://news.yahoo.com/costco-pulls-palmetto-cheese-120-1534... Our local Costco has started carrying "Taste of the South" brand pimento cheese: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/taste-of-the-south-low-country-jalapeno-pimento-cheese%2C-24-oz.product.100392938.html https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/taste-of-the-south-lo...
    - technofiend 6y ago
      Yikes! Thanks for the heads up; if it isn't on NPR or hacker news I'm pretty oblivious.
    - gabagool 6y ago
      How does it compare?
      - mjcarroll 6y ago
        I think it's pretty solid. That plus the low carb bread from Costco is my go-to afternoon snack. The most notable thing is that it does have a carb in the serving size, while the Palmetto brand did not. I think if you were also being a pimento purist, it's coming from Easley, which is a long way from the coast?
    - chiph 6y ago
      That's sad to hear - it is pretty tasty. I think I have seen it at Sam's Club.
mistrial9 6y ago
side-note .. one of the largest USA non-profit frauds in American history was largely arranged over a week or so at a Playboy-sponsored Golf Tournament. As I recall, a new US Federal appointee under a Bush administration was put in charge of Federal Housing subsidy funds (you know, to keep people in homes while making modest money on the money) and instead, they siphoned off large amounts of it, and were caught. (details on request)
Simulacra 6y ago
I was lucky enough to go to the Masters in 1999, and 2014 and the change was remarkable. The 1999 course was very quaint and secluded, with the facilities mostly temporary structures. You parked in peoples front yards for $25 a day, and yes the food was great, yet cheap. Fast forward to 2014 and it's like the place had become a major sports park. Suddenly the houses are gone and you're parking in a huge field, going through metal detectors, large cafeterias, even a hotel has sprung up. What I liked about the 1999 course was how much it wasn't commercialized. In 2014 it felt overly commercialized, but I guess that's how they make money.
- ksdale 6y ago
  This is interesting to hear! They have multiple streams of the tournament on their website, including the TV broadcast, and the fact that they didn't charge for it always felt awesome to me. A few years ago, I was struck by how few commercials there were on the stream, but this year they were much more noticeable. I wonder where they'll settle as far as commercialization.
  - owlninja 6y ago
    Yea the Masters seems like the least commercialized event in all of major sports. They do a lot of unorthodox things to build that brand/mystique.
  - francisofascii 6y ago
    Also, the Masters phone app is wonderful compared to other sports apps and virtually ad free. (You will see IBM, AT&T logo in the top right, but it is barely noticeable.) You can see every shot, videos, live coverage, interviews. Just a joy to use.
  - pumaontheprowl 6y ago
    Augusta National was purpose-built to host a major golf championship. However, when the USGA rejected the course as a candidate for the US Open due to the summer heat in Georgia, they decided to make their own major instead. They were successful in this because they invited a small field of only the world's most elite golfers, put together one of the largest prize pools in golf, and made the event extremely welcoming to fans. The inexpensive food sold on the grounds is one of the most well-known examples of this last point, but the limited advertising during television/radio broadcasts is another key component of the fan experience that vaulted the Masters to worldwide prestige. Given that Augusta National is one of the most tradition-oriented places in the world, I doubt they will ever allow their broadcasting partners to significantly increase the volume of commercials. The leadership of Augusta National are firm believers in the adage "don't fix what isn't broken." And to be frank, if you watched this week's broadcast and thought they showed a lot of commercials, then you haven't watched golf on television this year. I'd estimate the volume of commercials was probably a quarter of that shown for a regular PGA tour event.
tptacek 6y ago
The ingredient list on the sandwich label doesn't leave a lot of room for secret ingredients; it's just cheese (american and swiss), cream, emulsifiers, lactic acid and pimento, plus the white bread and mayonnaise.
- deleted 6y ago
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- jessaustin 6y ago
  The American preference for white bread continues to astound me. Pimentos, cheese, and mayonnaise would be better on literally any other bread.
  - ProAm 6y ago
    All bread is gross.
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    Matters of taste are not debatable: they just exist. There are many gradations of white sandwich bread, though. There is little beneath Wonder Bread, but that space does exist. Above it: some store brands, Pepperidge Farm, and then some ways up, Arnold's Country White (which is itself at the bottom of Arnold's pale offerings: the Italian is a nice step up, and then their Sourdough, while not holding a candle to a fresh-baked loaf from any reasonable establishment, exceeds that by far). Other parts of the US may have their own challengers at any step of the ladder.
    - cheschire 6y ago
      If matters of taste are not debatable then why do people do it about art?
      - dsr_ 6y ago
        They don't debate art, they discuss it.
    - 6y ago
kyleblarson 6y ago
If you actually get invited to join, Augusta is also materially less expensive than most ultra exclusive golf clubs. https://www.liveabout.com/augusta-national-membership-1563545 https://www.liveabout.com/augusta-national-membership-156354...
- paxys 6y ago
  > If you actually get invited to join being the key part. Augusta has 300 members. Rest assured you won't be one of them even if you manage to scrape together the initiation fee.
  - gnu8 6y ago
    It is not a club I would care to be a member of in any case, given their history of excluding women and minorities.
    - listenallyall 6y ago
      This is purely rhetorical, as I have no doubt you will never be invited to join. However, my question is whether you believe there is ever a level of change and progress and reconciliation that would allow an organization with a far-from-perfect past, to move forward and embrace current social values? Or does every organization that ever had a history of racism or sexism permanently on your "banned" list? If there is no chance of ever getting on your (and people who think like you) right side, why should organizations make an effort to change?
      - refulgentis 6y ago
        Is this a common rejoinder? I was struck by the other replies stating the same question. Regardless, people who are black weren't invited until 1990, people with vaginas weren't invited until 2012, and the founder was rather infamously proud of this and loud-spoken about it. This is hardly a 'how many times do you need them to apologize' situation, in all cases they merely quietly began accepting people, after defending their position until then.
DoreenMichele 6y ago
What we do have, however, is a lifelong Masters patron and Augusta food blogger who wasn’t above reverse-engineering the ingredients list from the back of the wrapper in 2016. It’s an imitation of an imitation of an approximation... That's such a delightful description. When a new building is constructed, he says, it simply appears the day of the tournament’s opening, already inexplicably covered in vines. (Insert joke about how fast kudzu grows -- This is Georgia, after all.) The pimento cheese he sold from his store, Woodruff Drug in Aiken, South Carolina, won so many fans across the region that in the 1960s, Masters organizers dropped the husband-and-wife catering team they’d hired since the 1940s to make way for Rangos. For those not familiar with the area, Augusta is in Georgia and smooshed up against the Georgia-South Carolina state border. Aiken, South Carolina is about 20 miles away, about a thirty minute drive to some parts of Augusta. Augusta is a sprawling city. You can probably drive thirty minutes from point A to point B within Augusta, so reaching out to a unique business in a small town a few miles away is completely reasonable and not some big huge deal, logistically. Not to take anything away from the small business, just saying that "going to a whole other state!!!" is like tossing a rock across the river in this case, because some river no doubt serves as the demarcation for the state border.
- javert 6y ago
  > tossing a rock across the river Rivers can be miles wide. That's actually the norm in a lot of people's experiences. Where I am from, "tossing a rock across the river" would be taken to mean something that's impossible.
  - wil421 6y ago
    OP used his own version of a stone’s throw away. It’s farther away than a Hop, Skip, and, a Jump but not as close as spitting distance. Still not sure if a Hop, Skip, and a Jump is closer or father away than something you wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
    - grimjack00 6y ago
      The world record for the triple jump [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump] is just over 18 meters, so quite a bit further than a 10 foot pole.
crazygringo 6y ago
So was the secret ingredient... the tiny amount of finely minced fresh onion? Looking at the final recipe they came up with, that's the only one that seems like you might not guess. Garlic powder is the only other non-standard ingredient, but I feel like whenever you're looking for the "missing secret ingredient" in a savory dish, garlic powder, onion powder and mustard powder are the first things you'd think of, along with MSG and very occasionally nutmeg or pickles/pickle juice. (While paprika can only be secret in darkly colored dishes, otherwise you can see its specks.)
- Shivetya 6y ago
  freshly minced onion does wonders in more than a few recipes, it certainly can add that final kick to tartar sauce if not any recipe with a good creamy base. you don't even need to add much.
- stock_toaster 6y ago
  Maybe it was Silphium? ;)
- humanrebar 6y ago
  Nutritional yeast can also sneak in a lot of hard-to-place flavor, but given the dates, it doesn't seem to be a good candidate here.
- jzl 6y ago
  I think the point of that quote from the guy is that he realized what it was but he's not ever going to tell. The recipe in the article is the guessed one not the secret one.
brudgers 6y ago
Ever masters of the media, we are led to believe pimento cheese is the most important policy scandal of Grand National’s history.
- antiterra 6y ago
  You maybe missed the ‘obscura’ part of Atlas Obscura? I do think they could have spent a sentence or two on the racism of the place, considering they openly had policies against black membership far more recently than similar institutions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/masters-tradition-is-rooted-racism-sexism/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/masters-t...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - brudgers 6y ago
    I didn't miss anything. Usually it shines light. Here it obscures. Here it waxes about the magic of southern traditions. It speaks bullshit to non-power.
m463 6y ago
Now if I could only figure out the recipe for the pimento taco -- "a Pimentaco" -- in the glovebox
hammock 6y ago
If you are in the South, pick up a container of Palmetto cheese from the grocery store. That's my favorite pimento cheese. I eat it with Triscuit Thin Crisps. I have yet to have a "pimento cheese" at a restaurant that was actually any good.
- partiallypro 6y ago
  Palmetto is an amazing brand, the jalapeño version is incredible. I add it to burgers, sandwiches, etc.
- RavingGoat 6y ago
  Sadly, the owner of Palmetto cheese is a douchebag. Just google Sean Brocks pimento cheese recipe. Best recipe out there.
40four 6y ago
I love golf, and I love the Masters! To me, it has always been the unofficial ‘start of spring’. Congrats to Mr. Matsuyama on his victory this year! What a great story! Notice the prices of the concessions. They are only trying to break even at best, probably lose money. I still haven’t been in person, but these stories are legendary. This is one of the reasons it is considered the best pro sports event you can attend. Doesn’t matter if your a golf fan or not. You will enjoy the day walking around one of the most beautiful and pristinely manicured properties in the world. I dare you to find a blade of grass, or needle of pine straw, that is out of place! You will be treated like you’re worth something. You’re a ‘patron’ gosh darn it! Not just some shlub who scalped a ticket. Concessions and souvenirs are cheap. Augusta National is not there to gouge you for $12 beers and burgers like every other pro sports event in the world. They are there to host the greatest golf tournament in the world, and e sure every patron has a fantastic experience. It’s an ethos really. And the their way of doing things has become legendary. Long live The Masters!
- chihuahua 6y ago
  How difficult or expensive is it to get tickets? When I was more interested in golf, I used to love watching the Masters on TV. The organizers limit the amount of ads the network can insert so it's much less annoying than regular TV. Very calming and beautiful to look at.
  - dpeck 6y ago
    There’s a lottery where you can get them basically free. The members of The National, and the club itself don’t need the money.
  - listenallyall 6y ago
    If you can actually get a badge (not tickets) directly from Augusta National (likely via the lottery), it costs $115. If you're a random person trying to buy one on Stubhub, prepare to pay $6000+. https://golf.com/news/tournaments/2019-masters-tickets-absurd-prices-secondary-market/ https://golf.com/news/tournaments/2019-masters-tickets-absur...
  - 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
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AugustaProtecc 6y ago
Throwaway to not dox myself, thanks. This article and this thread are written with comments with an air of awe and inspiration at The Masters. It's a sentiment held by tourists and rich people in Augusta. That's not reality. > Dickson watched the Masters purchase and raze her childhood friends’ entire neighborhood to build a parking lot. “Then five years ago they bought another whole apartment complex, tore it down, and put up another parking lot,” Yeah that's kind of the tip of the iceberg here. I was born and raised in that apartment complex. It's a field now. Everyone in that neighborhood knew that The Masters is a force of nature with more money than God. At 6 years old I knew they'd eventually bulldoze the whole neighborhood, including the apartment complex, the Food Lion, the IHOP, the steakhouse, the various strip malls in-between the large oddly-run church who named their strip mall "The Masters' Plaza" (who, at some point got into a legal battle with The Masters and won). The article makes it seem like some kind of surprise that these events happened, but this was par for the course (har har) for The Masters behavior. They'd quietly bought up adjacent properties for years and years and do nothing with them, allowing time to slowly erode the people they'd push out in the process, in the name of their golf club. That apartment complex was a hive of poor and working class people. It was ~85% Black American, old people on welfare, and mentally disabled people. People who worked as security guards, nurses, truckers, at restaurants and small businesses and more. It was definitely full of crime, and a good place to get drugs, and had some nearby geography (woods and cliffs) on the back of the property that made it easy to hide illegal activity. The property itself was not profitable for any company that owned it as far as I'm aware, until they sold it to the next owner. It was a ponzi scheme of sorts. Growing up there, the name of the complex changed a half-dozen times, from San Susi, to Oak Park, and so on. Each time they'd try to theme the apartment complex, like some kind of hand-me-down amusement park. The original design had "S" as the divider line in all the sidewalks. Then the next iteration they planted oak trees everywhere. Finally during the third major iteration, they moved the main leasing office from a humble repurposed apartment and built a fucking mansion of a building. I heard it cost millions to build. Keep in mind this is a place where a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment costs $400 a month. I think when they built that new leasing office that pissed a lot of people off. Eventually, an iteration or two later, they built fences around the entire major part of the property, which brought the crime elements down a bit. They added a security gate and a guard out front. Eventually, they sold the field at the front of the property to The Masters. They had already allowed The Masters to park cars there for a few years already, so why not? My point being, this place had history. There were residents who'd never move out on their own. There were some residents so old, or disabled, or on social services that they'd never be able to move anywhere else unless forced. There were people who were born there and lived their entire life there in their 20s and 30s. I wasn't there for when they condemned the property but I can only imagine the absolute nightmare that it caused. What the folks at The Masters did was disassemble the neighborhood piece by piece. When they saw weakness, they'd buy a small piece of land for cheap and add it to their collection. After all, they have time on their side. How do you buy an apartment complex for cheap? You make it worth less by getting rid of the support services nearby. You get rid of the grocery store that people could walk to in order to buy their groceries because they were too poor to own a car. You buy the nearby church. You buy the IHOP. You buy the small businesses and you strong arm them out. The camera repairshop, the music business, the barber. And when you do, you don't put anything there. Maybe some grass. Some trees, after a while. Take down the signs, leave the structure. They even managed to close a major road (Old Berckmans Road) and buy a whole set of houses. After a while you end up with this eerie amusement park feeling. Where there used to be a neighborhood, now there's this shell of a landscape, this amusement park for rich people to play golf. Of course, there's a different set of rules for the rich. There's a Windsor Jewelers that opened a lavish storefront right across from The Masters years ago. Now how does that happen? A piece of land in front of The Masters is for sale and they don't buy it? It doesn't turn into a piece of grassland? Of course, the real story is that the owner is a friend of the owners of The Masters, who also owns a space downtown where he keeps his fancy car collection, and has an apartment-hotel of sorts that he rents out to fancy visitors during the tournament, and for events, weddings, and so on. But that business won't ever be threatened. The article reads just like I'd expect it to read. It's about this strange story about a piece of amusement park food for rich people. All these people and their lives in the shadow of this rich man's amusement park are just a footnote. "Oh yeah, and then they moved the poors out to make more trees, and eventually they made a hotel that's occupied for only 2 weeks out of the year". So glad I managed to escape "disgusta" Georgia many years ago. If I never go back it'd be too soon.

122 points by ecliptik 6y ago

I honestly don’t know what to make of this article. Interesting story of something completely unimportant. There is a recipe for said sandwiches at the end which I will try out.

exhilaration 6y ago
I think the lesson for HN readers is that if you're going to fire your best talent, make sure they document everything well ahead of time.
- tacker2000 6y ago
  True! At least they kept some sandwiches in the freezer to reverse engineer later
- tantalor 6y ago
  It's more like source code, but anyway the vendor was presumably under contract which did not include divulging the recipe. I wonder if they could have sued to recover the recipe as a "work for hire", where typically the employer is the owner of the work product. The law covers "instructional text" which sounds like a recipe to me. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf It depends on the nature of the original agreement, whether the recipe was created especially and exclusively for the event, or the vendor developed it on their own time.
  - tzs 6y ago
    In the case of the original sandwich maker, Rangos, clearly not. He was making his pimento cheese and selling it in his store before the Masters ever hired him. In the case of the second sandwich maker, Godfrey, who replaced Rangos and developed his pimento cheese recipe for the Masters, probably not. First of all, work for hire concerns who owns the copyright to something and recipes are not subject to copyright. It is possible, though, that there is some expression in the way that he wrote the recipe that could be copyrighted, so let's say the Masters wants to make a work for hire argument that they own the copyright of that. To be a work for hire, something must either be (1) made by an employee within the scope of their employment, or (2) fall into one of several categories and be declared a work for hire by the parties in a written instrument signed by them. It doesn't sound like the pimento cheese provider is an employee of the Masters. He sounds more like a contractor. That would take out #1 of the two ways something could be a work for hire. As far as #2 goes, first they have to explicitly have said in their signed written contract that the expression of the recipe will be a work for hire. That seems unlikely. But let us say they did, and let us assume that the particular expression of the recipe counts as an instructional text. Let's say that means that the Masters owns the copyright on that particular expression of the underlying, uncopyrighted, recipe. So what? That just means they get to stop people from making and distributing copies of that text. It doesn't give them any power to compel someone who has a copy to turn it (or a copy of it) over to them.
    - redis_mlc 6y ago
      > recipes are not subject to copyright. The ingredient list and directions (process) are not copyrightable on their own, but if you add narrative text, like the history of this recipe as used at the tournament, that would work. :)
- BobBagwill 6y ago
  And test the recipe with relatively unskilled staff. No proper chef would ever reveal the real recipe. :-)
bombcar 6y ago
If it wasn't for knowing the website I'd call it standard recipe blog spam - but it's an interesting read. I suspect that the secret isn't the ingredients but instead how it's made - and the way the cheese is handled may be it.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 6y ago
  It could even be specific sources of the ingredients that lend to the secret. It's all well and good to get the exact recipe and even detailed instructions, but if the ingredients are sourced from a different place, it won't quite be the same.
  - jasonpeacock 6y ago
    The bane of every HW engineer, when "like" parts are substituted by the manufacturer...
wiredfool 6y ago
That's basically the entire point of atlas obscura.
technofiend 6y ago
If you're just looking for a good pimento cheese spread, go to Costco and get the Palmetto original flavor. https://www.pimentocheese.com/palmetto-cheese-12-oz/ https://www.pimentocheese.com/palmetto-cheese-12-oz/
- mjcarroll 6y ago
  Palmetto is no longer available at Costco. Some have attributed it to the founder (and mayor of Pawley's Island) making some less-than-tasteful comments about BLM protests in a neighboring city. I don't know that Costco ever officially confirmed that, though. Source: https://news.yahoo.com/costco-pulls-palmetto-cheese-120-153424231.html https://news.yahoo.com/costco-pulls-palmetto-cheese-120-1534... Our local Costco has started carrying "Taste of the South" brand pimento cheese: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/taste-of-the-south-low-country-jalapeno-pimento-cheese%2C-24-oz.product.100392938.html https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/taste-of-the-south-lo...
  - technofiend 6y ago
    Yikes! Thanks for the heads up; if it isn't on NPR or hacker news I'm pretty oblivious.
  - gabagool 6y ago
    How does it compare?
    - mjcarroll 6y ago
      I think it's pretty solid. That plus the low carb bread from Costco is my go-to afternoon snack. The most notable thing is that it does have a carb in the serving size, while the Palmetto brand did not. I think if you were also being a pimento purist, it's coming from Easley, which is a long way from the coast?
  - chiph 6y ago
    That's sad to hear - it is pretty tasty. I think I have seen it at Sam's Club.

mistrial9 6y ago

side-note .. one of the largest USA non-profit frauds in American history was largely arranged over a week or so at a Playboy-sponsored Golf Tournament. As I recall, a new US Federal appointee under a Bush administration was put in charge of Federal Housing subsidy funds (you know, to keep people in homes while making modest money on the money) and instead, they siphoned off large amounts of it, and were caught. (details on request)

Simulacra 6y ago

I was lucky enough to go to the Masters in 1999, and 2014 and the change was remarkable. The 1999 course was very quaint and secluded, with the facilities mostly temporary structures. You parked in peoples front yards for $25 a day, and yes the food was great, yet cheap. Fast forward to 2014 and it's like the place had become a major sports park. Suddenly the houses are gone and you're parking in a huge field, going through metal detectors, large cafeterias, even a hotel has sprung up. What I liked about the 1999 course was how much it wasn't commercialized. In 2014 it felt overly commercialized, but I guess that's how they make money.

ksdale 6y ago
This is interesting to hear! They have multiple streams of the tournament on their website, including the TV broadcast, and the fact that they didn't charge for it always felt awesome to me. A few years ago, I was struck by how few commercials there were on the stream, but this year they were much more noticeable. I wonder where they'll settle as far as commercialization.
- owlninja 6y ago
  Yea the Masters seems like the least commercialized event in all of major sports. They do a lot of unorthodox things to build that brand/mystique.
- francisofascii 6y ago
  Also, the Masters phone app is wonderful compared to other sports apps and virtually ad free. (You will see IBM, AT&T logo in the top right, but it is barely noticeable.) You can see every shot, videos, live coverage, interviews. Just a joy to use.
- pumaontheprowl 6y ago
  Augusta National was purpose-built to host a major golf championship. However, when the USGA rejected the course as a candidate for the US Open due to the summer heat in Georgia, they decided to make their own major instead. They were successful in this because they invited a small field of only the world's most elite golfers, put together one of the largest prize pools in golf, and made the event extremely welcoming to fans. The inexpensive food sold on the grounds is one of the most well-known examples of this last point, but the limited advertising during television/radio broadcasts is another key component of the fan experience that vaulted the Masters to worldwide prestige. Given that Augusta National is one of the most tradition-oriented places in the world, I doubt they will ever allow their broadcasting partners to significantly increase the volume of commercials. The leadership of Augusta National are firm believers in the adage "don't fix what isn't broken." And to be frank, if you watched this week's broadcast and thought they showed a lot of commercials, then you haven't watched golf on television this year. I'd estimate the volume of commercials was probably a quarter of that shown for a regular PGA tour event.

tptacek 6y ago

The ingredient list on the sandwich label doesn't leave a lot of room for secret ingredients; it's just cheese (american and swiss), cream, emulsifiers, lactic acid and pimento, plus the white bread and mayonnaise.

deleted 6y ago
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jessaustin 6y ago
The American preference for white bread continues to astound me. Pimentos, cheese, and mayonnaise would be better on literally any other bread.
- ProAm 6y ago
  All bread is gross.
- dsr_ 6y ago
  Matters of taste are not debatable: they just exist. There are many gradations of white sandwich bread, though. There is little beneath Wonder Bread, but that space does exist. Above it: some store brands, Pepperidge Farm, and then some ways up, Arnold's Country White (which is itself at the bottom of Arnold's pale offerings: the Italian is a nice step up, and then their Sourdough, while not holding a candle to a fresh-baked loaf from any reasonable establishment, exceeds that by far). Other parts of the US may have their own challengers at any step of the ladder.
  - cheschire 6y ago
    If matters of taste are not debatable then why do people do it about art?
    - dsr_ 6y ago
      They don't debate art, they discuss it.
  - 6y ago

kyleblarson 6y ago

If you actually get invited to join, Augusta is also materially less expensive than most ultra exclusive golf clubs. https://www.liveabout.com/augusta-national-membership-1563545 https://www.liveabout.com/augusta-national-membership-156354...

paxys 6y ago
> If you actually get invited to join being the key part. Augusta has 300 members. Rest assured you won't be one of them even if you manage to scrape together the initiation fee.
- gnu8 6y ago
  It is not a club I would care to be a member of in any case, given their history of excluding women and minorities.
  - listenallyall 6y ago
    This is purely rhetorical, as I have no doubt you will never be invited to join. However, my question is whether you believe there is ever a level of change and progress and reconciliation that would allow an organization with a far-from-perfect past, to move forward and embrace current social values? Or does every organization that ever had a history of racism or sexism permanently on your "banned" list? If there is no chance of ever getting on your (and people who think like you) right side, why should organizations make an effort to change?
    - refulgentis 6y ago
      Is this a common rejoinder? I was struck by the other replies stating the same question. Regardless, people who are black weren't invited until 1990, people with vaginas weren't invited until 2012, and the founder was rather infamously proud of this and loud-spoken about it. This is hardly a 'how many times do you need them to apologize' situation, in all cases they merely quietly began accepting people, after defending their position until then.

DoreenMichele 6y ago

What we do have, however, is a lifelong Masters patron and Augusta food blogger who wasn’t above reverse-engineering the ingredients list from the back of the wrapper in 2016. It’s an imitation of an imitation of an approximation... That's such a delightful description. When a new building is constructed, he says, it simply appears the day of the tournament’s opening, already inexplicably covered in vines. (Insert joke about how fast kudzu grows -- This is Georgia, after all.) The pimento cheese he sold from his store, Woodruff Drug in Aiken, South Carolina, won so many fans across the region that in the 1960s, Masters organizers dropped the husband-and-wife catering team they’d hired since the 1940s to make way for Rangos. For those not familiar with the area, Augusta is in Georgia and smooshed up against the Georgia-South Carolina state border. Aiken, South Carolina is about 20 miles away, about a thirty minute drive to some parts of Augusta. Augusta is a sprawling city. You can probably drive thirty minutes from point A to point B within Augusta, so reaching out to a unique business in a small town a few miles away is completely reasonable and not some big huge deal, logistically. Not to take anything away from the small business, just saying that "going to a whole other state!!!" is like tossing a rock across the river in this case, because some river no doubt serves as the demarcation for the state border.

javert 6y ago
> tossing a rock across the river Rivers can be miles wide. That's actually the norm in a lot of people's experiences. Where I am from, "tossing a rock across the river" would be taken to mean something that's impossible.
- wil421 6y ago
  OP used his own version of a stone’s throw away. It’s farther away than a Hop, Skip, and, a Jump but not as close as spitting distance. Still not sure if a Hop, Skip, and a Jump is closer or father away than something you wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
  - grimjack00 6y ago
    The world record for the triple jump [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_jump] is just over 18 meters, so quite a bit further than a 10 foot pole.

crazygringo 6y ago

So was the secret ingredient... the tiny amount of finely minced fresh onion? Looking at the final recipe they came up with, that's the only one that seems like you might not guess. Garlic powder is the only other non-standard ingredient, but I feel like whenever you're looking for the "missing secret ingredient" in a savory dish, garlic powder, onion powder and mustard powder are the first things you'd think of, along with MSG and very occasionally nutmeg or pickles/pickle juice. (While paprika can only be secret in darkly colored dishes, otherwise you can see its specks.)

Shivetya 6y ago
freshly minced onion does wonders in more than a few recipes, it certainly can add that final kick to tartar sauce if not any recipe with a good creamy base. you don't even need to add much.
stock_toaster 6y ago
Maybe it was Silphium? ;)
humanrebar 6y ago
Nutritional yeast can also sneak in a lot of hard-to-place flavor, but given the dates, it doesn't seem to be a good candidate here.
jzl 6y ago
I think the point of that quote from the guy is that he realized what it was but he's not ever going to tell. The recipe in the article is the guessed one not the secret one.

brudgers 6y ago

Ever masters of the media, we are led to believe pimento cheese is the most important policy scandal of Grand National’s history.

antiterra 6y ago
You maybe missed the ‘obscura’ part of Atlas Obscura? I do think they could have spent a sentence or two on the racism of the place, considering they openly had policies against black membership far more recently than similar institutions. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/masters-tradition-is-rooted-racism-sexism/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/08/masters-t...
- deleted 6y ago
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- brudgers 6y ago
  I didn't miss anything. Usually it shines light. Here it obscures. Here it waxes about the magic of southern traditions. It speaks bullshit to non-power.

m463 6y ago

Now if I could only figure out the recipe for the pimento taco -- "a Pimentaco" -- in the glovebox

hammock 6y ago

If you are in the South, pick up a container of Palmetto cheese from the grocery store. That's my favorite pimento cheese. I eat it with Triscuit Thin Crisps. I have yet to have a "pimento cheese" at a restaurant that was actually any good.

partiallypro 6y ago
Palmetto is an amazing brand, the jalapeño version is incredible. I add it to burgers, sandwiches, etc.
RavingGoat 6y ago
Sadly, the owner of Palmetto cheese is a douchebag. Just google Sean Brocks pimento cheese recipe. Best recipe out there.

40four 6y ago

I love golf, and I love the Masters! To me, it has always been the unofficial ‘start of spring’. Congrats to Mr. Matsuyama on his victory this year! What a great story! Notice the prices of the concessions. They are only trying to break even at best, probably lose money. I still haven’t been in person, but these stories are legendary. This is one of the reasons it is considered the best pro sports event you can attend. Doesn’t matter if your a golf fan or not. You will enjoy the day walking around one of the most beautiful and pristinely manicured properties in the world. I dare you to find a blade of grass, or needle of pine straw, that is out of place! You will be treated like you’re worth something. You’re a ‘patron’ gosh darn it! Not just some shlub who scalped a ticket. Concessions and souvenirs are cheap. Augusta National is not there to gouge you for $12 beers and burgers like every other pro sports event in the world. They are there to host the greatest golf tournament in the world, and e sure every patron has a fantastic experience. It’s an ethos really. And the their way of doing things has become legendary. Long live The Masters!

chihuahua 6y ago
How difficult or expensive is it to get tickets? When I was more interested in golf, I used to love watching the Masters on TV. The organizers limit the amount of ads the network can insert so it's much less annoying than regular TV. Very calming and beautiful to look at.
- dpeck 6y ago
  There’s a lottery where you can get them basically free. The members of The National, and the club itself don’t need the money.
- listenallyall 6y ago
  If you can actually get a badge (not tickets) directly from Augusta National (likely via the lottery), it costs $115. If you're a random person trying to buy one on Stubhub, prepare to pay $6000+. https://golf.com/news/tournaments/2019-masters-tickets-absurd-prices-secondary-market/ https://golf.com/news/tournaments/2019-masters-tickets-absur...
- 6y ago

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AugustaProtecc 6y ago

Throwaway to not dox myself, thanks. This article and this thread are written with comments with an air of awe and inspiration at The Masters. It's a sentiment held by tourists and rich people in Augusta. That's not reality. > Dickson watched the Masters purchase and raze her childhood friends’ entire neighborhood to build a parking lot. “Then five years ago they bought another whole apartment complex, tore it down, and put up another parking lot,” Yeah that's kind of the tip of the iceberg here. I was born and raised in that apartment complex. It's a field now. Everyone in that neighborhood knew that The Masters is a force of nature with more money than God. At 6 years old I knew they'd eventually bulldoze the whole neighborhood, including the apartment complex, the Food Lion, the IHOP, the steakhouse, the various strip malls in-between the large oddly-run church who named their strip mall "The Masters' Plaza" (who, at some point got into a legal battle with The Masters and won). The article makes it seem like some kind of surprise that these events happened, but this was par for the course (har har) for The Masters behavior. They'd quietly bought up adjacent properties for years and years and do nothing with them, allowing time to slowly erode the people they'd push out in the process, in the name of their golf club. That apartment complex was a hive of poor and working class people. It was ~85% Black American, old people on welfare, and mentally disabled people. People who worked as security guards, nurses, truckers, at restaurants and small businesses and more. It was definitely full of crime, and a good place to get drugs, and had some nearby geography (woods and cliffs) on the back of the property that made it easy to hide illegal activity. The property itself was not profitable for any company that owned it as far as I'm aware, until they sold it to the next owner. It was a ponzi scheme of sorts. Growing up there, the name of the complex changed a half-dozen times, from San Susi, to Oak Park, and so on. Each time they'd try to theme the apartment complex, like some kind of hand-me-down amusement park. The original design had "S" as the divider line in all the sidewalks. Then the next iteration they planted oak trees everywhere. Finally during the third major iteration, they moved the main leasing office from a humble repurposed apartment and built a fucking mansion of a building. I heard it cost millions to build. Keep in mind this is a place where a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment costs $400 a month. I think when they built that new leasing office that pissed a lot of people off. Eventually, an iteration or two later, they built fences around the entire major part of the property, which brought the crime elements down a bit. They added a security gate and a guard out front. Eventually, they sold the field at the front of the property to The Masters. They had already allowed The Masters to park cars there for a few years already, so why not? My point being, this place had history. There were residents who'd never move out on their own. There were some residents so old, or disabled, or on social services that they'd never be able to move anywhere else unless forced. There were people who were born there and lived their entire life there in their 20s and 30s. I wasn't there for when they condemned the property but I can only imagine the absolute nightmare that it caused. What the folks at The Masters did was disassemble the neighborhood piece by piece. When they saw weakness, they'd buy a small piece of land for cheap and add it to their collection. After all, they have time on their side. How do you buy an apartment complex for cheap? You make it worth less by getting rid of the support services nearby. You get rid of the grocery store that people could walk to in order to buy their groceries because they were too poor to own a car. You buy the nearby church. You buy the IHOP. You buy the small businesses and you strong arm them out. The camera repairshop, the music business, the barber. And when you do, you don't put anything there. Maybe some grass. Some trees, after a while. Take down the signs, leave the structure. They even managed to close a major road (Old Berckmans Road) and buy a whole set of houses. After a while you end up with this eerie amusement park feeling. Where there used to be a neighborhood, now there's this shell of a landscape, this amusement park for rich people to play golf. Of course, there's a different set of rules for the rich. There's a Windsor Jewelers that opened a lavish storefront right across from The Masters years ago. Now how does that happen? A piece of land in front of The Masters is for sale and they don't buy it? It doesn't turn into a piece of grassland? Of course, the real story is that the owner is a friend of the owners of The Masters, who also owns a space downtown where he keeps his fancy car collection, and has an apartment-hotel of sorts that he rents out to fancy visitors during the tournament, and for events, weddings, and so on. But that business won't ever be threatened. The article reads just like I'd expect it to read. It's about this strange story about a piece of amusement park food for rich people. All these people and their lives in the shadow of this rich man's amusement park are just a footnote. "Oh yeah, and then they moved the poors out to make more trees, and eventually they made a hotel that's occupied for only 2 weeks out of the year". So glad I managed to escape "disgusta" Georgia many years ago. If I never go back it'd be too soon.