Tracking Masters Food Prices As Far Back As We Can

Ask any attendee to name three things they appreciate about the Masters, and we’ll bet food prices are mentioned. Augusta National Golf Club has exceptionally low prices for their concessions out of respect for the “patron experience,” a posture they’ve maintained while other big events gouge attendees with $10 popcorn and $18 beers. 

The Masters stands alone for the lengths they go to curate this patron experience, from limited commercial broadcasts to dyed ponds and yes, absurdly low food prices. If you go to the tournament today, you can fill your belly and quench your thirst (a few times) for around twenty bucks. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll experience southern delicacies like pimento cheese and peach ice cream sandwiches. 

It has us thinking about how little Masters food prices have changed over the years. So we scoured the internet, asked all our friends, and dove deep into Reddit threads to chart the price history of the most beloved of Masters foods: the Pimento Cheese sandwich, which you can enjoy for just $1.50. 

The Origins of the Pimento Cheese Sandwich

Let’s take a step back and talk about pimento cheese for one minute. It’s a curious food, simply made with a base of shredded cheddar cheese, diced pimentos, and copious amounts of mayonnaise. A Southern Living article dates the concoction back to 1908 when a recipe composed of cream cheese, mustard, chives and minced pimentos ran in Good Housekeeping. Cream cheese, though not used in the modern recipe, holds its own place in the weird cheese cannon as a creation of New York farmers in the 1870s who were experimenting with soft, unripened cheese products. File that one away for some deep Masters trivia.

Anyways, pimento cheese became something of a craze and people couldn’t get enough of it. Back then, sweet red peppers (“pimientos”) were imported from Spain until the demand for pimento cheese became so great that a group of Georgia farmers saw an opportunity. They learned how to cultivate a domestic pimento they named “Truhart Perfection” and even invented a roasting method that made it easier to peel them. By the late 1930s, Georgia production facilities were shipping millions of cans of roasted red peppers across the country. 

While farmers were perfecting the pimientos, the cooks were busy perfecting the recipe. The original pimento cheese called for cream cheese, and the first commercially made pimento cheese product was made this way. But factory-made cream cheese wasn’t an easy score during the Great Depression, leading to the substitution of “hoop” cheese, a derivative of cottage cheese, that was cheap and widely available across the south. By the late 1940s, hoop cheese was out and grated sharp cheddar was in, completing the evolution from industrial concoction to the southern delicacy enjoyed by so many today.

So that’s about 4 decades of pimento cheese mania, and now our timeline returns to Augusta.

When did the Masters Pimento Cheese Sandwich Debut?

According to the Augusta Chronicle, the pimento cheese sandwich made its Masters debut in 1947 when an enterprising local couple, Hodges and Ola Herndon, made them in their kitchen and sold them on the course for 25 cents. After the tournament, Clifford Roberts, President of Augusta National Country Club, and co-founder Bobby Jones wrote them a complimentary letter about the sandwich, which had become a viral hit. 

The letter from Roberts and Jones invited the Herdon’s to provide concessions again the following year. Hodges had food service experience but needed a team, so he recruited fraternity brothers from Georgia’s Phi Delta chapter and convinced the lead professor at the business school to grant them a week off class for the hands-on experience. So it was that this humble pimento cheese sandwich, made from Hodges’ father’s recipe, became as rooted in Masters tradition as Amen Corner and the iconic Masters logo. 

The Herndon’s would provide concessions until the early 1950s, when the tournament crowds grew too large for their homegrown operation and Augusta National brought in a new vendor. We’ll dive down that rabbit hole shortly, but first let’s talk about the price.

Masters Food Prices of the Pimento Cheese: From $0.25 to $1.50

We don’t know how much, if any, the price increased after the transition from the Herndon’s. But we know they cost $1.50 in 2022, which is remarkable in its own right. Even the most basic inflation calculator tells us something purchased in the 1940s for a quarter should cost at least 4 times that much today, possibly even more given nearly 12% inflation of food prices in 2022. Clearly, pimento cheese sandwiches are a loss leader for Augusta National, but their impact on the patron experience creates a perception of value that pays off at the merchandise tent, where they sell nearly $70 million in products each year. If they chose to maximize their food prices, they’d make nearly $12 million instead of the $8 million they brought in during the 2022 tournament.

So how many times did the price change over the course of 4 decades? We’ve confirmed the $1.50 price as of 2003 from a New York Times article. Some patrons we spoke to recall $1.25 in the late 1990s and before that, one dollar during the first George (H.W.) Bush administration. That means over forty years, the price increased by a meagre $1.25. If the sandwich had followed the consumer price index from 1945, it would cost $7. Another way to look at it: adjusted for inflation, in 1945 a quarter would be worth $3.45 in 2023, so even by today’s standards, the $1.50 pimento cheese sandwich is worth half its real monetary value when it was first debuted at the Masters.

All About the Patron Experience

It’s highly notable that a major sporting event would leave so much money on the table, but that’s par for the course at Augusta National Golf Club. Their commitment to the patron experience is greater than their desire for profits, and they have never wavered in their intention of producing the most perfect golf tournament we have ever seen.

However, things weren’t always so perfect for their pimento cheese sandwich. 

The Complicated History of the Masters Pimento Cheese

One thing’s for sure about traditional southern foods: they each have their own special recipe, from pappy’s secret spice blend to a technique grandma used that absolutely makes all the difference. So it wouldn’t surprise anyone that pimento cheese would have its own eccentricities, but this was something the Masters seemed to overlook. Let’s go back to the early 1950s when the Herndon’s stopped their service, because that’s when our story gets a little complicated.

As the Masters grew and crowds got larger, Augusta National knew it would need to expand their concessions offerings (along with their highly popular Masters merchandise). So they turned to a local food vendor named Nick Rangos, who ran concessions until 1998. Presumably, Rangos picked up right where the Herndon’s left off, and offered a pimento cheese sandwich that must have tasted just like theirs. 

Now let’s set the stage. Through Rangos’ fifty year tenure, patrons consumed countless pimento cheese sandwiches while the Masters established itself as the greatest tournament in the game. Everyone took part in the custom; two-time winner Tom Watson’s caddy would eat a pimento cheese on the tee box of Hole 13 Azalea during every round. Five decades of amazing Masters memories enjoyed over the same delicious pimento cheese sandwich by people who appreciate tradition. It was a perfect southern pairing: fried chicken and collard greens, shrimp and grits, the Masters and pimento cheese.

But it all came to a halt in 1999, when patrons noticed a change in their beloved sandwich.

One recipe, from Arnold Palmer’s wife Winnie, appeared in a 1977 Augusta Junior League Cookbook called Tea-Time at the Masters.

You Take My Business, I Take Your Sandwich

What happened? Why fix something that wasn’t broken? According to several articles, the club became concerned about food safety standards and believed a more professional food service vendor was necessary to comply with government regulations. So they took the business from Rangos and gave it to Ted Godfrey, owner of a local fried chicken chain called WifeSaver (seriously, that’s the name). 

This did not sit well with Rangos, and he refused to give his secret recipe over to the new vendor. 

Godfrey, who still had sandwiches to sell, set about recreating the pimento cheese but was unsuccessful, and patrons did not take kindly to this disruption. According to Rangos’ son Billy, the new version was “quite different…a sandwich I did not enjoy.” Others said it was spicier, and may have used more mayo on account of the bread being soggier. The brouhaha was catching everyone’s attention. The perfect Masters pairing was perfect no more.

Try as he might, Godfrey just couldn’t get the blend right. As he told ESPN Senior Writer Wright Thompson: “The cheese was a distinct cheese. It was more orange than most cheeses. I knew I didn't have the right cheese.” So he resorted to clandestine measures and obtained invoices from the food suppliers Rangos had used during past tournaments. That may have gotten his cheese game up to par, but the blend of seasoning and a secret ingredient he couldn’t quite identify kept the perfect pimento cheese sandwich just beyond reach. Then as luck would have it, Godfrey’s was about to change. 

The Freezer Reincarnation

Everybody knows someone who never cleans out their fridge, and this particular type of person happened to work for Masters concessions. They produced a frozen container of pimento cheese saved from Rangos’ final year and gave it over to Godfrey for reverse-engineering. Even after the culinary disaggregation, Godfrey still couldn’t pass the taste tests of those discerning patrons. It still missed a key ingredient, and how he discovered it is the cheesiest ending of all time: it would come to him in a dream. 

So what was that secret ingredient? That’s for Godfrey to know, for he too is keeping his blend a secret, possibly because of his own firing in 2013 when the Masters brought all concessions in house. We think, based on all the recipes we reviewed and articles we read, that it was finely minced onions. But the truth is, we’ll never know the complete story of the Masters pimento cheese sandwich. And maybe that’s a befitting end to this strange tale, given the mystique associated with Augusta National Golf Club. Some things are better left to history, especially when we can still enjoy them in the present.

From humble beginnings to the best $1.50 you can spend on a sandwich, Masters food prices add more lore to one of golf’s most legendary places. We would love to hear any stories our readers have about their concession experience. If you have any proof of changes to the Masters food prices over the years, please get in touch!

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