by Course Collector
Having played over 50% of most top 100 lists (including Augusta), I find this proposition preposterous. Given the sampling are most likely the hands that feed Augusta, the result is not surprising. "Prestige" is in the eyes of the beholder. For the majority of the world (golf or not), the Masters and Augusta National represent old money, old ways ("tradition"), and most importantly, old attitudes. For many of us, admiring a group of self-centered bigots (and those who may not be bigots but still associate with them) is not prestigious. I appreciated the opportunities to have played there but the attitudes and bigotry I experienced and saw are NOT what I would call prestigious. The reason there are no commercials: when you have amassed concentrated wealth on the back of the common folks through both "legal" and other means, you don't need outside funding. Goes to show how far we still have to go in this country and how far perception and reality are from each other...

by Wendy (UK)
&, of course, it is revered by those o/s the US as well.