GBR Special Masters Week | 35 Private Jets Are Still Heading To Augusta With Room For You — From $3,105 (Plus How AI Is Saving Golf Courses Up To $10,000 A Month)
Masters Week is here. Private jets, AI concierge, and Andy North's most dramatic hole yet — everything the golf industry needs to know before the first tee shot tomorrow.
Hello, GBR community.
The Masters starts tomorrow. Augusta is ready. And if you are still looking for a way to get there, you are not as stuck as you think — there are 35 private jets heading to Augusta this week with empty seats, and the cheapest starts at $3,105.
We have also got a guest piece from Clive Mayhew, CEO and Founder of GOLF.AI, on how a single operational decision is saving golf courses up to $10,000 a month — and why Sir Nick Faldo is involved.
Plus Andy North’s stunning renovation of Trappers Turn’s Canyon #7, the Golf Business Technology Conference coming to Belfast in May.
Let’s go!
GOLF.AI CLAIMS ITS AI CONCIERGE IS SAVING COURSES UP TO $10,000 A MONTH — AND HAS PARTNERED WITH SIR NICK FALDO TO BRING AI TO THE HEART OF THE GAME
We asked our friend Clive Mayhew, CEO and Founder of GOLF.AI, to write a piece for GBR this Masters Week — and what he has put together is well worth your time if you run, own, or invest in a golf facility.
The argument is straightforward: the Pro Shop phone is one of the most expensive problems in golf operations, and most courses have no idea. A course taking 35 calls a day with just 20% going unanswered is missing over $53,000 in annual revenue. Multiply that across thousands of facilities and you start to understand the scale of what GOLF.AI is trying to fix.
Their solution is the GOLF.AI Concierge Agent — an AI-powered system that answers every inbound call, handles bookings, pricing queries, availability, cancellations, and after-hours enquiries, without requiring new software, hardware, or changes to existing workflows. It works with your current tee sheet and booking engine. You can be live in minutes. Early deployments are showing between $5,000 and $10,000 per month in recovered operational value.
Pricing starts at $99 per month for up to 200 calls. Every plan includes a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
And there is a bigger story here too. GOLF.AI has just announced Sir Nick Faldo as its Official Ambassador, alongside the launch of “Golf’s New Voice” — a YouTube series from GOLF.AI Studios that pairs Faldo’s six decades at the game’s highest level with AI-driven analysis of golf’s greatest moments, from the psychology of elite performance to where the game is headed by 2030.
GOLF BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE 2026 RETURNS TO BELFAST WITH OVER 50 SPEAKERS AND A FULL AGENDA ON AI, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE FUTURE OF GOLF ENTERTAINMENT
Golf’s most forward-thinking operators, club owners, and technology innovators will gather in Belfast from May 5 to 7 for the Golf Business Technology Conference 2026 — an event that has established itself as the definitive B2B platform for the global golf industry.
Hosted at The Merchant Hotel, one of Belfast’s most celebrated venues, GBTC 2026 arrives at a moment when the golf industry is navigating a period of rapid technological change. From AI-driven club management to precision turf agronomy and the rise of golf entertainment, the agenda has been designed to provide actionable insights for anyone responsible for running, investing in, or building the golf businesses of the future.
The Agenda. The 2026 programme is built around five core areas of industry transformation.
The first session, The Future of Precision Turf Agronomy, examines how data-driven decisions and robotics are lowering maintenance costs while improving course conditions — a conversation that has become increasingly urgent as labor costs rise and environmental pressures mount.
AI-Driven Club Management follows, exploring how automated systems and predictive analytics are streamlining operations and enhancing the member experience across facilities of all sizes.
The “Profit with Purpose” Model addresses one of the most debated topics in modern golf management: how to align genuine environmental sustainability with bottom-line growth, rather than treating them as competing priorities.
Revolutionizing Revenue through Golf Entertainment looks at how technology-integrated ranges and immersive experiences are attracting a new generation of players — and generating new revenue streams for operators willing to invest in them.
The final core session, Operational Efficiency in the Modern Era, focuses on practical strategies for managing world-class facilities and high-profile tournaments in an environment of rising costs and increasing guest expectations.
The Speaker Lineup. The conference will feature over 50 industry experts across the two days. Among the confirmed speakers:
Karen Lyttle, Director of Technology at The R&A, will deliver the opening keynote on the technological transformation behind The Open and the AIG Women’s Open.
Sarah Stirk, Sky Sports Golf presenter, will share her perspective on the intersection of media, entrepreneurship, and the professional tours.
Simon Elsworth, Global Head of Professional Solutions at Syngenta, will lead the conversation on digital tools for precision turf management.
Also confirmed are Gina Rizzi, President of Radius Sports Group, who has pioneered the measurement and communication of golf’s economic and environmental impact; Bob Morse, President and COO of Invited Clubs, the world’s largest private club network; Nathanaël Pietrzak-Swirc, CEO of Ugolf International, on international expansion and management trends; and TJ Schier, CEO of SmashSwing Immersive, who will showcase the future of competitive socializing and golf-tech entertainment.
The Full Programme. The event begins on Tuesday, May 5 with an optional golf day at Belvoir Park Golf Club — a Harry Colt masterpiece located just minutes from the city center. An evening networking reception follows from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM, giving delegates the opportunity to build connections before the core conference sessions begin on May 6 and 7.
Tickets And Registration. With limited capacity at The Merchant Hotel, places are filling quickly. Delegate passes include full access to all sessions, the VIP Lounge, networking lunches, and the evening drinks reception.
A full two-day delegate pass is priced at £995 + VAT. A one-day pass is available at £795 + VAT. The optional golf day on May 5 is £150 + VAT.
“In less than a month, Belfast will become the global hub for golf innovation,” says Aboo Tayub, Founder of Golf Business Technology.
“We aren’t just talking about the future of the game — we are bringing together the very people who are building it. If you want to see where the industry is headed in 2027 and beyond, you need to be in this room.”
ANDY NORTH’S RENOVATION OF TRAPPERS TURN’S CANYON #7 UNCOVERS GLACIER-CARVED SANDSTONE WALLS HIDDEN FOR DECADES
Two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North has completed a major renovation of Canyon #7 at Trappers Turn Golf Club in Wisconsin Dells — the signature hole of the course he originally designed alongside Roger Packard. The project cleared decades of overgrown trees to expose glacier-carved sandstone canyon walls that had been largely hidden since the course opened, revealing a natural drama that surprised even the people closest to the project.
The hole had always been Trappers Turn’s most talked-about feature, but it had a fundamental problem: sitting deep inside a natural canyon, surrounded by trees that had grown unchecked for years, it was starved of sunlight and airflow. The green struggled. The sandstone walls that made the setting extraordinary were invisible. The bones of something special were always there — they just needed to be uncovered.
The renovation does exactly that. Tree clearing has opened up the canyon completely, exposing the glacier-carved sandstone walls that define the Wisconsin Dells landscape. A nearly doubled putting green now approaches 6,000 square feet. New waterfalls have been added behind the green. Expanded tee boxes frame a shot that Andy North describes as playing into a box canyon — dramatic, enclosed, and unlike almost anything else in American golf.
Craig Haltom, President of Oliphant Golf Management, is candid about how the result exceeded expectations: the rock work, he says, is more beautiful than anyone anticipated, and fits the setting so naturally that it feels as though it was always meant to be there. Todd Nelson, Founder and Owner of Trappers Turn and Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, calls it simply “beyond belief.”
For North, it is the hole he always envisioned. For guests arriving at Trappers Turn this spring, it will be the first time they see it the way it was always meant to be seen.
Canyon #7 reopens May 19, 2026.
BEFORE THE FIRST TEE SHOT: EVERYTHING WORTH READING AHEAD OF THE MASTERS
Here are some of the best pieces we have come across this week as the golf world turns its attention to Augusta:
THE MASTERS ALREADY PERFECTED THE BIG-EVENT CURTAIN RAISER — AND DID IT 65 YEARS AGO. Every major sport is scrambling to create a lucrative pre-event spectacle — F1 sprint races, the US Open’s revamped mixed doubles, the Australian Open’s One Point Slam. But as Sportico’s Lev Akabas points out, Augusta National figured this out in 1960 with the Par 3 Contest, a nine-hole, par-27 round on the Wednesday before the tournament that club members originally dismissed as miniature golf. Six decades later, a clip of Rory McIlroy’s daughter sinking a putt in last year’s contest generated 6 million more views than McIlroy winning his first green jacket days later. Read the full piece at Sportico.
ANDREW BEATON, IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, EXAMINES JUSTIN ROSE’S IMPROBABLE RENAISSANCE AT 45. Justin Rose arrives at Augusta tomorrow having nearly stolen last year’s Masters from Rory McIlroy — and playing some of the best golf of his life. Beaton tells the story of how Rose has transformed his game in his mid-40s: lifting his front heel on his backswing (borrowed directly from Nicklaus), strengthening his grip, and converting his tour RV into a recovery facility complete with a red-light bed, oxygen tanks, and hot and cold plunges. The result: he is now averaging 304.1 yards off the tee — the longest of his career — and became the oldest ever winner at Torrey Pines earlier this season. Nine players have won the Masters after being runner-up the year before. Rose knows this. Full piece at the Wall Street Journal.
RICK BROADBENT, IN THE TIMES, TAKES A HARD LOOK AT THE AUGUSTA THAT EXISTS BEYOND THE ROPES. While the world’s attention turns to the prettiest park in golf this week, Rick Broadbent drives a few miles from Augusta National to find mansions giving way to shacks, a homeless population that doubled last year to 1,098 people — including 395 children — and a city that WalletHub ranked 177th out of 182 for job prospects. Some locals call it “Disgusta.” Hurricane Helene made things worse. The contrast with a club that has spent $280 million buying up neighbouring property in the past 25 years is, as Broadbent puts it, jarring. Full piece at The Times.
THE IRISH INDEPENDENT REVIEWS ALAN SHIPNUCK’S UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF RORY MCILROY — AND IT IS ANYTHING BUT BORING. Alan Shipnuck, the writer who exposed Phil Mickelson’s most explosive quotes, has turned his attention to Rory McIlroy. The result, Rory – The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar, is neither a hatchet job nor a hagiography, but it did prompt McIlroy to tell Shipnuck to “f**k off” when he spotted him at last year’s US Open. The book covers McIlroy’s desire for total control — over his image, his sponsors, his documentary — as well as sharp observations from Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, who describes a man with “a heightened sense of justice” who “rarely gives praise to anybody around him.” McIlroy read chapter one, shook Shipnuck’s hand, and said: “It was good. It made me laugh.” Full review at the Irish Independent.
EVIN PRIEST, IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, ON WHY THE MCILROY-DECHAMBEAU RIVALRY IS THE STORYLINE TO WATCH THIS WEEK. Bryson DeChambeau arrives at Augusta off back-to-back LIV Golf victories in Singapore and South Africa, ready for another crack at the man who beat him in last year’s final group. The tensions are already simmering: McIlroy’s new Amazon documentary revealed he refused to toss a tee to settle who putted first on the ninth green in last year’s final round, telling DeChambeau “this isn’t some game on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere.” DeChambeau, for his part, is keeping score: “I got him at Pinehurst — he got me here.” Full piece at the Sydney Morning Herald.
NO FLIGHT TO AUGUSTA? THE MASTERS STARTS TOMORROW AND 35 PRIVATE JETS ARE STILL HEADING THERE WITH ROOM FOR YOU — FROM $3,105.
Augusta National does not do anything by halves. The Masters is the most controlled major championship in golf — the club sets its own TV deals, bans mobile phones on the course, and has never opened its patron badge waiting list since closing it in 1978. The people who get tickets are largely the same people who fly privately. And they are not going to waste a Masters badge on a connection through Atlanta.
The result is one of the most concentrated private aviation events in the American sporting calendar. Last year, our friends at AceJet tracked every single private charter into Augusta Regional during Masters Week — and built an interactive flight tracker that visualises the full picture, animated on a tournament timeline with daily traffic data and aircraft category breakdowns.
What you are looking at is 1,221 aircraft and 3,884 flights — the full private aviation footprint of one golf tournament. Watch the build-up through the practice rounds, the surge on Thursday morning as Round 1 tees off, and the exodus on Sunday evening when the champion slips on the green jacket and everyone heads home at once.
The traffic patterns tell their own story. The Northeast corridor — Teterboro, Westchester, the New England airports — lights up early in the week as corporate aircraft position executives and clients for the Wednesday through Sunday corporate hospitality schedule. Florida follows close behind. Texas and the Midwest build through Thursday. By Saturday, Augusta Regional has converted one of its runways to aircraft parking and brought in over 100 temporary staff just to manage the ramp.
Augusta National’s badge scarcity is the engine behind all of it. The patron badge system concentrates the attendee pool into precisely the demographic that flies privately. Corporate hospitality compounds it further — companies with long-standing Augusta National relationships lease cabins along the course for the week, and those invitations drive a significant portion of the jet traffic, positioning executives and clients from Wednesday through Sunday.
The airport charges accordingly. During Masters Week, ramp fees run from roughly $125 per day for light singles up to $3,000 per day for aircraft over 50,000 lbs. Ramp reservations go through FlightBridge, and showing up without one during Masters Week is, as AceJet puts it, asking for trouble.
There Are Still Empty Legs Available This Week
The Masters begins tomorrow. And as of this morning, AceJet has 35 empty leg flights available into Augusta and its surrounding airports, starting from $3,105.