The way Augusta National and The Masters tournament co-exist is an interesting story. A guy that used to work for me was a CPA with Arthur Anderson in a prior life and told the story.

All the cash--in the case of The Masters quite a lot of cash--comes into the coffers of the Tournament. The money is used for a variety of things like improving the course, changing holes, rebuilding greens, re-doing the locker rooms where the players dress, etc. The club and the tournament are separate accounting entities, but obviously one goes a long way towards the funding of the other.

There is always quite a little financial legerdemain by the accountants to justify to the IRS that all the money spent on the course and physical facilities is really for the benefit of the tournament and not the members (who use the same facilities and course for all but the 5-6 days a year when the tournament is run). They're usually very successful, the result being that Augusta National was a very inexpensive club to belong to. Even "back in the day" the initiation fee and annual costs for a member to belong to Augusta was a small fraction of what it cost to belong to the typical suburban country club at the time.

There is one fly in the ointment though...getting invited to actually be a member of Augusta National. It is a very select club of southern gentlemen and those favored with an invitation to become a member are selected by just a handful of the longtime, senior members. It used to be just two guys who approved members--the famous golfer Bobby Jones and Cliff Roberts, who founded and developed the club. After Jones died, for years it was Cliff Roberts alone who decided who would or wouldn't be a member. In some cases, if a member didn't act as he was expected to, he was abruptly told by Mr. Roberts that the contents of his locker was being shipped to his office, thank you very much. Since the late 90's, club chairmen "Hootie" Johnson and now Billy Payne presumably make the membership decisions. The members, notwithstanding their reputation or power outside the club gates have little to say about who belongs or how the club is run.

Someone here made the point that there seems to be a blowup over membership almost every year about Masters time. Then after the winner is given his green jacket, the whole hubub blows over and life goes on. The few guys who run the club know that, of course. And like all the other years, you're not likely to hear any public response from the club chairman, because they know it'll all blow over in just a few days. It happens every year.