How South Carolina students have helped keep Masters humming for past 20 years

The position felt akin to “Door Holder No. 2” in a school play. Maybe it was a chance to work on the golf course he’d grown up watching, a chance to live out his dream. But not like this.

Just over a year ago, Garrett Halverson — then a University of South Carolina senior — applied to work at Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. He later received a text message. He was going to be working the Masters Tournament ... as a chair stocker at the south village golf shop.

“When you read that on the acceptance letter,” he said, “you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a bit boring.’ ”

Boring? Not at the Masters.

Chairs at Augusta National are a necessity, selling faster than roses on Valentine’s Day. For $35, you have a place to sit at the Masters. Plop it down anywhere in the course and, even if you walk away, the chair will always be there.

Halverson is among thousands of part-time workers Augusta National brings in during the Masters to work the golf shop, concession stands, restaurant, hospitality areas and everything else. College students are just one way the club fills those jobs.

And taking care of the chair stock can be invaluable, which Halverson learned as he unloaded pallet after pallet of them from 18-wheelers, ripping through hundreds of boxes a day, digging out the four chairs per box and stacking them up.

“We were flooded in the mornings,” Halverson said of the 2023 Masters. “I’m talking, it would be 30 minutes past open and most of our displays would be empty. … But the actual job was pretty fun, honestly. The group of people I worked with were awesome.”

The relationship between South Carolina and the Masters

This year is the 20th anniversary of South Carolina sending students to Augusta, a program that began with 21 students and will send nearly 600 of them to the Masters this year, all of whom have taken the “HTMT 591: Golf tourism” class and interviewed with an Augusta National representative.

“We are far and away the most represented and, I would say, the best represented,” said alum Andrew Hahn, who worked for five years at the Masters. “I would say (the concession stands) were pretty split between Augusta U and South Carolina. Now other stands, it’s like 90% South Carolina or 100%.”

A two-decade relationship between the school and the tournament helps immensely. And, perhaps most of all, the students take the week immensely seriously to make sure Augusta National keeps calling on USC to assist.

The College of Hospitality, Retail and Sports Management (HRSM) at South Carolina has also sent kids to work at a number of other mega-golf tournaments.

This year, USC students will be employed at The Players, the Masters, the PGA Championship, U.S. Open, the Wells Fargo Championship, the RBC Heritage, among others.

Tom DeLozier should know. The South Carolina alum (class of 1999) is now the general manager of Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, which hosted the PGA Championship in 2017, the Wells Fargo annually and will host another PGA Tour event next summer in which hundreds of South Carolina students will again be working.

“You’re getting folks who are looking for a pathway into the industry and folks who wanna be there,” DeLozier said. “South Carolina is the pioneer of getting student engagement in professional golf.”

Halverson made $10 an hour as a chair stocker last year (pay varies for every role and experience level), but his pay jumped to $15 once he went over 40 hours. By Wednesday of tournament week, he was collecting overtime.

He also received plenty of breaks, jetting out of the south village shop and planting himself on Amen Corner for an hour. On Sunday, though, there were few chairs and even fewer customers. His supervisor gave him the OK to hit the course and enjoy the final few holes of the Masters.

He followed the final grouping of Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm from hole 10, trailing just behind the pack. In the late afternoon, he stood on the 13th fairway in a trance. The sun was setting, turning the sky gold. Halverson looked up through the branches of a bundle of pine trees and wondered if he had been transported.

“It was literally heaven on Earth,” he said. “It couldn’t be described how beautiful that place was.”

Halverson isn’t in Augusta this year, but Augusta will always be with him. Well, at least on his resume. Just before the tournament, he applied for a job as a financial planning specialist at Boldspire Wealth in Virginia Beach. During the interview, he mentioned that he was heading to work at the Masters.

“Everyone’s eyes just lit up,” he said. “There are a couple guys in the office who golf.”

He got the gig.

“Going forward, even if it’s not (that) recent, it has to stay on (my resume),” he said. “It’s eye-catching.”

Parker Sutton agrees. He worked in 2018-19 as a busser and food runner inside the ultra-exclusive Berckmans Place hospitality area, suiting up in the high-end, New-Orleans-style seafood restaurant Augusta’s.

He went through three days of training, learning what dish goes on what plate, seat assignments, how to hold a tray and so on.

“By (Wednesday), it’s just a well-oiled machine,” Sutton said.

Sutton now works as a new business lead for DraftKings. Like Halverson, he partly has Augusta National to thank.

His bosses tell him now: “We saw Augusta National on you’re resume and were like, that’s so crazy. We’ve gotta hire this kid. Gotta learn more.’ ”

Views from the Augusta National Clubhouse

It’s hard to avoid jealousy when forrmer USC student Chase Justice speaks of his Masters working experience. If Halverson was playing “Door Holder No. 2” in the school play, Justice was Romeo.

South Carolina students can apply for 18 jobs — everything from barista to greeter to sales attendant and something called a “receiving and issuing stocker” — but even the same role can vary. One could be a beverage attendant near the golf shop or across the course.

Which brings us to Justice. Plenty of people became servers. He, though, was a server and bartender in the Augusta National Clubhouse — an area that’s off-limits to anyone who’s not a member, a member’s guest or a tournament player.

For seven days, Justice existed in a different world. He was technically sleeping in a local Augusta home with 11 other college students working the Masters, but he was hardly there. From 6:30 a.m. to past sundown, he wore a white tuxedo with a black vest (that Augusta National had dry-cleaned nightly) while serving steak and shrimp cocktail to A-listers. The type of people who go to Augusta National because it’s the only place on Earth they can walk 10 steps without a picture request.

“A lot of people were jealous of the job I had,” said Justice, who worked the tournament in 2019. “I definitely got to serve some of the more notable people in attendance.”

Justice had experience working in fine dining. He waited tables at an upscale restaurant in Maryland throughout high school. During his interviews for Augusta National, he emphasized that he was comfortable serving haute cuisine. He thinks that helped him land the gig.

Getting that job is one thing. To be in the clubhouse for the champions celebration in 2019 — the year Tiger Woods did the impossible — is the dream of any golfer. And that’s hard to sustain, especially when you have class the next day.

“I was back to reality pretty quick,” he said. “That Monday, you’re back to class. Back to regular college, everyday life. But you’re kind of riding a certain high after working that week.”

Getting to come back

There is a clear victory for USC students from the Masters experience. Sure, you make some money and get out of class for a week. You get to attend the Masters for free and have the ultimate trove of stories. But the big win is getting invited back.

Tatiana Lippold, now an assistant clubhouse manager at an exclusive golf club, began her time at Augusta National in 2015 as a busser at the Clubhouse Terrace, a outdoor restaurant just behind the clubhouse that overlooks the course. She worked five Masters tournaments (2015-2019), including the last as one of 13 servers in the area.

“It was a very coveted position. I was thrilled,” she said. “I loved it. Despite the hard work. Despite the tired feet. Despite it being hot some days and cold others because we were outside, I really loved that week and the people.”

Jared Clary worked the Masters for two years while he was a South Carolina student. That begun in 2014, which is only notable because Woods was not in attendance. Clary, a huge Tiger fan, calls it a “blessing in disguise.” No Tiger him meant no need for him to watch much golf.

“I was like, ‘All right, I’m just gonna work by butt off and try and make a good impression,’ ” he said.

During those two years, he was basically in charge of stocking all the Masters Tech shirts inside the golf shop. He made such an impression that he’s now working his ninth Masters as an apparel supervisor in the south village. The other 51 weeks of the year, he has a regular job, but he’s negotiated getting Masters week off with every career move.

Andrew Hahn transferred to USC in 2018 and was a beer pourer at the first Masters he worked. But he wasn’t content doing the minimum.

“I was kind of running around doing other stuff while pouring beer,” said Hahn, who still works in the industry.

It became very clear that Hahn wasn’t trying to milk the job for a free trip to Augusta. He didn’t just want to take in the experience, but thrive in it. Not long after the tournament ended, he sent an email to someone at Augusta National, thanking him for the opportunity and asking if they would be open to an expanding role in the future.

By the next fall, he was offered a role never before given to a college student. He worked for nearly two months in Augusta, part of the team that helps flip the course from a regular club to Masters-ready. Hahn spent two weeks juggling classes (most of which he moved to online) and long days all while living in a paid-for Augusta apartment.

He was a “assistant technical coordinator,” which basically meant he helped oversee the construction of the concession stands, making sure everything was uniform across the property — from the layout of the stands to ensuring “sports drink, cola, diet cola, etc” are in the same order at every soft-drink foundations on the course.

During the week, he was at the ground level making sure the cups were face-out so the patrons could see the Masters logo. Making sure the sticker that reads “cola” was replaced if it was bending. Making sure things were running smoothly and folks were happy.

To be missing this Masters, he said, is like missing a part of his life. It was exhausting and frustrating and hard and rewarding and fun and, thus, a perfect encapsulation of the industry for these students.

“I would say that any role I’ve had in this industry, my experience at Augusta is the reason why I got the job,” Hahn said.

“Understanding how to do things to perfection, as they kind of scream at Augusta, that was ingrained in my brain professionally. … I don’t think I would be the same professionally without my time at Augusta National.”