Bailed-out firms save face by skipping the Masters

AUGUSTA, Georgia -- The unpalatable economy has piled Master chef Karl Kwoka's plate with more cancellations than customers this year.

Usually, corporate customers keep Kwoka busy prepping gourmet dishes such as Angus beef filets with blue cheese fritters and crepes de mer with lobster cream sauce. Catering to elite fans and their top clients during the golf tournament typically accounts for a quarter of his income.

But four large corporations that in past years hired Kwoka to prepare private meals have backed out, leaving him with a single company to cook for, not enough to justify hiring the usual 30 extra workers. Kwoka estimates the cancellations cost him more than $70,000, and the temporary staff are missing out on big money, too.

The 75-year-old Masters is estimated to pump more than $100 million into the economy of Augusta, a city of 200,000 which relies on the Army's Fort Gordon, a medical college, several hospitals and a smattering of manufacturing the rest of the year.

That kind of cash infusion isn't coming this year. Augusta business owners who've come to count on Masters money are seeing huge cutbacks by big-shot visitors who typically spare no expense on trips to the tradition-laden tournament.

"The companies are scaling back, and a lot aren't coming at all," said Kwoka, who wouldn't name those clients but whose past Masters customers include the international law firm Jones Day, which represents many Fortune 500 companies. "If you've got people in danger of losing their jobs, the last thing you want to come across as is spending money, having a good time at a golf tournament."

Diane Starr, president of Augusta rental agency Corporate Quarters, said it's largely banks and finance companies that are bailing on the 2009 Masters, which starts Thursday after three days of practice rounds. Starr's company usually rents about 400 homes -- from two-bed condos to sprawling eight-bedroom houses in gated neighborhoods -- to high-end Masters clients.

"Normally they're gone in September," Starr said. "That's what makes this year so unusual."

She expects to fill no more than 300 for next week's tournament, even at steep discounts. Lavish party homes that usually fetch $25,000 for tournament week have had price tags slashed to as low as $16,000, Starr said.

That's not to say Masters week is shaping up to be a total bust. Augusta hotels are reporting solid reservations, though some still have vacancies, and restaurants expect long lines of customers.

Those are generally a different class of Masters customer, however, said Alfred Monsalvatge of TravelMasters, a company that normally books VIP hospitality packages for the tournament for up to 20 large companies spending a full week at the event.

"I've got zero this year," Monsalvatge said. "I've got people coming, but I've just replaced them with people that spend a lot less money. Basically they're coming in for a day or so to Augusta, see the golf course, maybe go out to dinner and will be gone the next day."

Tickets to walk the course are among the most coveted in sports. In 17 years of booking Masters trips, however, Monsalvatge said he's never seen scalpers' prices so low. Four-day passes that fetched up to $3,500 last year are going for $1,350, he said.

Corporate sponsors pump vital revenue into the PGA Tour, but for companies that took federal bailouts, especially banks, cutting back on hospitality is a public relations move more than a cost-saving measure.

When it comes to restricting the visibility of corporate sponsors, the Masters stands alone among the major championships. Many others have corporate ads on backboards visible on the tee boxes, allow sponsors to host exhibits on the course and plaster their logos on pamphlets at the gates.

Not Augusta National, where there isn't a single corporate logo to be found on the manicured grounds. The Masters' three major corporate partners -- IBM Corp., AT&T Inc. and ExxonMobil Corp. -- entertain in chalets tucked away from patrons behind the Georgia pines. Sponsors get a measly four minutes of commercial spots per hour during Masters telecasts; most golf tournaments run 15 to 18 minutes an hour.

At Augusta, the corporate presence is usually much more apparent off the course. Companies splash their logos on rented limousines and vans and place signs in the yards of homes they've rented for employees and guests.