| AUGUSTA (Sp) - Astro fans should pool their money and buy owner Drayton McLane Jr. a ticket to the Masters Golf Tournament so he can learn how to please people at concession stands.
No $7 beers, $4.50 hot dogs, $4.50 peanuts or $5 cotton candy here.
How about tuna, BBQ, egg salad, chicken breast, ham and cheese on rye, pimento cheese and turkey on wheat sandwiches for $1.50. The most expensive is a Masters club for $2.50.
Soft drinks, lemonade and sports drinks are $1. Bottled water is $1.50. Candy, chips and crackers are $1 and aspirin and Tylenol are 50 cents. A big ice cream bar is $1.50.
Pro shop prices are probably less than retail stores, and no where in the world can you get a shirt or hat or ball marker or umbrella with the official logo.
Beer is $2 for a 14-ouncer and the imported variety is $3. And you better get it before 4 p.m., the cutoff time to avoid unruly patrons (that's a Masters word for fans).
This is a people-friendly place, with only a few no-nos like cell phones, beepers and other electronic devices. Cameras are taboo on tournament days and violators have one of two choices, lose their lives or lose their ticket privileges.
Speaking of tickets, we've reported before a Masters ticket said to be the hottest and toughest in sports, and also the best value for the money, $175 for the four-day event. Of course, none are available and even the waiting list is closed.
People can't ask to join Augusta National. They are invited. It's an exclusive lot, but most are friendly, though some of the green jackets get their noses out of joint if they see something they don't enjoy.
A longtime Pinkerton (security) who worked 20 Masters tournaments was seen helping a couple of elderly patrons with their folding chairs two years ago. A member took offense at the guard being too friendly and had him fired.
But the snobs are exceptions, although most are in their senior seasons.
The late, great Bobby Jones founded Augusta National and there's always been a Southern drawl approach and courtesy, although members come from all over the country and the first chairman, Clifford Roberts, was a New York banker.
No detail is too small to get attention. Even the grandstand folding chairs have Styrofoam bumpers to prevent noise.
As new chairman Billy Payne says, "The cost of a pimento cheese sandwich is just as important as how high the second cut of grass is going to be."
It's an absolute TV bonanza for CBS. Yet Roberts had to persuade the network to televise more than the 18th hole in 1956.
Today, Sean McManus, CBS president and son of the late sportscaster Jim McKay, says, "The Masters is the ultimate in appointment television. Viewers don't want to miss a minute of it."
They've definitely toughened the old girl this year and it looks like a heckuva shootout this weekend. Take McManus' advice.
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