Masters Tournament’s Harrowing Toxic Trait Revealed

Organized chaos. That’s how Lauren Smith describes the Masters. Smith is the assistant director of Augusta Regional Airport. The otherwise quiet airport sees a flurry of activity thanks to the yearly golf extravaganza. As Augusta National becomes an island in itself, drawing footfall from across the globe, its carbon footprint also increases by a huge margin. 

The air traffic in and around Augusta this week exceeds that of the Super Bowl and the Kentucky Derby. The number of commercial aircraft goes up as well. But more than that, the staggering number of private jets flying in and out of Georgia is devilish for the environment.

The Masters leaves a large carbon footprint

Augusta Regional Airport has to close down one of its only two runways to accommodate all the private jets. The airport authorities hire over 100 extra employees. Also, add to that 500,000 gallons of jet fuel to brace for the week. Around 1,758 private jets landed last year, per FlightAware. Smith told Business Insider, “We may have up to 300 aircraft parked out here at a given time. Now that changes year over year because the aircraft, of course, are getting bigger.”

Not all the private jets are of the golfers, of course. Masters draw several high-profile celebrities and billionaires to Georgia. And it is not just the main airport in Augusta that hosts the private jets. The airports bordering the state, Aiken and Barnwell, too, witnessed a massive spike in the number of private jets during the Masters. 

There is another ‘made-for-masters’ airport sitting around 3 miles from the Augusta National—Daniel Field. Run by retired air traffic controllers hired only for the week, the small airport with a 4,002-foot runway wakes up in April from its year-long slumber. However, the short runway means bigger jets like Gulfstream need to be parked at the Athens-Ben Epps airport or the Thomson-McDuffie airport after dropping the guests in Augusta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed.

They need ten times the amount of fuel during the Masters week, 75,000 gallons, than they require in a normal week. Now, private jets are 14 times more polluting than commercial planes. Furthermore, the Guardian revealed that private jets emit two tons of carbon per hour. In 2020, private jets were responsible for the same greenhouse gas emissions as all bus travel. Some players are aware of the compounding problem. And they have taken steps to curb that as well.

Rory McIlroy feels the need to make amends

Rory McIlroy has a Bombardier Challenger 605. Not that he likes it; the four-time Major winner feels somewhat guilty. McIlroy pays £150,000 a year to offset his carbon footprint. This was McIlroy in 2021. “Two years ago, after I won in China [at the WGC-HSBC Champions], I flew back home privately. It was just me on the plane, and a massive sense of guilt came over me. ‘This can’t be good,’ I thought.”

Jordan Spieth also owns a private jet but is putting his RV, which he brought last year, to good use. The 13-time PGA Tour winner joined the growing number of RV owners in golf: Davis Love III, Jason Day, and Bubba Watson. However, in all likelihood, players have ditched their RVs for jets heading to Georgia. This year’s number of jets is not yet known. But from last year, it’s pretty evident that Masters leaves a massive carbon footprint in its wake.

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