Bailed-out firms are skipping the Masters

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.

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.

The penny pinching has limo service owner William Murrell expecting “a rainy week in Georgia” during the Masters. Murrell spent 15 years as chauffeur to the late soul singer James Brown.

Murrell normally hires up to 45 school bus drivers and other temporary workers who have Masters week off for spring break. His temps will pull down $2,000 on a good tournament week.

“It means quite a bit,” said Gena Archer, 41, a $15-an-hour school bus driver who has worked for Murrell during Masters week for the past five years. “It actually puts my account ahead where I can be comfortable for a couple of months where I don’t have to worry about bills being paid.”

This year, Murrell expects he’ll need only about 12 temps. His big-ticket clients simply haven’t called, so he’s already eyeing his second-most lucrative time of the year: high-school proms.

“They don’t compare to the Masters,” Murrell says. “We sort of rely on it every year. There’s a lot of heavy wallets there.”

For the 2009 Masters, those wallets are looking a lot lighter.

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