A fan-free Masters means loss of best week of the year for some SC hotels, restaurants | Columbia Business

COLUMBIA — Golf fans will be happy to see The Masters on their TV screens beginning Thursday. For hotels and restaurants in South Carolina, it hardly feels like the tournament is back at all.

For those businesses in Columbia and other areas within an easy drive of Augusta, Masters week usually is the busiest one of the year. Travelers from around the country and world come in to watch golf, play some rounds and recreate.

With no spectators allowed this year because of the risk of spreading coronavirus, the effect seems to have disappeared.

“It is the biggest week of the year for hotels and restaurants,” said Bobby Williams, board chairman of the S.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association. 

Lengths of stays during the Masters are longer than a college football weekend; guests come to the state and stay for the whole week, Williams said. They might have passes onto Augusta National Golf Club for an early week practice round and for one day of competition. 

Other times, they like to play golf themselves or find other things to do in the region.

This year, those visitors seem to have stayed home, and that is being felt in many lines of business, said Carl Blackstone, CEO of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

The impact likely is being felt far and wide, from vehicle rentals to catering services, Blackstone said.

For hotels, it’s likely to be another tough blow in an already difficult year, he said. It’s especially tough for them because Masters week is a time when guest rooms are fully occupied at top rates, and another key source of customers, business travel, has been way down because of the pandemic.

At least one high-end hotel in downtown Columbia charged $600 per night during Masters week during a recent tournament, and that’s not a booking that is easy to replace here, Blackstone said.

That loss will be felt also by local governments in the form of lower tax collections from meals and overnight stays, Blackstone said.

Restaurants also will miss the added business that usually accompanies Masters week, notes Williams, who is board chairman for the Lizard’s Thicket chain of Southern restaurants.

Recent weekends in the fall have brought more customers back to dine, Williams said. Still, the loss of the Masters crowds hurts.

At high-end Columbia restaurant Motor Supply Co., the chef has created special menus for Masters week in the past, but not this year, according to owner Eddie Wales. Instead, it’s rolling out a new menu for happy hour to boost business.

“This year, we don’t expect it to be anywhere close to as busy, though we could see a small boost,” Wales said.

For golf, the lack of fans for the Masters is a loss as well, though it comes in a most unusual year for the business.

Golf courses in the region usually charge their higher weekend rates or more for rounds during Masters week and are full as travelers from other parts of the country bring their clubs.

That doesn’t seem to be happening this year, but overall, 2020 has brought many more players to courses and ranges.

Golf was one of the few activities that people could take part in without being inside or wearing a mask, so the number of rounds played in South Carolina has risen sharply, said Biff Lathrop, executive director of the S.C. Golf Association.

Numbers are still being finalized, but play has been up strongly since the lockdown. Both longtime players and people just interested in trying the game have been coming out, Lathrop said. Some might just have wanted to get out of the house.

“We probably saved some marriages,” Lathrop said. 

While the delayed 2020 Masters won’t bring its usual major bump in play to courses, the golf industry can look ahead to April 2021, when it is hoped that some fans — patrons in Augusta National parlance — will be allowed back onto the famed Bobby Jones layout for next year’s tournament.

Lathrop believes that regular pro golf events such as the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island will be able to have some spectators next spring. What Augusta National will do, as always, is up to the club itself.

Club chairman Fred Ridley said Tuesday that it’s not yet clear whether the 2021 tournament will have spectators.