AUGUSTA, Ga. — José María Olazábal hit a tee shot at Augusta National Golf Club’s 12th gap someday this week, jokingly bowed to the spectators and meandered towards the inexperienced of one of the nice holes in golf.

Much of the gallery swiftly headed towards one of the nice bargains in sports activities: the Amen Corner concession stand, the place followers at the Masters can come by a meal — sandwich, mushy drink and a cookie — for as little as $5.

The famously controlling membership has spent many years accepting that it can not, the truth is, management the climate. But financial forces surrounding the event are nicely inside motive, and so the worth of a pimento cheese sandwich has stood at $1.50 since 2003. Adjusted for inflation, and assuming the sandwich was appropriately priced to start with, it must be about $2.14.

Economists imagine the enduring discount, at odds with an period of sticker-shock costs at many athletic occasions, just isn’t merely a matter of Southern hospitality. Instead, they see hard-nosed, soft-power genius: a thrifty technique to domesticate the mystique that has helped make the Masters model one of the most respected in sports activities.

“They want to take you back to the days of Bobby Jones — the good old days, if you will,” mentioned John A. List, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, referring to Augusta National’s co-founder. “They haven’t followed prices, and they’re understanding that their real bottom line is over years. I think they purposefully don’t follow inflation and economics, and that makes the message even stronger.”

“Economically,” mentioned List, who attended the Masters in 2019, “I actually thought it was brilliant.”

While Augusta National could also be the most celebrated website of low cost concessions, it additionally could provide broader classes for the sports activities trade. Georgia, with its average price of dwelling and high-wattage sporting occasions, has emerged as one thing of a case research. About 145 miles to the west, the Atlanta Falcons minimize costs in half a couple of years in the past after they moved into Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The franchise, cognizant that the majority of the cash in the N.F.L. flows from media rights agreements and ticket gross sales, basked in optimistic information protection and, in the end, more spending by fans.

The idea has slowly unfold all through sports activities. The Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers and Charlotte Hornets, amongst different skilled groups, have rolled out their very own so-called fan-friendly concession pricing initiatives, which have helped draw spectators into stadiums earlier and inspired others to attend in the first place.

At Augusta National, trimming the price of a pimento cheese by 50 cents, to $1, can be a throwback to the presidency of George Bush — the first one. The membership, which wraps its sandwiches in inexperienced packaging that blends in with the course, is unlikely to go in the different path and sharply increase costs, which might imply abandoning the technique it has lengthy cloaked in the language of gentility and wholesomeness.

“We want the experience to not only be the best but to be affordable,” Billy Payne, who spent 11 years as the membership’s chairman, mentioned in 2007. “We take certain things very, very seriously — like the cost of a pimento cheese sandwich is just as important as how high the second cut is going to be.”

Fred S. Ridley, Payne’s successor, equally mentioned that Augusta National’s aim is to offer meals “at a reasonable price.”

Ridley mentioned the low price “just sort of adds to the feeling” for the sandwiches, although he declined to establish which one he prefers. (“I like them all but try to stay away.”)

People, of course, would nonetheless eat. But the prospect of greater revenue margins, List steered, is sort of definitely beside the level in the minds of Augusta National’s green-jacketed members, who are sometimes titans of enterprise or politics. Whatever quarters are left on the desk symbolize an funding of types, consultants mentioned, whereas additionally aligning nicely with the ethos of the membership and the state.

“They want to shock and awe you on the low side, and they could double, triple or quadruple the prices,” List mentioned as he headed to a Chicago White Sox sport this week. “I would have noticed and thought that’s kind of normal. And I don’t think the Masters wants to do anything common.”

Exactly how a lot cash runs by means of Augusta National is unclear, a multimillion-dollar thriller that satisfies a convention of privateness at a membership that has lengthy confronted accusations of racism and sexism.

Augusta National doesn’t say what number of tickets it sells for $75 for follow rounds or $115 for competitors days, or how a lot it makes from the decidedly-not-low-cost merchandise followers purchase and lug round in clear plastic luggage. Its tv take care of CBS has lengthy been a collection of one-year contracts that aren’t believed to be vastly profitable for both the community or the membership. It accepts solely a handful of blue-chip sponsors, and Ridley mentioned this week that the membership would donate its proceeds from a brand new online game partnership with EA Sports to a basis that promotes golf.

And Augusta National is unafraid to capitalize on its meals when it’s certain for locations past its gates. This yr, followers may have Masters fare delivered to their doorsteps, together with kilos of pimento cheese, pork and chocolate chip cookies. For good measure, the $150 packages included 25 of the dishwasher-safe plastic cups which are the tournament’s premier souvenirs.

But no matter Augusta’s financials appear to be, they’re virtually assuredly helped by the simplicity of the membership’s menu. Along with the pimento cheese, which is served between two items of white bread, there’s an egg salad sandwich for $1.50. This yr introduced the introduction of a brand new sandwich, rooster salad on a brioche bun, for $3. The costliest choices on the menu are the beers, served in inexperienced plastic cups for the princely sum of $5.

Pimento cheese, a staple of Southern occasions from yard gatherings to black-tie weddings, has been on Augusta National’s menu since the early days, and is the most well-known of the membership’s culinary choices.

Nathalie Dupree, the cookbook writer and pre-eminent Southern chef, mentioned the acid in the mayonnaise acts as a preservative, clearing the manner for golf followers to hold a pair of the sandwiches in a pocket or purse for a couple of hours and nibble at them underneath Georgia’s heat spring solar.

“It is sort of Southern genius that they are going to figure out a sandwich for the heat,” Dupree mentioned. “You are always working around the heat, before air-conditioning, particularly.”

The sandwich was showing prominently in newspaper accounts of the event by the 1970s, which was additionally when the Junior League of Augusta revealed its recipe e-book, “Tea-Time at the Masters.” The membership’s pimento cheese recipe was not included, although a step-by-step information for a concoction christened cheese paste, constructed from Cheddar, cream cheese and pimento cheese — at room temperature — did.

The girl who submitted it? “Mrs. Arnold Palmer,” Winifred Palmer, whose husband had already received his 4 Masters titles by then.

“My mother in particular was very fond of the pimento cheese sandwiches at Augusta,” mentioned Amy Palmer Saunders, who chairs the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation. “She would’ve enjoyed experimenting with anything like that in the kitchen.”

The gamers additionally revere the meals, easy as it’s.

Bubba Watson, who received in 2012 and 2014, mentioned he favors the barbecue and pimento cheese sandwiches, asking membership employees to carry the egg salad and slip in additional pork when he orders a trio often known as the Taste of the Masters. And earlier than he received final yr’s event, Dustin Johnson declared merely, “My favorite thing about the Masters is the sandwiches.”

To stroll the course this week is an opportunity to listen to, irrespective of the time, somebody mulling what they need to eat. The cashiers, accepting solely credit score or debit playing cards as a result of of the coronavirus pandemic, are ready.

“They fulfill kind of the dream that you have,” mentioned List, who described Augusta’s strategy as “Adam Smith in his glory.”

“When you see it on TV, you think it’s a wonderland,” he mentioned of the course. “And Disney looks like a wonderland until they stick it to your wallet.”