Every spring, hundreds of University of South Carolina students spend a week in Augusta, working at the Masters Tournament.

It’s an opportunity made possible by a partnership between Augusta National Golf Club and the USC College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management. It began in 2004 and has grown and thrived since, launching many careers in sports, hospitality and retail while creating lasting memories for all.

The Masters Tournament experience goes far beyond a single week. All USC students are invited to apply to work at the Masters. The process begins with on-campus information sessions led by staff representatives from Augusta National Golf Club (including some USC alumni). All student applicants hired are required to take a three-credit class led by School Of Hospitality and Tourism Management Senior Instructor Jessica Chavis.

“The College of HRSM focuses on experiential learning, and this is the epitome of that. The students are prepared and actively engaged long before they set foot on the course at Augusta National,” Chavis says.

Chavis calls on students who have worked at the Tournament before to serve as mentors for those newly hired. Alumni also appear as guest speakers to share their experiences.

That classroom instruction makes USC students, even those working at the Masters for the first time, exceptionally well prepared and ready to succeed.

“Jessica Chavis told us on the first day of class that we would be the most prepared students working the Masters and she was definitely right. We had so many times where students who had worked the Masters came to class and they really gave honest answers. And so just getting that feedback from other students is really helpful. And also just leaning on everyone around you and working with the people that are in your same location and really getting to know them is really beneficial for the whole week,” says current Sport and Entertainment Management student Laura Tedesco, who worked at the Tournament for the first time in 2025.

Finn Twomey, also a Sport and Entertainment Management major, has worked two Masters Tournaments and heartily endorses the preparation USC offers. 

“The class not only prepares you for the Masters Tournament but also gives you a history of golf. Then we specifically delve into ‘How can you be the best possible worker and employee for the Masters Tournament? How can you be the most prepared?’ It includes simple things like what to pack and certain etiquette that you need to have in uniform. It really helps you be ready so that when you get there, you're representing USC in the best possible spotlight,” he says.

Prior knowledge of golf is not a requirement. Retailing major Katelyn Vetro is one of many students who were far from experts on the game when hired.

“When I actually got there and I was talking to my other coworkers that didn't go to USC and didn't take the class, I knew so much more about the Masters, about Augusta National, just about the golf industry in general, and I'm not a golfer at all. It was nice for me to be able to get all that information,” Vetro says.

USC students led by Cathy Gustafson (now retired but then an associate professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management) first worked at the Masters Tournament in 2004. The preparation was less formal then, but as interest in the opportunity grew, the class was created in 2015.

Its purpose goes beyond golf, teaching lessons that are applicable to many different careers and laying a foundation to shape young students into successful professionals, and new generations of leaders.

“It doesn't really matter what major you are. Anything you do with the Masters could be applicable to any job. You'll get personal and professional growth no matter what your major is,” says Mary Margaret Griffin, a current Retailing student who worked at the Tournament for the first time in 2025.

Jenna Bernstein, a Sport and Entertainment Management who has worked at three Masters Tournaments, agrees, adding “No matter what you want to do, you'll gain experience out of this that will be helpful and transferable to whatever you want to do.”

Those whose student days are behind them say the lessons carry on.

“I think that there are just skills that you learn working the Masters that you are not able to learn doing anything else as an 18-year-old or 19-year-old student. Being able to be in that professional atmosphere is so valuable. At that level of perfection at Augusta National, you just grow and add value to yourself and you learn to speak with people from all over the world. It gave me a backbone for a strong work ethic,” says 2021 alumna Julian Masters.

The students work hard preparing, and even harder to earn their paychecks during the Masters Tournament. The jobs they are assigned are critical to the success of the Tournament, and generation after generation looks back at the experience as one of the most valuable of their college careers.

Some, like 2011 alumna Rachel Clark, take time out from their careers to return to Augusta and serve as mentors for fellow Gamecocks. 

“It is a long, long, long week. I try not to sugarcoat it. I'm like, you're going to be tired, but it's all worth it. And between the friendships that you make and the experience you get and the training you have, just soak it all in every moment. Just soak it in. Try to be a sponge as much as you can. Try to make the most of your experience, make the friends. These are kind of the moments you're never going to forget. It's just a super special place to be,” says Clark, a Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management graduate and now global sales director at Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

“You're there to do a job and you're there not just to represent the university, but you're there to represent yourself. If you had asked freshman me, ‘Will this lead to a job?’ I would've told you you were nuts. But it did and I'm very fortunate that it did and it created lasting relationships that I still have. Accountability, time management and the value of asking questions are things that I've carried with me throughout my career,” says 2020 alumnus Nathan Lamb.

Marianne Ballou was a student in the very first class preparing students for the Masters Tournament experience. She says she still uses what she learned in her role as director, partnership marketing, global partnerships at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

“Everything that Augusta National focuses on, everything that we were doing at a best-in-class service perspective at the Masters in whatever capacity we were working at, that's what I'm also doing now,” Ballou says.

In addition to all the valuable lessons learned, working at the Masters Tournament is an experience unlike any other, and allows many Gamecocks a chance to add a bit of green to their Garnet and Black core memories.