Everyone has their price. How much to buy Augusta National?

[Shemp]

Whattaya think? $1,000,000,000? $5,000,000,000? $50,000,000,000? Pebble Beach sold for a reported $1,000,000,000 in 1990.....

[NickGerst]

There would be no sale.. its owned by its members. I am suprised Pebble Beach is not owned by the members. Golf clubs were started by the rich. The rich all put in the extra money they had to run courses. No profit was supposed to be made. Only modern golf has changed courses into a public non-member driven vehicle for profit.

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

"In 1999, an ownership group that included golf great Arnold Palmer, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood, along with GE Capital, purchased the Pebble Beach Company for $820 million. That group still owns Pebble Beach today."

[Thrillhouse]

Buffett and gates are both members so they don't need the money.

Think about it this way, if you were worth $5 million and owned a golf course and someone offered you $100 million for it you'd take it because that hundred mill is going to change how you live. You go from being comfortable to being able to own 3 houses and fly private, there's a benefit there.

Billionaires already have more money than they can spend. You could offer a trillion dollars for Augusta and it's not going to matter to those guys because it won't change their life, therefore there isn't a monetary value to place on it.

Pebble was different, that's a for profit business, it had and has a value.

[Agent Jim]

[quote name='Thrillhouse' timestamp='1355100821' post='6043785']
Buffett and gates are both members so they don't need the money.

Think about it this way, if you were worth $5 million and owned a golf course and someone offered you $100 million for it you'd take it because that hundred mill is going to change how you live. You go from being comfortable to being able to own 3 houses and fly private, there's a benefit there.

Billionaires already have more money than they can spend. You could offer a trillion dollars for Augusta and it's not going to matter to those guys because it won't change their life, therefore there isn't a monetary value to place on it.

Pebble was different, that's a for profit business, it had and has a value.
[/quote] Well put

[Shemp]

The Japanese paid close to or over a billion for PB in the mid/late 80s. The current owners got it for a "bargain".

[farmer]

There is more to the Pebble Beach properties than the golf course. If you tried to buy AN, Gates and Buffett would outbid you.

[ChipDriver]

What would I pay to buy AN? 1/2 of what you think it would be worth. I'm a nobody - and if they allowed me to buy AN - it's b/c the members no longer want it....and the things that make AN special will vanish. The property will be worth significantly less the day after you purchase it.

What would I pay to play AN? I'd pay nothing. The appeal of playing AN is to be invited...and an invitation would be priceless.