Just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, moments before sunrise, a wave of patrons swept up toward me from the main entrance at Augusta National Golf Club.
Together, we approached a line of security personnel fanned out across the pathway and came to a temporary halt; a spokesman explained how we were all going to navigate the next steps together, further onto the property.
“Don’t run, nice and slow,” came the instructions. “If anyone loses a shoe, we’re going to have a hard time stopping.”
“Look at this,” I heard one observer say as we resumed walking and swarmed past her up the hill. “Just hilarious!”
Nobody was saying it, but everybody knew where we were heading and why we were going there. “For those of you looking for the golf course, please keep left,” continued the guidance, “if you’re off to the store, go right.”
By now, we were thousands deep and there was a collective chuckle as the train of humanity lurched, as one, to the other side of the path. Some of these patrons had set their alarms for 3:15 that morning, pulling into the parking lot at 5:45 a.m.
This is what it takes to snag the most unlikely star of the Masters merchandise store: The garden gnome.
Within the first 45 minutes of business, the patrons were saying that the store had already sold out of them for the day.
When the gnome first appeared wearing an argyle sweater in 2016, nobody could have imagined where it would lead a decade later. The Masters didn’t even sell one the following year, but in 2018, he was back for the general public, dressed in a caddy’s white jumpsuit.
Standing at just over a foot tall with a voluminous, pure white beard, the gnome is given a costume change every year, and like all Masters merchandise, it can only be purchased on property during the week of the Masters tournament.
Its scarcity has helped to create a runaway resale market. The 2026 gnome, dressed in a navy gilet and replete with an umbrella, retails for $59.95. But, before the gates had even opened this year, pristine, first editions of the gnome were being advertised on eBay for between $10,000 and $14,000 and a rumor that Augusta would discontinue them after this year has only fueled its popularity.
Ashley DeSimone told CNN Sports that she made it to the parking lot at 5:20 on Wednesday morning, only to realize that thousands of people were already ahead of her in line. She said that 2,000 people had been directed to another waiting section outside of the gates which she described as the “runners up to the gnome.”
DeSimone said there was no question why everybody was there so early: “At that hour, it was Gnomemania, and I had Gnomemania, believe me. The security guard was like, ‘Yeah, you’re not getting a gnome, sorry.’”
Another patron, Greg Postma, told CNN that he and his wife Kim had successfully managed to expand their collection of gnomes this year, but that they experienced pushing in the store to get one.
“It’s the first time in all the years we’ve come here that people were the slightest bit rude,” he said. “Never been pushed before, never, and one of the people working in the gift shop actually said, ‘Hey, hold it, settle down.’ I’ve never before heard that at Augusta National.”
<div data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/cmnsswmi500093b6qgrhtpwcj@published" data-component-name="video-resource" data-editable="settings" class="video-resource-elevate vertical-video" data-fixed-ratio="9×16" data-canonical-url-path="/2026/04/08/sport/video/hunt-masters-gnome-souvenir-scholes-vrtc-digvid" data-auth-type="" data-card-url="" data-parent-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/cmnqof1j40001356q5alkwwem@published" data-video-id="me858008d145cd05fa15a634cc52a6deb67c7e262c" data-media-id="me858008d145cd05fa15a634cc52a6deb67c7e262c" data-bolt-id="9ecdfcc3-6ece-5cac-b34c-65fc4b73127a" data-live="" data-analytics-aggregate-events="true" data-custom-experience="" data-asset-type="hlsTs" data-content-type="uploaded-clip" data-medium-env="" data-autostart="disabled" data-show-ads="true" data-source="CNN" data-featured-video="true" data-headline="Hunt for the Masters Gnome" data-has-video-player="true" data-description="<p>The Masters draws spectators from around the world to its storied grounds every year for one of the biggest events in the sport, but only the luckiest fans can snag its coveted souvenir gnomes. CNN's Andy Scholes joins Masters attendees on the hunt for the elusive figurine at this year's event.</p>" data-duration="01:17" data-source-html='<span class="video-resource__source"> • Source:
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<div class=”byline__authors vossi-byline_elevate__authors”>By <div class=”byline__author vossi-byline_elevate__author”><a class=”byline__image-link vossi-byline_elevate__link” href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/andy-scholes”><span><img height=”50″ width=”50″ class=”byline__image vossi-byline_elevate__image” src=”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/141222170945-andy-scholes-profile.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_270,w_480,c_fill/c_thumb,g_face,w_50,h_50″ alt=”” onerror=”imageLoadError(this)”/></span></a><a class=”byline__link vossi-byline_elevate__link” href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/andy-scholes”><span class=”byline__name vossi-byline_elevate__name”>Andy Scholes</span></a></div></div>
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<time datetime=”2026-04-10T11:07:02.886Z”>Updated Apr 10, 2026, 7:07 AM ET</time>
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<div class=”updated”>Updated <time datetime=”2026-04-10T11:07:02.886Z”>Apr 10, 2026, 7:07 AM ET</time></div>
<div class=”timestamp__published vossi-timestamp_elevate__published”>PUBLISHED <time datetime=”2026-04-10T10:30:55.185Z”>Apr 10, 2026, 6:30 AM ET</time></div>
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The Masters draws spectators from around the world to its storied grounds every year for one of the biggest events in the sport, but only the luckiest fans can snag its coveted souvenir gnomes. CNN’s Andy Scholes joins Masters attendees on the hunt for the elusive figurine at this year’s event.
Such testimony will likely be concerning for the membership at Augusta National, which values respect and etiquette as paramount.
If the gnomes are being purchased with the intention of being flipped for a profit, CNN Sports couldn’t find anybody willing to admit it. The patrons we spoke to seemed to feel a deep personal connection either to the gnome itself, or the Masters in general.
Ariella Robinson suggested an almost maternal bond with the gnome in her shopping bag. “I’m making a garden, he needs a home,” she told CNN.
“He doesn’t need to be passed around. It’s not about the money; it’s about the love. If you sell him, you don’t know who’s going to get him, you don’t want to hand him off to some not-good guy.”
Arriving at 7 a.m. on Monday, Caroline Proctor says she was too late for a gnome this year, but she has 8 of the 10 made so far in a collection at home.
“They’re quirky and very different, very unexpected from Augusta National and the Masters,” she said. “It’s not like a polo shirt that you’re going to wear a couple of times or once a year, people display them, they’re kind of a cult classic now.”
Kyle Smith’s 7 a.m. arrival was also too late on Monday, so he returned at 5:45 the next day to make sure he was at the front of the line. The gnome is deeply personal to him, since it resembles his late father Charlie, and the last time he spoke with him was just before he entered the Augusta National grounds in 2022.
“He said, ‘I wish I could be there with you boys,’ and that was the last time I talked with him,” Smith recalled. He’s got three of the gnomes now, and they sit in his office, alongside the urns containing his mom and dad’s ashes.
What would his father think of the tribute? “I think he’d love it; I think he’d get a kick out of it. The Masters was a tournament that was really special to all of us.”
Kenneth Locke is an Augusta native, who grew up just across the road from the club and he even worked there during the tournament, raking leaves on Magnolia Lane. Now retired, he also bears a striking resemblance to the gnome, and thanks to his artistic wife Tammy, he’s been dressing up in the same outfit as each gnome since 2019.
He’s meticulously resourceful, borrowing an Augusta National tie from a neighbor and buying plaid pants from John Daly’s website in 2024. Twelve months later, Tammy recreated the peaches and ice cream shirt by hand-painting it herself, and this year she splashed green paint across his sneakers.
At 5-feet-9-inches tall, he’s perhaps a little too big to be a gnome, but the visual resemblance is uncanny – one patron was visibly moved by the sight of him, stopping in her tracks and reaching into her purse for her camera. He says policemen have pulled him over for selfies, and little girls have asked if he’s the real gnome.
“He’s a jolly old man right there,” he told CNN. “I don’t consider myself old, but I’m loving it. It’s all fun. We have a good time, put smiles on people’s faces, laughter. That’s all it’s about.”
Locke isn’t sure what to make of the rumors about the gnome’s future, he said he heard the same story last year, but Augusta certainly doesn’t need this particular piece of merchandise to turn a profit.
In 2022, Forbes estimated that the club rakes in $10 million in revenue every day during the tournament, and they clearly have no intention of confirming or denying the rumors. Chairman Fred Ridley was put on the spot by a journalist on Wednesday, who almost apologized for even asking the question.
“Number one, the question is not trivial,” Ridley replied. “Number two, I’ve been asking that question for several years, and they won’t tell me the answer. So, I can’t help you.”
It’s not clear who he might have to consult on the matter: his merchandise team or maybe even the gnomes themselves? The patrons will just have to set their alarms early again next year to find out.
