I'll throw in my 2 cents on this one as it seems relevant. A friend and I had tickets to Champion's Cup, "regular tickets" on Saturday and VIP for Sunday. There were 75 total VIP tickets per day, and given how tight the holes are at Jackson, it made sense.
In the morning, we followed the lead card for FPO, and the vibe was very chill. The crowd was well-mannered, and it seemed like everyone realized there were 4 or 5 kids (including KT's daughter once she moved back) in the crowd and made sure they had lines to get up front of the group so they could see. Overall it was a great experience.
We grabbed lunch and went back out to follow the MPO lead card and it was a very different experience. We recognized a lot of the folks from the FPO card, however there were a LOT of people that shouldn't have bene there:
- Additional marshals that weren't assigned to that group. There were I think 11 or 12 people with Quiet signs at one point, many of whom had been marhalling other groups that came over to watch the MPO lead card when they were done (we stood behind a group of 4 who discussed how awesome it was that they could just come over and stand in front).
- Other pros and their friends. I won't "name and shame" anyone, but they were players who we were familiar with who came out to watch the lead card.
- Spectators without VIP lanyards. Around the 7th or 8th hole, there were a handful of folks that decided to just come out between the ropes and join the group, and none of the marshals said a word. At one point a VIP spectator said something to one of the marshals and essentially got "we don't want to hassle anyone, there's plenty of room".
The extra people, of course, all wanted to be up front where they could see. So we went from a morning session where we had the opportunity to see everything to standing three deep behind a bunch of folks who weren't even supposed to be there, fighting for every square foot of space. I wish cell coverage had been better, because we would have gone and watched Paul shoot lights out a couple of groups ahead. It didn't ruin the experience, but it put a damper on how much fun it was, and was in stark contrast to the morning session. I get it, people want to see the MPO lead card, but if the tour is going to sell special tickets to a group for better access, ensuring that access isn't then handed to a bunch of other people needs to happen too.
(Overall the weekend was a blast, and we absolutely got our money's worth. This is just me nitpicking something that wasn't executed well)