It was more or less inevitable at this point, but the 2020 playing of The Masters has been postponed, Augusta National Golf Club announced Friday.
Postponing golf’s most famous event is the latest in a growing line of postponements, suspensions, pauses and cancellations across the entire sports world amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the globe.
No makeup date has been announced.
“Ultimately, the health and well-being of everyone associated with these events and the citizens of the Augusta community led us to this decision,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement. “We hope this postponement puts us in the best position to safely host the Masters Tournament and our amateur events at some later date.
“We will continue to work with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Governor, the Georgia Department of Public Health, the City of Augusta and all other local authorities. We are grateful to all of these entities for their exceptional efforts and guidance.”
Of course, there’s a chance The Masters just isn’t played in 2020, especially if the global pandemic shows no let-up or becomes worse. However, while Augusta National understandably made no mention of potential makeup dates, golf fans and media wasted no time speculating about the chances of an autumnal Masters.
I'll take the glass half-full perspective here: The world returns to some normalcy by this autumn, an extra five months only heightens the anticipation, some azaleas are replanted and we use the Masters as a rallying point around our collective healing.
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) March 13, 2020
ANGC shuts down every summer to beat the heat. When it reopens in October the weather and course conditions are pure. Hopefully the golf gods will grant us an autumn Masters. We’re certainly gonna need it by then.
— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) March 13, 2020
