The best day on so many golfers’ calendars has been delayed 218 days from its traditional April date, but it’s finally here. This November Masters has a different feel to it—making it one of the most intriguing golf tournaments of our lifetime. The anticipation of what a fall version of the Masters ends Thursday as golfers compete in the 84th edition of the Masters Tournament.
There are a lot of firsts this week—the only time Augusta National will host this great tournament outside of April. It’s the first stroke-play major tournament contested in November since the 1889 Open Championship. And the players will be teeing off on split tees Thursday and Friday for the first time since 2005, trying to finish each day with the lack of daylight in the fall.
(Scroll down for the latest, minute-by-minute updates)
The players will likely be fighting to finish Thursday given forecasted thunderstorms in the morning and scattered storms in the afternoon. Though the weather has improved from earlier indications days ago, so perhaps we’ll get a little lucky. After all, golfers need this in 2020—the familiar sights and sounds of the Masters, albeit with no patrons and autumnal hues . . . it’s something we’re all looking forward to.
9:38 a.m.: Wooo! We have good news: Players and caddies have been told that play will resume at 10:30 a.m., and the tournament practice facility is now filled with golfers getting warmed up once again. Let’s get it going!
8:15 a.m.: Play is still suspended with no word on when we’ll restart. Reporters on-site say there’s been thunder pretty close to the golf course, so we’ll assume they’re still a ways away from restarting. This will put their ability to have every group finish their opening rounds in doubt if they’re delayed more than an hour and a half . . .
7:35 a.m.: Woof, the horn has already blown to suspend play at Augusta National. It’s unclear how long it’ll be, but the radar, like we posted below, does not look great. For those players who were undergoing their pre-round routine, that’s a big disruption. Notah Begay III is talking about how this really hurts Tiger Woods’ prep as he takes longer to get his body ready in his older age. Sigh … 2020 can’t give us any nice things, can it?
Gosh, Tiger looked ready to go . . . now they’ll be a lot of sitting around.
Here’s the leader board as it was when play was paused:
7:25 a.m.: We’ll start to get featured groups on the course very quickly this morning with this split-tee start. Webb Simpson, Marc Leishman and Hideki Matsuyama are the next group off the 10th tee.
Charles Howell III, Jazz Janewattananond and Brandt Snedeker also got through the first hole—Snedeker made bogey as the other guys made par.
7:19 a.m.: All three players in the opening group off No. 1 (Lucas Glover, Corey Conners and C.T. Pan) found the fairway with their tee shots, and they all walk away with pars on the opening hole.
The group off No. 10 had a bit of a tougher time. Jimmy Walker, Sandy Lyle and Yuxin Lin are all over-par after playing 10. We’ll see if that split-tee start continues to play tougher for the players off 10. It might be an easier tee shot with a wider fairway, but that approach to the 10th hole is TOUGH to start your day. Just ask Jimmy Walker, who found himself behind the green, somewhere where patrons would’ve normally been in years past, and he ended up with a bogey.
7:10 a.m.: The ceremonial first tee shots have been hit by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, and the 84th Masters is officially underway! Our dogged reporter Daniel Rapaport said Player striped his opening tee shot, while he couldn’t see Jack’s ball. It’s still a little dark—and misty at Augusta—so we’ll give Rapaport a pass. Here’s an early look at the first-tee ceremony.
7 a.m.: There’s a steady mist right now at Augusta National as legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player hit the ceremonial opening tee shots. The heavy stuff isn’t expected just yet, but possible later on. Here’s a not-so-pretty look at the current radar over Augusta, Ga.: