Masters Tournament postponed due to coronavirus concerns

The Masters Tournament will be postponed in 2020, as the concerns about the novel coronavirus continue to spread worldwide.

The first full week in April simply won’t be the same this year. The Masters Tournament will be postponed, along with the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. A potential date of play has not been announced for any of the events, as the situation surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to fluctuate from day to day.

While this decision isn’t surprising, it is the latest in a long string of major event cancellations and postponements to rock the sports and entertainment industry in the United States. What makes this one a little more impactful, though, is how we have apparently found the one thing that Augusta National realized it couldn’t fully control.

Every year, they’ve been able to run their championship with essentially no interference from outside events. When Martha Burk led her protest against the Club’s single-gender membership, then-chairman Hootie Johnson dropped all commercial sponsorship from the Masters Tournament for two years.

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He presented it as protecting those sponsors from the controversy, but it also led to us receiving the type of coverage we enjoy today on television and online. Again – controversy controlled, leading to a beneficial outcome for the Tournament and its patrons and viewers.

When Tiger Woods returned to action in 2010, following the implosion of his personal life, he did so at the Masters. Sure, he had always played well there, but there was no media circus on the club’s grounds. It can seem tasteless at times, but the club’s vice-like control of every minute detail is also what makes it so special.

So with this coronavirus outbreak, while I would never look to minimize its effects worldwide, it still felt like “okay, Augusta will have this thing under control”. No patrons? Sure, that would sting for those lucky enough to win the lottery, but the Masters would find a way to make that right. We’ve already got a limited field, too, so we don’t have 300+ players and caddies milling about all week.

But this was, of course, the right decision. Chairman Fred Ridley and the Augusta National Board of Governors must have recognized that being the only major sporting event to go on as scheduled within the next 30 days would lead to massive questions about their understanding of this virus’s spread. In a best-case scenario, as Mike Whan of the LPGA Tour pointed out when he suspended play, maybe nothing goes wrong.

But if something did happen, even adjacent to the Masters Tournament being played with a massive influx of visitors to the surrounding community, it would fall squarely on Augusta National themselves. And if postponing the event can help prevent that, then it’s a simple question to answer.

The players certainly recognize it. The fans recognize it. We’re all in this thing together, and until we get a little more understanding of what we need to do to beat this virus, erring on the side of caution will always be the right decision.

I’m going to miss the Masters as much as anybody, but “the show must go on” only goes so far. And after all, there are plenty of other spots on the calendar where they can play. The field will still be excited, even if the azaleas are in their final few weeks instead of their first. The pimento cheese and peach ice cream will still taste just as good, the walk down Amen Corner will still be just as magical.

And we’ll all be ready when Jim Nantz welcomes us back to the Masters Tournament after we all feel a little bit safer. “Hello, friends”. Until then, we’ll all just have to get our fix from watching previous years’ events on YouTube. Hey, there’s always a glass half full.