The Masters: When Could the Major be Played in 2020?

The Masters is “postponed” for 2020. Could it resurface in the fall?

While I don’t have a crystal ball, as anyone who has ever read my predictions for The Players Championship in the Ponte Vedra Recorder certainly knows, it’s easy to find places in the fall schedule to slot in two tournaments, possibly three. The Masters could, possibly, be one of them.

That’s the reason that in the press conference canceling four tournaments, I asked PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan if The Players could be rescheduled. He said no.

But that doesn’t mean The Masters couldn’t be played later in the year.

More from The Masters

Jack Nicklaus recently said don’t look for the Masters to return until 2021. I’m absolutely sure he’s more plugged into what’s going on at Augusta National than I am.

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to play it later this year. In fact, it would be quite possible to play the Masters in the fall.

The current PGA Tour schedule has the 2020 season ending August 30th. Last year’s, the 2019 season, ended the 25th of August.

The 2020 season didn’t start for two weeks, until mid-September.

In addition, there was a week when golf wasn’t played between the end of August and Thanksgiving. That was between the WGC-HSBC and Mayakoba. So that means there were actually three weeks last year that were available. If the calendar works similarly this year, the fall might allow the Masters to come back.

The biggest problem, believe it or not, will be the turf. Augusta National is overseeded for play each the spring. The overseeding is actually done in the fall, and it has to be completed while the night temperatures are still warm enough so that the tender shoots of new grass are not killed by chilly temperatures. Once established, the grass will survive winter in Augusta and be ready for golfers in the spring.

The overseeding process takes between three and four weeks, minimum. The Bermuda is not watered, and then it’s scalped down to a tiny height. After that, the annual grass overseed, often rye, is applied and the golf course is watered. Then everybody waits for the grass to grow in.

In a perfect world, like Palm Springs, California, it’s a three-week process. So, throw in another week or so for Augusta National to get perfect. According to some turf and overseeding websites, the perfect time to do this in Atlanta is September. That’s reasonably close to the climate in Augusta.

With a little scheduling help, that means that the postponed Masters could take place in mid-to-late October. So, while it wouldn’t be easy, it could be done. The second biggest problem is that October would conflict with football season, but if there was ever a golf tournament that could obsolete football, it’s the Masters.

CBS would have to get special dispensation from the NFL to have late football games only, late as in at night, for one week of the schedule. It could happen, just because it’s the Masters we are discussing. Or maybe, God forbid, NBC does the telecast one year.

While it wasn’t discussed, television contracts are likely one of the reasons that the other PGA Tour events couldn’t be rescheduled. Sure, the tournaments could be played, but the television contracts make it really difficult to have the same kind of broadcast coverage and commercial value to sponsors, again, because of the conflict with football. Only the Masters has the unique prestige to overcome all the problems with having the tournament played in the fall.

Next. Choosing the right tee box will lower your scores. dark

So could it happen? Yes. Will it? We have to wait to see what the club decides to do.

Home/The Masters