The Masters: Absence of Major About to Be Real for Fans
By Tim Letcher
The Masters is not happening this week and for those of us who have been in denial, it’s time to deal with it. It’s not happening until at least November.
Fans of the Masters, brace yourselves because it’s about to get real. We all knew it was going to be tough, not having the Masters during the second week of April. We anticipated how we would handle not having our favorite tournament. We knew that the annual signal that spring is just around the corner would not be happening this year.
We have prepared ourselves as much as we can for this moment. We knew it would be tough. But now, it’s about to get real.
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Today is Wednesday, which means we would be watching the annual par three contest from Augusta National. This is the day of fun before the real tournament starts. A day when girlfriends, wives or children serve as caddies for their favorite players. A day when players skip balls across the ponds of Augusta National. And, most importantly, the day before golf’s first major of the season begins.
Of course, none of that is happening this year, due to precautions that are being taken due to the coronavirus. The Masters has been tentatively scheduled for November 12-15 for this year, which may soften the blow a bit, but it’s still going to be tough.
Tomorrow morning will be tough, when we don’t get to see Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player serve as honorary starters. It will also be tough to not hear “Fore please, Tiger Woods now driving” as we would have usually.
ESPN and CBS are making it a bit easier on us by showing the final rounds of five previous Masters over the next five days (staring with 1986 today). That’s going to help get us through some of the pain of not having our favorite event in April.
There is good news for those of us who are really missing our Masters this week. One, the PGA Tour hopes to resume this summer and could have an incredible fall schedule coming up. That would include the Masters in November.
The other good news is, if we can make it to that point, we will have two Masters tournaments in the span of about 150 days, as next year’s Masters is set to begin on April 8.
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As Masters fans, we’re trying to remain positive. That’s all we have at this point in time.