AS one scribe of yore at The Masters said: “Augusta is the closest thing to heaven for a golfer – and it’s just about as hard to get into.”
Folk were probably thinking the coronavirus itself would get turned away at the gates of Magnolia Lane but, like everything else, golf’s cherished rite of spring has fallen victim to the pandemic.
April just won’t be the same. There’s not even a Scottish Boys’ Championship to look forward to.
After The Players Championship at Sawgrass was cancelled at the conclusion of the first round, and the women’s first Major, the ANA Inspiration, was postponed, The Masters inevitably fell by the wayside.
It is the first time the tournament, formed in 1934, has been halted since the Second World War. The Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship has also been put on hold.
“We hope this puts us in the best position to safely host the Masters Tournament and our amateur events at some later date,” said Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National.
“Ultimately, the health and well-being of everyone associated with these events and the citizens of the Augusta community led us to this decision.”
The next scheduled event on the PGA Tour is the RBC Clubs fear difficult times are coming GOLF Sport/Saturday, March 14, 2020 13 Heritage on April 16 with the European Tour not having anything until the end of that month.
Even then, though, there are no guarantees of a resumption. Mike Whan, the LPGA Tour’s leader, underlined the sense of unease as he halted play on the women’s circuit for the foreseeable future.
“This is a decision I may not like, but I don’t think I’ll ever regret,” he said of the current tumult. “I just wasn’t willing to live with being wrong."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here