Weather Delays Masters Monday Practice Round
After initial concerns over a possible weather delay, gates opened at 8 a.m. But media who showed up around that time were told to shelter in place, according to WRDW-TV.
By 10 a.m. patrons wearing rain jackets and carrying umbrellas lined the course under a drizzling rain, but only a few players ventured out.
Then, at 11:25 a.m., practice was suspended and the course was evacuated.
"A frontal system is sliding through the Southeast Monday, bringing bands of showers and thunderstorms to the Savannah River valley, including Augusta," weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said.
While that may frustrate those who have practice round tickets Monday, things are looking up for the rest of the week.
"The weather will be much better Tuesday and, for those interested in the actual Masters Tournament which begins Thursday, the only chance of rain, for now, appears to be early Friday, which may clear out before the second round tees off," Erdman said.
That's a welcome change from last year, when wild weather rocked the storied tournament played each spring at the Augusta National Golf Club, located about 135 miles southeast of Atlanta.
The first round on opening day of tournament play in 2024 was delayed by rain. The next day, round two was rocked by winds gusting up to 43 mph.
Since then, the course was also hit by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane Sept. 26 and then ripped through the Southeast with heavy winds and extreme rainfall.
Trees are part of what makes Augusta National so famous, and several of its giant pines and other trees were knocked down by storms over the years. Helene took down hundreds of them.
And while Augusta National didn't sustain any catastrophic damage like other places across the Southeast, its landscape is much different now.
'I think we had minor damage to the course, the playing surfaces themselves,' Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in January, according to Golf Digest. 'But we were able to get that back in shape ... I don't think you're going to see any difference in the condition(s) for the Masters this year.'
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Weather.com senior writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
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