US Masters To Be Played In November

The PGA Tour has announced plans to resume professional golf tournaments from mid-June.  The Tour boss, Jay Monahan says “Our hope is to play a role, responsibly, in the world’s return to enjoying the things we love.” The Open Championship has been cancelled but the remaining three Majors – The Masters, the US Open and the US PGA Championship – will take place, albeit on later dates from those originally planned.  

The first four tournaments in the revised schedule will take place without the presence of spectators, a move which the PGA has introduced to protect the public and players but which will deprive the Tour of much-needed ticket receipts and dampen the atmosphere at the events affected.

The PGA Tour confirms that the situation remains fluid, saying “At this time, the Tour plans to resume play with the first four events closed to the general public but will continue to monitor the situation and follow the recommendations of local and state authorities in order to determine the most appropriate on-site access in each market”.

The PGA Tour was suspended last month and golf fans will welcome the staging of the first event on the revised schedule, the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas on 11- 14 June.  The second tournament will be the RBC Heritage from 18-21 June, followed by the Travelers Championship the following weekend, from 25 to 28 June,  and then the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit from 2-5 July.  

The Memorial Tournament will take place on 16-19 July, the slot originally intended for the cancelled 149th Open Championship that had been due to be held at Royal St George’s in Kent.  And this will be followed by the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational at the end of the month.  The first Major of the season, the PGA Championship, is now scheduled for 6-9 August and it will be followed by the start of the three events that make up the FedEx Cup Play-offs, with the Tour Championship planned to take place from 4-7 September.  

The 2020/21 season kicks off in mid-September, but there will be an element of parallel running as the new season tournaments intermingle with the remaining events of the 2019/20 season.  So the US Open will now take place from 17-20 September, with the Ryder Cup the following week as originally planned.  

The Augusta National Golf Club will once again host the US Masters which is now scheduled for 12-15 November.    This event will undoubtedly attract enormous attention from the media and golf fans, particularly after the excitement of last year’s event in which golf legend Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters, his first win in Augusta for 14 years and his first major title since 2008.

It is difficult to predict the form of the top golf professionals returning to the PGA Tour after their extended break, but the bookmakers are still prepared to make a few predictions.  

Rory McIlroy is favourite to win The Masters with Coral  offering odds of 13/2 .  Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka are also strong contenders to scoop up the top prize of over $2million, with odds of 12/1, 14/1 and 16/1 respectively, available from bookie William Hill.  Tiger Woods is not widely fancied this time to repeat his feat of last year, with odds of 16/1 from GentingBet, the same odds being available for Dustin Johnson.  

Interestingly, the bookie’s offering odds for Tommy Fleetwood to win The Masters, despite the fact that the Englishman is currently stranded on the other side of the Pond.  Some 25 other players and 35 caddies are in a similar predicament, adding an element of uncertainty to the revised schedule.