Masters release official statement as unexpected bad news threaten to turn opening day into chaos
The opening day of the 2024 Masters could be a washout with a possibility of winds reaching up to 45mph and a high chance of rain, with weather on Thursday looking particularly grim
The Masters have confirmed opening times for Thursday will be pushed back in light of an impending storm descending on Augusta.
Weather is expected to take a turn for the worse at 6am local time (11am GMT) with thunderstorms and winds of up to 45mph forecast for the first morning of the Masters. There is a 90% chance of rain before 1pm although temperatures will still reach 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
The honorary starters hit off at 7.40am with the first group starting at 8am with the last group – including Tommy Fleetwood – scheduled to go at 2pm. The forecast is better for the following three days with temperature reaching 84F with light winds on Sunday.
On Wednesday evening, the Masters released a statement confirming a shift to Thursday’s gate opening times. It read: “Due to forecasted weather on Thursday, we have decided to delay all gate openings in the morning. All Masters free parking will be closed until further notice while gate openings are delayed. Further updates will be shared no later than 5 a.m. via Masters.com and social channels.”
Scoring will likely be impacted by the weather and 2017 champion Sergio Garcia did not speak positively about the challenges that potentially await. He said: “On a course like this, where you have to be so precise in every single shot that you hit, when you play with that amount of wind, it becomes very, very challenging.”
Luke List, an Augusta native and the first to record a hole-in-one during Wednesday’s Par 3 Contest, is due to tee off 8.36am local time. The American, though, remained pragmatic with his approach. He said: “Not much we can do about it. It’s kind of just see how much it dumps and how it will change.”
Last year play was brought to a screeching halt when trees fell due to rough weather near the 17th during the second round. Fortunately, no one was harmed in the incident. Garcia was also there during the incident, near the 15th hole.
“It sounded like a grandstand blew over, super loud,” he said. “Two trees fell down from the roots and took another one on the way down. People scattered around them but there was one woman that the trees fell around her and somehow she didn’t get hurt. Thank God.”
The Masters will be keen to avoid any repeat of the scary scenes from last year and with gate opening times pushed back patrons will be better protected from the weather. It doesn’t get dark until around 8pm local time so rounds can be played well into the evening in a bid to make up for lost time.
