Golf

Masters to be held as scheduled despite Hurricane Helene damage

Tournament scheduled to take place at Augusta National on April 10th-13th

Rory McIlroy on the third tee at the 2024 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy on the third tee at the 2024 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Phil Casey, PA Golf Correspondent
Thu Oct 03 2024 - 11:39

Next year’s Masters will take place as scheduled despite “a lot of damage” caused by Hurricane Helene, Augusta National chair Fred Ridley has vowed.

Helene blew ashore in northern Florida late last week as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved north, with deaths also reported in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Georgia governor Brian Kemp said the storm “literally spared no one”, with most people in the vicinity of Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, left without power.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan, Ridley reiterated that Augusta National was focused on assisting the wider community to recover from the devastation, but did address the topic of the Masters.

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“Back to one of the first questions ... the Masters will be held, [and] it will be on the dates it’s scheduled to be held,” Ridley said, according to Golf Digest.

The 2025 Masters is scheduled to be staged from April 10th-13th, with Scottie Scheffler set to defend his title.

Augusta National closed in May for its annual summer break and had been due to reopen in mid-October.

“As far as the golf course, it really was affected just as the rest of the community was,” Ridley added. “There was a lot of damage and we have a lot of people working hard to get us back up and running.

“We’ve been able to take care of our employees, but we’ve also been focused on what the Red Cross and other organisations are doing in Augusta, and our employees really have been a big part of that, which I think really speaks for them and the culture at the club.”