Masters postponed after PGA Tour announced cancellations

The 2020 Masters tournament, the first major championship of golf and a signature spring event in American sports, was postponed Friday morning by the Augusta National Golf Club, the organizers of the event. The tournament, which takes place in Augusta, Ga., Was scheduled for April 9-12. The club said it hoped the event could take place at a later date.

Fred Ridley, President of Augusta National, said in a statement:

“Ultimately, the health and well-being of everyone involved in these events and the citizens of the Augusta community led us to this decision. We hope this postponement will put us in the best position to safely host the Masters tournament and our amateur events at a later date.

Thursday evening, the PGA Tour, which hosts most of the professional golf events in North America, announced it would cancel several tournaments and suspend operations until the week of the Masters. That included the Players Championship, which was canceled after a round was played on Thursday.

Friday morning, many of the world's top golfers arrived at the TPC-Sawgrass golf course hosting the Players Championship to collect their golf clubs and clean their lockers, most hoped the Masters would be played .

"You hope for the best," said Rory McIlroy, the world's best-ranked golfer. "It's one of these things that we have to wait and see. Of course I'm going to keep playing golf and practice, but we don't know what we're training for."

Billy Horschel, 34th, said, "I don't think anyone has been in this situation rather because we don't know when it will be okay to start up again I think most of us hope this will be after the next three weeks we hope we will be in a better situation then.

The Masters is the first major golf championship of the year and has been played every year since 1934, except from 1943 to 1945 when it was canceled by World War II.

Tiger Woods, in a of the most memorable sporting events of 2019, fell behind to win last year's Masters.It was Woods' 15th championship.Woods has been sidelined in recent weeks, his surgically repaired back resting.