Masters In November — Why You Should Pay Attention To Augusta National Golf Club

Augusta National Golf Club by the nature of its membership is one of the true centers of power and influence in this country.

You can find Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Condoleezza Rice and Rex Tillerson among the Green Jackets.  A hefty number of members are from Atlanta, home of the nation’s Centers for Disease Control.

Fact is, Augusta National members can gather information at the highest levels, perhaps on par with the White House inner circle.

Decisions by the club are not made haphazardly.  The club, through its influential membership, has the ability to get inside information that is otherwise unavailable or unattainable even in the most prestigious corporate board rooms.

So when you see the new dates for The Masters as November 12-15,  odds pretty good are that it will happen.

The power base at Augusta National maintains a high level of secrecy, not unlike the Knights Templar of the 1100s and the Free Masons in the early days of our country.

Augusta National was also the most conservative of all the golf bodies when revised dates for three of the four major championships were rolled out this week.

There will be no 2020 Open Championship.

The R&A flat-out cancelled what was to be the season’s final major.  By doing so, it will be able to collect on a hefty insurance policy that covers financial losses that could arise from an epidemic or disaster.  They’ll play next summer at Royal St. George’s, this year’s venue then 2022 at St. Andrews for the 150th anniversary championship.

That leaves the USGA and the PGA still alive, for now.

The USGA announced that the U.S. Open will be played September 17-20 at its current-scheduled site — Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.

The PGA confirmed what was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week — it will play its championship at Harding Park starting August 6 and finishing on Sunday, August 9th.  The PGA also reiterated its plans to play the Ryder Cup the week of September 22-27 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin.

Which brings us to the PGA Tour and its hopes for the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs.  The Tour was hoping to restart next month at The Colonial but that fell by the wayside.  Now the Tour is hoping for a June 18 restart with The Memorial.

The Tour hopes to start in time to have all three of the FedEx Cup playoffs in action, the first starting the week of August 10 with the Tour Championship concluding on Monday September 7, Labor Day.

The Tour will try and squeeze in to some of those abandoned major championship dates  formerly occupied by the Open Championship and the Men’s Olympic golf competition in July.  The Tour hopes to make further announcements regarding that in the coming weeks.

The European Tour is still on hold and is currently working through scenarios for rescheduling some of its 2020 tournaments.

Late last week, the LPGA Tour released a revised look at its 2020 summer schedule, beginning on the week of June 15 with the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.  Additionally it has rescheduled its first two majors of the year.  The ANA Inspiration is moving to the week of September 7 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California; and the U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA is moving to the week of December 7 at Champions Golf Club in Houston.

But at this point, it’s all still tentative, nothing can be etched in stone with the pall cast over our country by the COVID-19 battle.

But if you had to bet on one that will happen, put your money on The Masters.