Along with it being the most eagerly-anticipated golf tournament of the year, it also must be one of the most viewed local weather predictions on the planet and the early signs for the 2023 Masters weather forecast are not great.
The Weather Channel and other such sites must have a huge uptick in users looking at Augusta, Georgia for this week, and the early reports suggest thunderstorms for Thursday’s opening round followed by continued rain throughout the tournament.
Now, we all know weather can change, and hopefully it won’t be as bad as it looks right now, but the thunderstorms and following rain forecast for every day of the tournament must at least start us thinking about the dreaded Monday finish at Augusta National.
It’s only happened five times before in Masters history, and not since 1983, with the smaller field of just 89 players giving plenty of wriggle room in terms of catching up for lost time if the storms in particular cause a stoppage.
As you’d expect, the ground staff at Augusta have a pretty beefy SubAir system at their disposal too to suck all the moisture out of the greens and still get them up to a decent speed even if the rain comes – although there are limits even to their power.
How will Augusta play with all the rain?
Quite simply – long! It’s already measuring a record 7,545 yards after the new tee on the 13th stretched that iconic hole out to a maximum of 545, and in soft conditions that’ll be an even bigger test.
Augusta also dries out superbly so it takes a lot of rain for conditions to be similar to 2012 when mud balls wreaked havoc – but they do not do preferred lies at the Masters and they were not in operation in 2012, so it’ll take an almighty storm for them to be used this year.
The weather at the start of the week looks similar to last year, when Daniel Berger was given short shrift for asking if preferred lies would be in operation – but the difference from 12 months ago is that dry weather came in after a wet start.
Persistent rain over all four days could make this a different story, making it a Masters for the bombers to overcome conditions and be able to hit shorter irons into softer, more receptive greens that usual.
Dustin Johnson is a prime example after the way he won the delayed 2020 Masters in November, when a softened Augusta yielded a record Masters score of 20-under.
It’s a weather forecast that demands attention over the coming days and there should be enough play to get the tournament done, but there’ll still be a few nervous fans, journalists and players just checking their flights and accommodation in the event of a rare Masters overspill into Monday.
