Weather, the one thing that can cripple any golf tournament, has moved in to Augusta and Friday saw two suspensions of play with the second of these ending play for the day.
We also saw trees down on the course which thankfully did not lead to any injuries but it was a stark reminder of what weather can do when it moves in quickly.
Who knows what Saturday will bring but the early risers here in the Augusta area saw monsoon like rain conditions, strong winds and flooded roads in the vicinity which abated somewhat the closer you got to the famed course. So it’s not all bad news.
Augusta of course has its legendary sub-air system to rely on and it’s been 40 years since the event was weather affected to the point where it required a Monday finish, so all you have to know is that the green jackets will have a plan.
The sub-air system can easily handle 4” of rain in 48 hours and with nowhere close to that predicted between Friday and Saturday it’s unlikely to pose much of an issue. It could be enough to halt play though at times and the course will be soft and playing longer for the Saturday morning returnees, so the advantage will most certainly be with those who got to stay tucked up in bed having already completed their second round.
With an hour to go before play resumes (8am local time) the forecast shows rain for the day with a steady rainfall throughout, barring a few peaks around 11am & 4pm local time.
With an troop of squeegee armed folks at the ready, added to the sub-air which sucks the moisture from the low lying areas of the course and the greens, it would seem that the only thing that could cause an issue is thunder and lightning which is something that even the folks at Augusta National can’t control.
Suffice to say this gives a big advantage to Koepka and co. right now with the still to finish chasers having 9 holes (Rahm) and 8 holes (Hovland) to complete in round two.
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