The Masters in November? Better than never
By Art Spander
Be prepared for disappointment. This is what a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins University told the Washington Post, when asked when sports would return to normal.
“And I’m a huge sports fan,” said Jared Evans, the researcher.
Disappointment? Hasn’t there been enough already? Wasn’t the Open Championship, the British Open, cancelled Monday, joining the Final Four — the title game would have been Monday night — and Wimbledon?
Hasn’t the NBA been placed in limbo, along with baseball? And weren’t so many high school championships scrubbed because of, yes, that apparently unbeatable opponent, the novel coronavirus.
We understand. Our world, the world of fun and games, is not the real world, the one where people are dying from a disease we were barely conscious of three months ago, the one with which doctors and nurses are struggling gallantly and officials debate the distribution of ventilators.
Hard to think of people trying to find ways to win games or tournaments when epidemiologists are trying to find a vaccine against the virus — a necessity, we’re told, if stadiums and arenas are to be packed once more.
Golf is a hope. Not, in this case, as a participant sport but a spectator sport.
We lost The Open, the announcement of cancellation interestingly coming only a few hours after Queen Elizabeth II tried to rally fellow Britons against the crisis created by the virus.
The 149th Open was scheduled for July at Royal St. George’s on the English Channel, but the R&A said a change in date was not possible. For the major events in the United States, fortunately, date changes — if extreme ones — could be made.
The PGA Championship, to be played at Harding Park in San Francisco, has been moved from May to Aug. 6-9, which is ironic. For most of the past 50 years the PGA was played on the first weekend in August, but the decision was made that starting in 2019 the event would shift to May to get away from the start of football season. And now, for a year at least, it’s back against football.
If not positioned as the last year’s major, as it used to be. That slot is to belong to the Masters, which in normal times is an introduction to spring. This year, anything but normal, the Masters will be played Nov. 12-15.
The U.S. Open is moved to Sept. 17-20, from its traditional mid-June dates. As of yet it hasn’t been moved from Winged Foot in the suburbs of New York, although on Monday there were stories it would go to Pebble Beach — site of the 2019 Open — or Torrey Pines, and either of those might happen.
So much of sport is tradition. We know what’s coming and when, from the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day to the last NFL regular season games in December. But the suspensions and cancellations have disturbed our rhythm, thrown us off balance.
No basketball, no baseball, no golf, no tennis, no hockey, not even any Premier League soccer. How are we supposed to know what day it is? Or even what week or month?
The Masters in November is going to be strange, yet better in November than never. If there are no azaleas, there will still be birdies.
What historically has been the start, of the season, of golf — of baseball certainly — will instead become the finish, more or less. That’s if everything works out, and despite the optimism, there’s no promise it does work out.
NFL games in California in September with stadiums — the new one for the Rams and Chargers, Levi’s in Santa Clara for the 49ers? “I’m not anticipating that happening” said Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor. “I would move very cautiously in that expectation.”
Moving cautiously is better than not moving at all. We’re prepared for disappointment. We’re ready for some satisfaction.