Masters Tournament organizers face a real predicament this weekend with inclement weather scuppering not one, but two, tournament rounds.
And although the plan is to finish Rounds 3 and 4 on Sunday, if the past couple days have proved anything, it's that Mother Nature is a fickle mistress, one who can shatter expectations in the blink of an eye.
So, what would happen if the tournament needed to stretch past Sunday? And has that ever occurred before? The Sporting News looks at the history of Masters Monday, a rare sight in the golf world.
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Has the Masters ever finished on a Monday?
Despite being billed as a weekend-long event, the Masters has, in fact, been pushed to Monday multiple times, most recently 40 years ago.
Revisiting the last time Masters finished on a Monday
The conditions that swallowed up Augusta National in 1983 shared a great many similarities with the ones that hit the course this year: torrential rains accompanied by chilling gale-force winds. Most of the southeastern United States was caught in the storms. Conditions were so brutal that Friday's second round was washed out entirely.
The round was pushed back to Saturday, with golfers instructed to start on split tees (half the participants started at Hole 1, the other half started at Hole 10). A 32-minute delay doomed the proceedings. Six golfers, including Jack Nicklaus, were forced to finish their rounds on Sunday morning. Nicklaus withdrew from the competition because of back spasms.
Given all the commotion, organizers opted to hold the third round on Sunday and the final round on Monday.
In the end, Spanish golf icon Seve Ballesteros donned the green jacket. He outlasted Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd and Craig Stadler to win by four strokes. Scores were unsurprisingly high, with Ballesteros rolling to victory despite being only 3 under par.
How many times has the Masters finished on a Monday?
The Masters has finished on a Monday five times in its history, all in the 20th century. The full list of years and winners:
- 1936 (Horton Smith)
- 1938 (Henry Picard)
- 1961 (Charles Coe)
- 1973 (Tommy Aaron)
- 1983 (Seve Ballesteros)
