The 2021 Masters is back — with limited fans this spring.
Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced Tuesday that this year’s Masters, scheduled for April 5-11, will have similar health and safety standards to those previously instituted in November 2020.
“Following the successful conduct of the Masters Tournament last November with only essential personnel, we are confident in our ability to responsibly invite a limited number of patrons to Augusta National in April,” Ridley said.
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals are both scheduled to return with limited patrons, the club announced.
“As with the November Masters, we will implement practices and policies that will protect the health and safety of everyone in attendance. Nothing is, or will be, more important than the well-being of all involved,” Ridley said. “While we are disappointed that we will be unable to accommodate a full complement of patrons this year, we will continue our efforts to ensure that all who purchased tickets from Augusta National will have access in 2022, provided conditions improve.”
Augusta National is in the process of communicating with all ticket holders of record, and refunds will be issued to those patrons not selected to attend.
“It’s obviously encouraging,” reigning PGA champion Collin Morikawa said at the Sony Open in Hawaii. “I think all these tournaments are going to start bringing fans back, whether it’s limited capacity or a certain amount per day. They are going to do it right. We are always going to follow the right rules. We built a system, PGA Tour has built a system, and I’m sure the Masters, Augusta, have built a system or are building a system right now with everyone else to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand.
“The PGA Tour, they need to be given the credit. We are the first really big tour to come out here and do this stuff, so I think we still need to watch ourselves on what we do and where we’re going to be going, but for the most part, you know, slowly to start seeing fans, it’s going to be really exciting.”
Dustin Johnson won the 2020 Masters held in November with no patrons in attendance.
When canceling last year’s Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, the club noted that the 2020 field would remain intact for 2021. Later in the spring, when canceling the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the club also noted it would honor invitations for the 2020 field in the 2021 ANWA, provided a player remains an amateur.
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