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Weather often hinders play
Posted: Friday April 12, 2002 8:24 PM
By John Boyette
Staff Writer
For all of its natural beauty, the Masters Tournament is often plagued by weather that's downright ugly.
Saturday's third round of the 64th edition was no different, as play was suspended for a little more than two hours. After a short rain shower, play resumed.
This time, though, the rain wasn't the problem. High winds, gusting more than 40 mph at times, caused scores to balloon.
Look back at tournament history, though, and you'll see a pattern of weather delays. Although an entire round hasn't been canceled since 1983, when the tournament finished on a Monday, six of the past 10 tournaments have been hit by rain.
Blame the tournament's traditional early spring starting time for the inconsistent weather.
In the tournament's early days, it was held in late March. It's little wonder that weather brought havoc, causing delays in three of the first six events.
In 1936, heavy rain forced eventual winner Horton Smith to play 36 holes on the final day. Two years later, the tournament didn't even start until Saturday. Thirty-six holes were played Sunday that year, with the final round held Monday. The 1939 tournament featured a final-day Sunday with 36 holes.
Longtime tournament observers said Saturday's winds rivaled those in 1956, when amateur Ken Venturi lost a final-round lead of eight strokes. Jack Burke Jr.'s 72-hole total of 289 is tied for the highest in Masters history.
Heavy rains also washed out play for an entire day in 1961 and 1973.
- 1936 - Final day 36 holes
- 1938 - 18 holes Saturday, 36 Sunday, 18 Monday
- 1939 - Final day 36 holes
- 1956 - High winds in final round
- 1961 - Rain Sunday, round postponed
- 1973 - Heavy rains Saturday, round postponed
- 1979 - Heavy rains suspended play Friday, round finished Saturday morning
- 1982 - Rain suspended play Thursday, round finished Saturday
- 1983 - Friday's round postponed by rain. Saturday rain delay, with six players left on course.
- 1984 - Play suspended Saturday with 19 players on course.
- 1989 - Third round suspended with 14 players on course.
- 1992 - Third round suspended with six players on course.
- 1993 - Second round suspended, finished Saturday morning.
- 1995 - Fog delay of 45 minutes Friday.
- 1998 - Ninety-minute delay Thursday morning. Play suspended at 7:40 p.m. with 10 players on course.
- 1999 - Play suspended Thursday.
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