As we move into Easter weekend, some fortunate golf fans are spending the holiday at Augusta National golf course in Georgia, enjoying the premier PGA tournament of the season, the Masters. Like many tourneys, play begins on Thursdays, with the excitement and drama building to Friday afternoon as everyone finds out which players will make the cut for the weekend rounds on Saturday and Sunday.
But at this year’s Masters, the drama started early on Friday, as inclement weather caused officials to suspend play twice—at about 3:00 p.m. Eastern and again at about 4:20 p.m. Eastern. Just a few minutes before the second delay was called, though, nature caused a big scare for the fans watching the tournament, when several tall pine trees suddenly fell nearby:
ESPN:
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Multiple towering pine trees fell near Masters patrons as storms rolled through Augusta National on Friday, though nobody was injured as the second round of the tournament ground to a halt as play stopped for the day.
…
The course had already been cleared once for 21 minutes when the first band of storms passed through the area. The air horn sounded again at 4:22 p.m. ET as another set of storms arrived, bringing heavy rains and the threat of lightning.
A few minutes prior to the horns sounding to stop play, multiple enormous pine trees fell about 10 to 15 yards ahead of the left side of the 17th tee box, sending the patrons in the area scattering for cover. Larry Mize, Min Woo Lee and amateur Harrison Crowe watched from the 16th green as the trees fell.
Watch the moment the pine trees collapsed near fans watching play at the 17th tee.
"You could hear it cracking and everyone ran like hell," one eyewitness told Yahoo Sports' Jay Hart.
"Miraculously," no one was injured 🙌
➡️ https://t.co/VVlueFw0WH pic.twitter.com/OwZ5pLaqH0
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 7, 2023
Yahoo Sports reporter Jay Hart witnessed what happened, saying, “You could hear it cracking and everyone ran like hell,” and adding the good news that “miraculously,” there were no injuries. Now, I’m not sure if that qualifies as an Easter miracle…but we’ll take what we can get these days, right? Everyone, have a wonderful Easter with your loved ones and family members!
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