AUGUSTA, Ga. — As a gentle rain hammered Augusta Nationwide on Saturday afternoon, Roxanne Leap was taking within the 87th Masters from a folding chair behind the inexperienced on the par-5 2nd. She’d been there all day. Beside her in one other fold-up was her daughter, Karen Fiery, each from Williamston, S.C., a two-hour drive north of Augusta.  

“That is my first Masters,” Roxanne stated, peering out from beneath a green-and-white Masters umbrella. “I’ve been on the ready listing [for a badge] for 23 years, and I lastly bought one. I’m excited as heck. I wouldn’t miss this.”

Karen — soaked and shivering — exuded a decidedly totally different vibe.

“I’m slightly depressing,” she stated.

Such was the mixed-bag vibe across the property within the third spherical — properly, for what a part of the third spherical they bought in, anyway; when play was known as at 3:15 p.m. native time, the leaders had been solely on the seventh gap.

Patrons had been, as ever, (largely) comfortable to be right here. However given the relentless rain, dank air and barely-50-degree temperatures, the climate was higher fitted to crab-fishing than golf-watching. Streams of water crisscrossed the sloping terrain. Armies of umbrellas lined the fairways. Poncho-wearing patrons tried to heat their chilled bones over Sub-Air grates. Behind the ninth inexperienced, the viewing space was so sloppy it seemed like a scene from Woodstock. On the first fairway crosswalk, a patron slipped on the moist grass and toppled to the bottom like a downed loblolly.

Shortly earlier than the horn blew, ceasing play for the day, two grounds-crew employees pushed water off the seventh inexperienced with squeegees as Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Sam Bennett seemed on. They had been one thing akin to sailors fruitlessly attempting to save lots of a sinking ship with solely a few pails.    

“I perceive they’re attempting to push us to play as many holes as potential,” Rahm stated. “Nevertheless it was very obvious once they tried to get the water out that it simply wasn’t going to occur in our case.”

The brutal situations weren’t only a battle for patrons and employees, in fact. The wind and moist additionally beat down the gamers. There was some query as as to if officers ought to have suspended play sooner.

“Actually may have known as it about 45 minutes earlier,” Bennett stated. “However they tried their greatest.”

Rahm stated he understood the reluctance to sound the horn till it was completely mandatory, including, “You’ll be able to’t actually say it was late as a result of I don’t blame them for wanting us to play as a lot as potential.”

Rahm, Koepka and Bennett now face a marathon 29-hole Sunday.

In such attempting situations, the whole lot will get tougher: staying steady over the ball, preserving grips dry, judging distances.

“Ball’s not going wherever,” Koepka stated, which was notably evident on the par-4 18th, which performs straight uphill and, on Saturday, into a robust chilly wind. On a gap the place the longer gamers usually hit an 8- or 9-iron into the inexperienced, Rahm hit 4-iron — and nonetheless got here up brief. From the left tough, Adam Scott managed to get house however wanted a 3-iron to take action — a membership he normally carries 240 yards, he stated.

“I really feel like I simply survived,” stated Scott, who made 4 birdies in his first 11 holes earlier than sneaking in a pair of birdies on 12 and 13 to climb again to even par simply earlier than play was suspended. “I wasn’t feeling nice on the market this morning, however I managed some good saves. I didn’t actually give myself any possibilities. It was simply laborious work.”

Sunday guarantees extra of the identical — not by way of the forecast however by way of fortitude required.

Rahm, for one, isn’t involved.

“Once you’re within the place we’re in,” he stated, “adrenaline kicks in and it doesn’t actually matter.”

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s govt editor, Bastable is liable for the editorial route and voice of one of many sport’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — modifying, writing, ideating, growing, daydreaming of in the future breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely proficient and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Earlier than grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Journal. A graduate of the College of Richmond and the Columbia College of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey together with his spouse and foursome of youngsters.

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