McIlroy believes October Masters would be doable

Could we ever see The Masters being played in October?

Only twice in the 83 hostings has the Masters not been held entirely in the month of April and that was the first hosting of the Masters from March 22nd to 25th in 1934 with the 1939 Masters commencing on March 30th and ending April 3rd.

Rory McIlroy (Credit: PGA Tour)

But now with the 2020 Masters being postponed, it’s possible the tournament will be held from 8th to 12th October, which would be about six weeks after the season-ending Tour Championship and a few weeks after the Ryder Cup.

The Masters cannot be held any earlier as Augusta National is completely closed even to members from May to the end of September due to the intense summertime heat.

Also the later in the year the Masters may return to the 2020 season schedule, the shorter the daylight hours.

In April the length of the days at Augusta National are roughly 13 hours while in October they drop by two hours to 11 with it getting dark at 6:30pm rather than 7:30pm, which can be the difference between getting play finished on Sunday or not.

It was a question put to World No. 1 Rory McIlroy in speaking with Brad Faxon on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio.

“It gives us some room for maneuvering, depending on what happens over the next few weeks,” McIlroy said.

“A Masters in the fall, October time, I think it would be pretty cool. It would be a very different look than what you usually see at Augusta. I think it’s definitely a possibility if they want to get the 2020 Masters in…I’m sure they can make it happen if they want it to happen.”

McIlroy pointed out to Faxon that other major international events later in the summer, including the staging of the 149th Open Championship from 16th to 19th July and the following fortnight’s Summer Olympics in Japan along with the 2020 Ryder Cup in the last week of September, could very well also be postponed.

Though the World No. 1 remains optimistic full competition will resume in a ‘couple of months’.

“I like to think that we can get a handle on this over the next sort of couple of months, and things can return to some sort of normality,” McIlroy said.

“But I don’t think anyone knows, really.”