Scene and Heard at Augusta
Masters 2023: The best quotes and photos that sum up just how brutal the conditions were on Saturday
AUGUSTA, Ga. — It must’ve been a bit surreal for most golf fans to turn on coverage of the Masters on Saturday and watch players wearing winter hats, rain gear and their caddies following with umbrellas. Of course, it has rained here during the Masters before—and yes, it’s been cold and wet in the past (2007 comes to mind).
But we don’t often get to see Augusta National blanketed in rain, wind and cold. For most of Saturday, it seemed like an Open Championship broke out on these Georgia grounds.
Hideki Matsuyama donned a heavy-duty rain jacket as he flushed this iron shot from the fairway on Saturday morning.
Ben Walton
Though the players didn’t love it, golf fans certainly did. Our photographers battled the elements to capture the scenes—and reaction from the players themselves kind of sum up just how brutal it was on Saturday.
Cameron Young’s quote is probably our favorite about what it was playing on Saturday morning:
“It's basically impossible. I don't really know what you're supposed to do. It's playing so long. ... I hit a great shot on 18 [it went 245 yards], I think it landed in a puddle.”
Cameron Young escaped with a bogey on the 13th hole but then followed that with a double bogey at the 17th hole to drop a few in the morning.
J.D. Cuban
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Steady rain for the entirety of Saturday made conditions too saturated to complete the third round.
J.D. Cuban
Jon Rahm and rules official Mark Dusbabek discuss the conditions ahead of play being called.
Ben Walton
Officials squeegeeing the seventh green right before play was called on Saturday.
Ben Walton
Phil Mickelson wore his sunglasses in the rain for most of Saturday.
Christian Iooss
We're told Phil Mickelson was wearing his sunglasses through most of Saturday. When it got really bad on the eighth tee, he took off the shades—but his tee shot promptly went about 150 yards—so they went back on.
Cameron Smith endured the worst of the conditions, like he did here on 16, then had to take an unplayable on 18 after his tee shot ended up in some mud left of the fairway.
Ben Walton
Here’s Adam Scott, who said he had 186 to the front on 18 in his second round and hit a 3-iron, which “usually flies 240.”
“I feel like I just survived.”
Xander Schauffele birdied the 12th and 13th holes Saturday morning but followed with a 5 on the home hole.
Christian Iooss
Patrick Reed—and a number of other players–were forced to haul out some furniture on their approaches to 18.
Here’s Patrick Reed, whose drive only went 244 yards at the 18th hole, on his approach into the home hole:
"I hit a solid drive off of 18 and sitting there with hybrid not knowing if it was going to be enough from the fairway with not really much wind."
Leave it to an Irishman, Shane Lowry, to tell everyone to stop complaining:
“Look, I've been around the game long enough to know what to do in these situations. So it's just kind of take the rough with the smooth and just go out there and do as best you can when you are out there. Like the stop on 11 for 10 minutes yesterday and then obviously on 14 yesterday evening, it is what it is. We knew we were going to come back out and play in some pretty bad weather and to be honest it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be this morning. But it was still very tricky out there."
Patrons battled the elements all day Saturday, including here as Sam Bennett tees off on the third hole.
J.D. Cuban
The rain sent everyone home for the day at 3:15 p.m.
J.D. Cuban
Justin Thomas needed a par at the 18th hole to make the cut—but he had an uphill climb after his tee shot traveled only 232 yards:
Jon Rahm trailed Brooks Koepka by two strokes after 36 holes, despite Rahm having to endure the more difficult early-late wave of pairings
J.D. Cuban
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