What If the 2020 Masters Hadn’t Happened?

As sports fan, we tend to look back at events and bring in the question: What if? For virtually any sport, the hypothetical question provides one with the imagination and wonder of what could have been.

2020 was a year that devastated the sports world; forcing cancellations, rescheduling highly anticipated events and so much more. Right on the cusp of the rise of COVID-19, The Masters Tournament and its committee were faced with several challenges in an attempt to keep the first major of the year on track.

Consequently, the novel virus forced the tournament to reschedule to a later date and, ultimately, hindered golf and its fans from celebrating a 2020 Masters champion, for the time being. Luckily, the coveted tournament was not fully cancelled. But what if it was?

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by The Masters (@themasters)

The “What if?” question is one that presents other unknown entities. In the case of The Masters in 2020, a couple of questions that come into mind if the tournament had been completely eliminated are (but are not limited to):

Would this year’s champion (2021) receive the title of “2020 Masters Champion”?

Like golf, all sports around the world, especially during the peak of COVID, were exacted to reschedule events to an unknown date. One of the most notable happenings in sport which was scheduled to occur last summer was the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Instead of canceling the games completely and waiting four grueling years for the next round, the committee decided to simply push the events back a whole year.

What’s funny, though, is that even though the year is now 2021, the Summer Olympics will still be broadcast and televised as the 2020 Games. So, if the 2020 Masters tournament had been cancelled, would this year’s champion be recognized as the 2020 champion? Probably not. Unlike the Olympic Games, The Masters occurs annually, so a switch-up in establishing years’ champions in accordance to past years would be confusing and, essentially, mess up the timetable for future events.

Would Dustin Johnson still be world no. 1?

Prior to his victory in the strange November Masters, Dustin Johnson was ranked the world no. 1 due to his dominating performance where he finished in the top-six in each of his six starts leading up to the Masters. Since his win at Augusta, DJ finished in the top-ten at the Genesis Invitational and won on the European Tour at the Saudi International.

Besides those two tournaments, Dustin has failed to make very much noise on TOUR as he has yet to post a top-25 finish in his last three starts, including THE PLAYERS. There are golfers on TOUR, who some might argue, have had more success than Johnson in the past couple of months. One of whom is Justin Thomas. Since the 2020 Masters, which he finished fourth in, Thomas has been arguably the best player on TOUR as he has been playing some stellar golf, highlighted by his victory at THE PLAYERS. Other players like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, could give Johnson a run for his money if his victory at the 2020 Masters was nill.

Both have been nothing but exceptional in the past couple of months. So, without a win at the 2020 Masters, would Dustin Johnson still be the world no. 1? In my opinion, no. I believe, without a green jacket for DJ and a (hypothetical) cancellation of the 2020 Masters, Justin Thomas would have overtaken his role for world no. 1 after his impressive win at THE PLAYERS.

While hypothetical instances in sports are fun to mess around with, the 2020 Masters did crown its champion and Dustin Johnson deservedly earned his right to sport the coveted green jacket. Even though conditions were different in November and the course played a lot more soft than it usually does when played in the spring, DJ took advantage and posted a record -20 at The Masters. Since it has not happened in the spring, is a -20 four-round card at The Masters possible? Let’s leave that up to the future to decide. Golf and its players have a tendency to defy the odds and wow its fans.

Every Shot From Dustin Johnson’s Final Round | The Masters

Every Shot From Dustin Johnson’s Final Round —- Follow @themasters on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themasters/ Follow @TheMasters on Twitter: https://twitter.com/themasters Follow @TheMasters on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMasters/

Cover Image via Instagram