Augusta chairman confident Masters will go on as club focuses on community recovery from Helene

Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley said Thursday he was confident the Masters would be held as scheduled in April as the club directs its attention and resources to helping the area recover from devastating damage from Hurricane Helene.

Augusta National and the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area announced a joint $5 million donation to a fund providing essential services throughout the greater Augusta area.

Ridley was a few days late arriving in Japan for the Asia-Pacific Amateur. He said the home of the Masters sustained “a lot of damage,” just like the rest of the Georgia city on the border with South Carolina.

“We’ve had literally dozens of people working at the club and what I’ve really been the most proud of is while everyone certainly is focused on getting us back up and running, our employees have been so focused on the community at large,” Ridley said at a news conference to kick off the Asia-Pacific Amateur.

“As far as the golf course, it really was affected just as the rest of the community was,” he said. “There was a lot of damage. We have a lot of people working hard to get us back up and running. We don’t really know exactly what that’s going to mean but I can tell if you it’s humanly possible, we’ll be back in business sooner rather than later.”

More than 180 people have been killed from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region and caused enormous damage as it move through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.

The Masters is scheduled for April 10-13. The club has resources that allow for rebuilding and even creating new structures in short time. It is closed during the summer and was not scheduled to reopen until mid-October. The club did not say if that had been delayed.

“I’m confident … that the Masters will be held, it will be held on the dates that it’s scheduled to be held, and I think we have a few announcements to make with respect to that project. So stay tuned,” Ridley said.

He also said the club, CSRA and the Medical College of Georgia Foundation have made separate contributions to support recovery efforts led by the American Red Cross.

“We have been able to take care of our employees but we’ve also been focused on what the Red Cross and other organizations are doing at Augusta,” Ridley said. “And our employees have really been a big part of that, which I think really speaks for them and the culture at the club.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press