J.D. Cuban
Tiger Woods celebrates during the final round of the 2019 Masters Tournament held in Augusta, GA.

By Keely Levins
A week ago, tournament chairman and Augusta National club president Fred Ridley announced the 2020 Masters would be postponed due to concerns over the spreading coronavirus. The socially responsible move left the golf community appreciative that the year’s first men’s major hadn’t been cancelled outright and, naturally, guessing when it might be rescheduled.

Though there haven’t been any announcements from Augusta National, social-media sleuths have been sharing a theory about a potential new date. Several people have been posting screenshots of cancelled hotel reservations they had previously made for early October. Within the last week it would appear many who had already booked rooms were suddenly alerted that their reservations had been dropped.

Most of those room rates had been booked at normal October prices for Augusta, Ga., which in some cases could be less than $100 a night. However, if the Masters were to be rescheduled to October, those hotels could charge far more than that price.

And apparently, that’s what they’re starting to do. We went online Friday morning to try to book a hotel room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Augusta for any of the last three weeks of October. We found that a week-long stay will cost you … wait to it … $10,493. For reference, that same number of nights in November goes for $623.

Similarly, rates at the Residence Inn in Augusta have been reported to have jumped from $139 a night to $999; Ecco Suites from $79 to $650 and the Knights Inn from $49 to $449.

We’ll let you do the math, but the surge naturally has many under the impression that the 2020 Masters will take place in October, with some surmising as LPGA player Marina Alex did above that the week of Oct. 5-12 might be the ultimate date. If nothing else, it gives us something fun to obsess over during the current age of social distancing.