November Masters is cool, but it's also a reminder of how bleak things really are

To say 2020 has been surreal would be putting it a bit mildly. In fact, it would be the understatement of the year.

And it’s all because of a virus, a global pandemic that just won’t let up.

Of course, you’d think we’d all be getting used to how strange 2020 is by now. After all, we’ve been at this COVID thing for quite some time. But, getting used to it would be giving in to COVID, and I’m not going to speak for anybody but myself — and I’m not giving in, or getting used to life in a pandemic. I’ll never get used to it.

And that’s why Thursday was another one of those really weird days.

Sitting on my couch Thursday may not have been unusual, but, what I was doing was. I was sitting there watching The Masters on Nov. 12. Yes, that’s what the pandemic has done to us. There I was, under a blanket, watching Tiger Woods play some really good golf in the most famous tournament ever. Meanwhile, just outside our brand new picture window, over a foot of snow lay on my front yard, it had just been -5 degrees the night before, and, while Thanksgiving is two weeks away, obviously, winter has already come to Havre, and it appears to have come for good.

To recap, I’m watching The Masters, under a blanket, with Havre buried in snow, and Thanksgiving right around the corner. How’s that for surreal?

But, that’s 2020 for you.

Want more weirdness? I’ve got it for you.

The Masters, of course, was canceled in April, moved to November, but is being played without fans. The Masters is all about fans, all about the roars, all about the patrons as they say. This year, though, not so much. Watching the opening round of the November Masters, the very first thing you notice on TV is the quiet. It’s so quiet it makes a buzzing sound that makes it appear as if there’s something wrong with the audio on the broadcast or with the audio on your TV. But there isn’t. It’s just that it’s that quiet. And that’s golf right now. And while pro golf tournaments have been going without fans since June, The Masters is different, and while it’s exciting to be watching it, nonetheless, the fact there are no fans there, it’s almost depressing.

There’s another word to describe 2020. Sure, it’s been surreal, but it’s also been extremely depressing.

How’s this for depressing? I’m watching The Masters being played in November, but next week, I won’t be watching the 120th Cat-Griz game. No, that game, along with the entire 2020 Big Sky season was wiped out due to COVID, and possibly moved to 2021. Well, it’s scheduled for next spring anyway, and so too is the 2021 Masters. Yes, that event, like the Cat-Griz game, are now what we’re supposed to look forward to after what will likely be a very long, very dark and very difficult winter.

And, yet, I’m skeptical. In fact, I’m beyond skeptical. With how people in general are treating COVID right now, with the fact that we’re going to be averaging 200,000 new infections a day by next month, with no chance of slowing it down, with the fact that a lot of people have literally quit caring, I’m beyond skeptical that there will be a special Cat-Griz game next March. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a lot of money, if I had a lot of money, that there won’t be a Cat-Griz game in Missoula March 27, 2021. With the way things are going, we’ll be lucky if there’s March Madness again next spring either. In fact, the Ivy League just canceled all winter sports. And that brings me back to The Masters.

Here I was sitting on my couch, watching The Masters, and it was fun. For golf fans, there’s nothing like that tournament, and there’s nothing like that course. And the fact that it’s being played in November only adds to the mystique of this Masters. As they always say, “It’s a Tradition Unlike Any Other.”

Yet, watching ESPN's broadcast Thursday, the regular 2021 Masters, which is slated for April 8, they mentioned it many times, talking about how it’s not that far off, and that they can’t wait to have the fans back. That kind of talk should have excited me, but it didn’t, it actually depressed me even more.

There aren’t going to be fans at next year’s Masters. I mean get real, this virus is so out of control, there’s no reason to think things will be under control by next spring. Not for a Cat-Griz game in Missoula, and not in control enough to allow 30,000 fans onto the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club on April 8, 2021.

Of course, I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I’m wrong. I’d celebrate being wrong. I’d write column after column admitting how wrong I was. But, I’ve come to a point where I’m resigned to the fact that, COVID in America is going to keep on ruining things we enjoy until it doesn’t anymore. And while I know that day will come, it isn’t going to be as soon as we wish it would.

Normally, this would be the part of the column where I lecture all of you about masks, social distancing and avoiding gatherings and all the other things we should be doing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But you’ve heard it from me before, and my thoughts and hopes for people to start taking this thing more seriously haven’t changed. My feelings and worries and disappointments about how people treat this pandemic, and by in large, are treating each other over it, haven’t changed since March, or June or August or September, when I was writing columns about those very things. So, there’s no need to beat that dead horse. We all know what we need to do to get this pandemic under control. Everybody knows. Now, whether you choose to do them, that’s up to you.

But I will say this, if we don’t do it, collectively, if we stay on the current trajectory we’re on, don’t except your favorite sports to normalize anytime soon. That includes the upcoming college basketball season, the proposed spring football season for the Griz, the Bobcats and the Frontier Conference, March Madness and so much more. None of it has much of a chance to be normal, or in some instances, happen at all if we don’t change this and do it quickly. And, if we don’t turn this thing around, the list will include The Masters next April. Oh, there will be a Masters in 2021. Professional golf has shown how to operate in the pandemic, and they’ve done it very well, but unless things change dramatically, the 2021 Masters will look exactly the way the one I was watching Thursday looked.

And if that happens, it won’t just be surreal, it will be incredibly depressing.