Hurricane Helene: Augusta National Hit, Sports Owners Donate Millions

As communities across the southern U.S. try to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, one of the most renowned venues in sports is doing the same.

Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters each April, was in the path of the storm after it made landfall, and appears to have sustained significant damage. One drone video of the iconic Magnolia Lane, the road by which golfers enter Augusta National, shows several fallen trees near a practice area and the clubhouse. Another photo shows fallen trees at one of the many grass parking lots surrounding the golf course.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley addressed the situation Saturday. “Our Augusta community has suffered catastrophic and historic impact from Hurricane Helene,” he said in a statement. “We currently are assessing the effects at Augusta National Golf Club. In the meantime, our focus and efforts are foremost with our staff, neighbors, and business owners in Augusta. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well as everyone throughout Georgia and the Southeast who have been affected.”

The course has been closed since May, for its annual break before typically reopening in October. While repairs inside Augusta National could be costly, it would be hard to imagine the 2025 Masters would be impacted in any way at this point.

Lending a Hand

In response to damage from the wide-reaching storm, many professional sports teams owners and their various charitable foundations have pledged millions of dollars to relief efforts. So far, at least $9 million has been committed from franchises in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas:

• Panthers, Charlotte FC (The David and Nicole Tepper Foundation): $3 million
• Falcons, Atlanta United (Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation): $2 million
• Lightning (Lightning Foundation, owner Jeff Vinik): $2 million
• Buccaneers (Glazer family): $1 million
• Texans (team chair and CEO Cal McNair): $1 million

The NFL Foundation, the league’s philanthropic arm, is also donating $1 million to relief efforts. All four NFL teams mentioned above played home games Sunday as originally scheduled.

More Hurricane Impact

After Hurricane Helene last week led to the controversial postponement of the final two games of the Braves-Mets series, more sporting events were impacted over the weekend.

Appalachian State canceled its home football game scheduled for Saturday against Liberty. East Tennessee State beat the Citadel 34–17 in Charleston after the Saturday game was pushed back three hours to 5 p.m. ET. Road closures in the Carolinas delayed ETSU’s arrival by 12 hours, with the football team getting to Charleston at 4:30 a.m. ET. The Citadel declined a request from ETSU for the game to be postponed until Sunday due to other on-campus event conflicts.

UNC Asheville has suspended all classes until Oct. 9, and the athletic department posted a message on social media Monday morning that its staff was safe, with more details about upcoming games coming soon. 

In the NHL, the Predators postponed their home preseason game against the Lightning, which had been scheduled for Friday night.