Following the incident, which occurred on the 17^th hole, the grounds were evacuated.

The Augusta Chronicle reported that two trees were uprooted in strong winds and these took down a third tree as they fell.

Course staff were seen sawing the trees into smaller pieces after they fell between the tournament and member tee boxes.

Augusta National has confirmed that nobody was hurt during the incident, which led to a second suspension of play after an earlier short delay due to the threat of electrical storms.

On the course Brooks Koepka of the United States, a co-leader after the opening day, opened up a three-shot advantage as he shot a five-under-par second-round of 67, to move to 12-under-par overall.

Koepka’s round included an eagle on the eighth hole, plus three birdies and no dropped shots.

Spain’s Jon Rahm, the 2021 US Open champion, a co-leader after day one, is in second place at nine-under-par.

He had only completed nine holes when play was suspended for the day, and after starting his round with seven straight pars, made birdies at eight and nine before the stoppage.

American amateur Sam Bennett is in third place at eight-under-par, after a four-under-par second-round of 68 which included five birdies and one dropped shot.

Two shots further back at six-under-par are Viktor Hovland of Norway, an overnight co-leader, who had played ten holes of his second-round, and Collin Morikawa of the United States, a two-time major champion, who shot a second-round of 69, including four birdies.

Play is scheduled to resume at 8am local time tomorrow with the gates set to open an hour earlier to allow spectators on to the course.