WATCH: Terrifying moment giant falling tree nearly crushes golf fans at The Masters

The incident happened around 4:40pm and a siren signalling players to stop and instructing everyone the evacuate the course played out.

Early reports stated that nobody was injured despite a 40,000 strong crowd.

The reason behind the freak accident appeared to be a strong gust of wind hitting the tree which is thought to be more than 100-years-old.

Megan Hill, a fan watching the golf, told the Augusta Chronicle: “I was sitting, looking, waiting for the next group to come up to the tee and it fell maybe eight to 10 chairs to our left.

“I stood up and screamed and thought, ‘Is it going to fall on me? It fell to the left of us and it was so scary. If the wind had been blowing a slightly different direction, we might have got hit.”

Another attendee said: “Pine cones were hitting us in the back, we turned around and looked up and heard a huge cracking noise and the tree basically crushed 10 chairs that were sitting there. Luckily we got everyone out of there. We were blessed.”

A statement released by the Augusta National Golf Club said play would resume on Saturday.

It read: “Augusta National Golf Club can confirm that no injuries were reported from the three trees that were blown over to the left of the No, 17 tee due to wind.

The safety and well-being of everyone attending the Masters Tournament will always be the top priority of the Club, which will continue to closely monitor weather today and through the Tournament.

"The Second Round has officially been suspended for the rest of the day. Play will resume Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m EDT. Ticket gates will open at 7:00 a.m. EDT as scheduled."

Crew members were later seen cleaning up the debris from the tree.

A number of the trees in the forested part of Augusta National are over 150 years old, others were planted when the course was built.