How the PGA Tour navigated its most difficult week so far

CROMWELL, Conn. – Nothing about the return of the PGA Tour was going to be easy. If that wasn’t clear before, this week at the Travelers Championship it quickly brought back the reality of just how difficult it will be to play golf each week.

Perhaps two quiet weeks after a three-month layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic they initially fooled everyone, with players, caddies and Tour officials being lulled into a false sense of security, relaxing here and there in some of the guidelines. , and letting his guard down just a little.

However, this week:

• There were positive tests, from players and caddies.

• There was the sudden arrival of the PGA Tour commissioner and the possibility of another closure.

• There was a great champion coming out and another one playing a round alone.

So yes, the stark reality of all this was evident throughout the property, every day of the week.

And now, after a week that produced multiple warnings and so many strong signs of the sport’s resistance, this traveling circus packs its store and heads to Detroit for the Rocket Mortgage Classic. But this week at TPC River Highlands taught some lessons, offered some clear reminders, brought a fresh approach, and forced some stricter protocols to prevent the sport from closing again.

Golf itself was phenomenal. Phil Mickelson, 50, opened with 64-63, offering a glimpse of the past and the possibility that there is still some magic and victories hidden in his golf bag. There was the bulky Bryson DeChambeau, who was hitting a 428-yard drive in Friday’s second round as he made his way through the contest for the third week in a row while proving there is a method to go insane.

But even the strongest game in the world came with harsh reminders that this is different. There was, again, the stillness, the haunting silence. Golf has a recognizable soundtrack: the roars of Amen Corner, the moans as a ball splashes into the water next to the island green on TPC Sawgrass, the direct party at 16 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. There’s also a specific buzz, then an explosion of noise that only some of the biggest names in the sport – Tiger, Phil, Rory – get when they do something special.

In the late Friday afternoon, Phil Mickelson was standing in the middle of 18th Street. His approach shot landed a few inches from the hole and stood neatly next to the pin for a tap-in birdie to end with a Featured Reel 63. Travelers are not important, but now it annually gets an elite course and generally has loyal and large galleries. The 18th green is usually always full, cheers are always appreciative, and in special cases, such as when Jordan Spieth came out of the bunker to win in 2017, the applause is overwhelming.

The sound of Mickelson, a fan favorite, wrapping up a 63 to head to the weekend as the sole leader of the Travelers would have had his eardrums ringing the entire drive home. Instead, when the ball failed to get in by an eagle 2, there was a low, silent “Ooooh” from a volunteer sitting next to the green.

“Although it’s calm and doesn’t have the same atmosphere, it’s great that we can do this,” said Mickelson.

He, like everyone, is still learning. And that’s what this week for the PGA Tour was all about, though surely the top sports commissioners and Division I athletic directors were also paying close attention. Because this week, 5.3% of the NBA players tested were positive. Health experts expressed concern as Major League Baseball nears its restart. Clemson’s soccer team announced 14 more positive tests, totaling 37. Golf, despite being better designed for social estrangement, saw how quickly the virus can spread.

On Tuesday, everything seemed fine. Then, in the late afternoon, Cameron Champ retired after testing positive for COVID-19, giving the PGA Tour its second positive test. The next morning, rumors began that there were more withdrawals on the way. First, it was Graeme McDowell who retired after his caddy tested positive. Then came the biggest name so far, with Brooks Koepka pulling out of the field after his caddy also tested positive. Koepka’s withdrawal carried significant weight, not only because he is a four-time major champion and currently the fourth player in the world, but because not 24 hours earlier, he had emphasized how seriously he was taking the virus.

“I told everyone on my team that they are practically locked up,” he said the day before his retirement. “If they don’t want to do that, then they don’t have to be with us. It’s pretty simple. I told them [swing coach] Claude [Harmon]I have my chef traveling with me, and I basically brought my own gym, I brought weights, bands. Everything you see in a gym, we have brought. There is no reason for someone to leave the house. The chef obviously leaves the house to fetch food, but that’s about it. But he’s still wearing the best face mask, all he can when he comes back, he washes his hands, he does all of these things and he’s just trying to limit our exposure. I think it was the most important thing. “

Koepka tested negative, but to his credit, for the safety of those he might be paired with or practicing alongside and for the overall health of the sport, he packed his things. In a cruel twist, his brother also left. Chase Koepka survived a five-player playoff by two points in a Monday tie only to enter the Travelers field. Brooks was there, on Ellington Ridge, about 25 miles from TPC River Highlands, to see his brother win a spot. The next day, Brooks spoke enthusiastically about his brother, how excited he was to have him on the field, how difficult he knows it is for Chase to be in his brother’s shadow. But so, they were both gone. Webb Simpson, who won the week before at RBC Heritage, also retired after a family member tested positive for the virus.

Suddenly, the mood had changed. The rest of Wednesday’s player interview sessions were suspended, replaced by a press conference at 2 pm by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. Shortly after it was announced, the time was advanced to 2:30 p.m. M. There were growing rumors that, perhaps, the event would be suspended, that the PGA Tour was heading towards closure. There was another setting at work at the same time that day: Connecticut, where travelers were being gambled, New York and New Jersey had announced that they required visitors from nine states to be quarantined for two weeks. Two of the states on the list? Texas and South Carolina. The previous two stops, before the travelers? The Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, and the RBC Heritage, in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

But Monahan didn’t put another freeze on golf; instead, it implemented stricter protocols and promised “serious repercussions” to those who ignored the guidelines.

“We knew it would be impossible to eliminate all risk,” said Monahan.

The idea of ​​an end point never started.

“I think people, you hear one or two positive tests and people are panicking, and I saw a couple of calls to close the tournament, which is silly from my point of view,” said Rory McIlroy. “You know, I thought [Monahan] He did a very good job explaining. Almost 3,000 tests have been administered. The percentage of positive tests is lower: it is a quarter of a percentage. “

Denny McCarthy retired on Friday after testing positive. One of his playmates, Bud Cauley, withdrew as a precaution. Although Cauley tested negative, he admitted that he was not feeling well and decided not to continue playing. That brought the total to seven outings related to the Travelers coronavirus. The third member of that group, Matt Wallace, remained.

“I was scared,” Wallace said of the moment he found out that McCarthy tested positive and Cauley was not feeling well.

And that led to a question, fair or not, for Wallace: Should I still be here? Should he have followed McCarthy and Cauley even though he had tested negative?

“Well, I’ll tell you: Do you think I should have played?” I ask.

Therein lies the whole conversation: nothing about this return to golf was going to be easy. He could have followed the “abundance of caution” approach. Fair argument. But it was also negative. The focus will be on the players who have not asked for it and who have done nothing to guarantee it.

“I’m playing with the opportunity to change my career. If I win, why wouldn’t I play?” he said. “It is black and white for me. I have tested negative and I can go play.”

But while he waited, he was on the property, keeping himself.

But this week, the cloud of uncertainty was not made. On Saturday morning, Jason Day requested to be tested again. I had a departure time at 8:19 am. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get a result in time. So his departure time was delayed. He did not play with Rafa Cabrera Bello and Rogan Sloan, as planned. Instead, when tournament leader Mickelson came out to the first hole with Will Gordon and MacKenzie Hughes, a few hundred yards away on the tenth tee, at exactly the same time, Day started his round on his own, unsure if he was positive. or negative.

The result came in a few holes later. He was negative; If it had been positive, they would have taken him out of the field halfway and isolated him.

Shortly after the PGA Tour announced its negative result, it announced another protocol change, its second announcement in four days. Going forward in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, players would not be allowed on-site at an event until they obtained a negative test result.

No, none of this was going to be easy. So every week the Tour will learn and adjust, along with the players and the caddy and the staff and the rest of the world of sports watching.

And this week, the continued silence, the seven retreats, the two different players on the golf course alone, two separate announcements of protocol changes, served as reminders of that simple and undeniable truth.