In announcing a significantly revised PGA Tour schedule that is scheduled to begin without spectators the week of June 8-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, the tour is hopeful – but not certain – it will be able to complete a season despite missing nearly three months of competition.
“We’re optimistic, I’m not going to say I have 110 percent certainty but we are very confident we will be able to play that second week of June,” Andy Pazder, the tour’s chief tournaments and competition officer, said on a teleconference Thursday.
Like so many other things in this virus-stricken world, the tour’s plans hinge on many factors surrounding the coronavirus. Testing will have to be enhanced and readily available and government officials at all levels will have to sign off on the tournaments being played.
If the tour’s schedule does commence at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the first four events – the RBC Heritage, the Travelers Championship and the Rocket Mortgage Classic follow the Colonial event – are expected to be played without spectators.
“Today’s announcement is another positive step for our fans and players as we look toward the future but as we’ve stressed on several occasions, we will resume competition only when – working closely with our tournaments, partners and communities – it is considered safe to do so under the guidance of the leading public health authorities,” commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement.
“We’re spending a lot of time learning about testing. We’re evaluating it. Our understanding is as it becomes more widely available it would be appropriate to use that to help us to return.” – Tyler Dennis
Among the considerations related to the proposed restart are international travel restrictions. Approximately 25 PGA Tour players and 35 caddies are outside the United States currently.
The prospect of testing everyone on site – players, caddies, tour personnel, broadcast crews, essential volunteers and others – is a critical component to the tour’s restart.
“We’re spending a lot of time learning about testing,” said Tyler Dennis, the tour’s senior vice-president and chief of operations. “We’re evaluating it. Our understanding is as it becomes more widely available it would be appropriate to use that to help us to return. … We’re in an evaluation mode, building out what we think could work.
“We’re very closely monitoring the situation at the state, local and federal level. We will follow every recommendation they make.”
It’s possible players will be tested before leaving home and there will be further testing on site for players, caddies and others. Social distancing protocols also will be enforced at tournaments.
Since stopping competition after the completion of the first round of the Players Championship on March 12, the tour has twice shifted its restart line. It had hoped to resume play May 21 at Colonial but moved the restart back by three weeks while shifting the dates for multiple events.
Among the biggest schedule changes are:
- the RBC Heritage, which was to have been played this week but was canceled, has been reinstated for the week of June 15-21;
- the Rocket Mortgage Championship has moved from late May to July 2-5;
- the Memorial Tournament will move into the dates vacated by the Open Championship, the week of July 13-19;
- the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational has been moved to the week of July 27-Aug. 2, as has the Barracuda Championship;
- the RBC Canadian Open and the Barbasol Championship have been canceled;
- the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, originally scheduled for March, has been shifted to the week of Sept. 21-27;
- and the tour’s event at the Greenbrier has been canceled permanently.
These changes come in addition to the multiple adjustments announced in March that include moving the PGA Championship to August, the U.S. Open to September and the Masters to November. The tour also announced the fall portion of its 2020-21 season, which will begin Sept. 7 at the Safeway Open.
While bringing a sharper focus to how and when the PGA Tour hopes to begin to move forward, the Thursday announcement also left questions unanswered. No decision has been made about how many, if any, players from the Korn Ferry Tour will advance to the PGA Tour this year. It seems likely the truncated Korn Ferry Tour season will roll into next year before the top 25 players can move up.
There also is the question of whether players who finish outside the top 125 in FedEx Cup points on the PGA Tour this year will be given an eligibility extension considering the loss of approximately 25 percent of the tour season.
“The policy board will make a decision if eligibility is extended into next season,” Pazder said. “If there is a scenario where we carry PGA Tour eligibility into the following season it will likely have a profound impact on the Korn Ferry Tour. It could go as far as preventing promotions from the Korn Ferry Tour.”
Revised 2019-20 PGA Tour Season schedule:
June 8-14
Charles Schwab Challenge
Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas
June 15-21
RBC Heritage
Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head, South Carolina
June 22-28
Travelers Championship
TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut
July 2-July 5
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan
July 6-12
John Deere Classic
TPC Deere Run, Silvis, Illinois
July 13-19
The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide
Muirfield Village Golf Club, Dublin, Ohio
July 20-26
3M Open
TPC Twin Cities, Blaine, Minnesota
July 27-August 2
World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational
TPC Southwind, Memphis,
Tennessee
July 27-August 2
Barracuda Championship
Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood), Truckee, California
August 3-9
PGA Championship
TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California
August 10-16
Wyndham Championship
Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina
August 17-23
The Northern Trust
TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
August 24-30
BMW Championship
Olympia Fields Country Club (North), Olympia Fields, Illinois
August 31-September 7
Tour Championship
East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia