‘Where Are We?’

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | The bicycles and a summer week’s-worth of vacationers are still spinning around the edges of Harbour Town Golf Links, stopping to gaze at gators lounging by the lagoons, and gallery ropes have been strung around the perimeter of the golf course though no spectators were allowed for the RBC Heritage this week.

This is the second act in the second half of the PGA Tour’s pandemic-interrupted season, the tartan-splashed Heritage being played two months after it was originally scheduled.

If the curiosity of playing a Tour event without fans on site was addressed last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, doing it again on the edge of Calibogue Sound still feels odd.
While it has sacrificed spectators, the PGA Tour did have a second straight week with zero positive results in its virus-testing protocol.
It’s tournament golf played in relative silence but for the occasional squawk from a seagull, the metallic tone of another golf ball hitting a steel pole at the back of the practice tee or a few p...