Now, call me crazy, but the PGA Tour is back. It’s working.
Even with fields too absurdly big that in weeks like this one at the 3M, where you half expect to see a Mexican Mini Tour great like Club Pro Guy turning up, the PGA Tour is functioning. (For those counting at home, it’s a 197 from a record 803 strength-of-field drop this week).
Yes, there have been the inevitable hiccups, new rules on the fly, tweaks to COVID-19 guidelines and other madness that comes with a pandemic. But CBS and Golf Channel ratings keep getting better by the week at a time of year they always go down, and in spite of having no fan energy.
Increasingly, without locker rooms or droplet spewing contact to probably doom the return, along with Sanford providing on-site testing separate of local labs prioritizing sports leagues in other markets, PGA Tour golf is looking like one sport that can keep going pretty safely despite the ongoing pandemic.
So let’s see if we can screw that up!
GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker reports on the start next week of an increase humans on PGA Tour sites.
Basically, the bubble will now officially include wives/spouses/significant others/partners/nieces/step sisters and 50 or so Todd’s wearing Tod’s. They will be allowed to walk around the grounds under the “Honorary Observer” tag, or, in an apparent tribute to a gentleman’s club somewhere, enjoy “Hosted Experiences.”
Wacker writes:
In an email sent to players on Wednesday evening and obtained by Golf Digest, the tour said that tournaments and title sponsors will be allowed to have up to 50 guests per day Thursday through Sunday and that spouses and significant others would also be allowed on-site during competition days.
Guests of sponsors and spouses/significant others will not be subject to testing for COVID-19 but will be required to undergo a temperature check and fill out a questionnaire each day upon arrival. There will also be limitations on where they can go once on the grounds.
“These programs will be applied on a tournament-by-tournament basis, in accordance with state and local guidelines in place and at the discretion of the tournament,” the tour’s chief of operations, Tyler Dennis, said in the email.
Wacker says this will add roughly 500 or more to a PGA Tour site on any given week.
Understandably, sponsors want to know what they are getting for their money (though some reports say they are having to fork out less right now). And WAG’s want to travel again.
But is this addition of people who are not getting tested really worth the risk?