Delight for Day at Tour squeeze

A RELIEVED Jason Day has welcomed golf stakeholders’ new plan to squeeze in three of the four majors and resume the US PGA Tour in the second half of the year.

The former world No.1 was delighted to learn the US PGA Championship, which he won in 2015, has now been rescheduled for August 6-9, with the US Open from September 17-20 and the Masters from November 12-15.

The British Open, however, was a major casualty of the coronavirus crisis with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club cancelling their championship for the first time since 1945.

After the PGA Championship, the US PGA Tour’s final regular season event will be followed by its three-tournament playoffs series.

The hugely popular Ryder Cup biennial battle between the US and Europe will remain in its original dates of September 25-27.

The mooted new schedule was a boost for Day, with his family at their home in Ohio.

“It will be strange playing the majors late in the year but it will be fun,” Day said.

“The Masters will start right on my birthday [November 12], so I’m pumped about playing

Augusta National then. It’s obviously very sad with the Open Championship being cancelled but I understand and support the R&A’s decision, especially after Wimbledon cancelled their event.

“Overall, it should be a fun second half of the year.”

Golf’s chiefs stressed the majors dates are being held but by no means does that guarantee they will go ahead, with so much depending on how the COVID-19 crisis hammering the US and Europe plays out in coming months.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said the Masters identified November as “intended dates”. CEO Seth Waugh said the PGA of America was “holding” August 6-9 as dates for the PGA Championship.