Pro golf swinging into new territory
Top Canadians back to work in four weeks after receiving PGA Tour’s 37-page plan
Congratulations! For the next five minutes, you’re a Canadian PGA Tour player, and four weeks from now it’s back to work.
Don’t worry, none of us can see your swing.
On Wednesday, the PGA Tour walked members of the media, including Postmedia, through a 37-page Return to Golf document that was shared with players a day earlier, outlining what tournaments will look like when the PGA Tour returns beginning June 11-14 at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
But back to you, pro.
Let’s pretend that, for some reason, even though you’re a multimillionaire athlete, you’ve been riding out the pandemic in Canada, where for much of the country this month it’s been winter in the morning, spring at lunch, summer for 15 minutes in the afternoon, and fall in the evening. The first thing you have to do is get your frozen butt across the border to the U.S. despite the travel ban. Luckily, the PGA Tour has been working with Trump and his pals on this, and hopes to help you and the 25 or so other players who need to get to the U.S.
“We are working with the federal government to facilitate the return of players and caddies who are currently residing outside of the United States, and we’re optimistic that that’s going to occur,” said Andy Levinson, the tour’s senior vice-president of tournament administration.
And you better start packing, or at least doing laundry, because there is no suggestion that any players or caddies will be exempt from the mandatory 14-day quarantine before the PGA Tour curtain is lifted.
The tour will charter jets to get players and caddies from tournament to tournament in an effort to keep its bubble as secure as possible. It’s highly recommended that you use the charter, which will cost US$600 per person and be limited to players and caddies.
Not everyone will fit on the jet, but it’s expected that some caddies will want to drive week to week and some pros (like yourself!) will prefer to fly privately.
“And then lastly, of course, commercial air travel in the United States is up and running, and we’re confident that industry will have a very, very stringent health and safety protocol themselves,” said Andy Pazder, PGA Tour chief of operations and competitions. “So that would be an option.” Not for us.
Now to the testing. This is where things get more serious. The word “test” was used 46 times during Wednesday’s news conference. All players will be checked for COVID-19 before leaving home for the opening tournament.
The tour expects these no-fans tournaments will still need to have a total of roughly 1,100 people on-site every week. Of that group, there will be a bubble of approximately 400 people, including players, caddies, tour staff, physios, clubhouse staff, and others most likely to be in closer proximity to one another, who will undergo weekly testing. Also, for at least the first four tournaments, your family members and agents will not be allowed at the course.
It’s highly recommended you stay at a PGA Tour-designated hotel. It’s likely there that you’ll first encounter the weekly testing protocol, which is a mandatory for competition.
First, there’s a health questionnaire to fill out. Then there’s a thermal test to check for fever. Last is the nasal swab. The tour is covering the cost of the test kits and says they won’t come from the supply of the local tournament market. It’s hoped that results will take 24 to 48 hours, during which time players can practise and use the golf course, but not the facilities.
Tournament week will look very different.
“At the heart of it is social distancing,” said senior vice-president of competitions Tyler Dennis.
“It’s something we’re all quite accustomed to in our personal lives now.”
There will be no off-site events, no bag storage, no dining reservations, no clubhouse gyms, no dry cleaning or valet parking or gift baskets. But there is good news for players: no weekly pro-ams.
Once Thursday arrives, you and your caddy will begin play at the first hole in front of a starter, a cameraman, your playing partners, and maybe a bird.
Like everything else in the world right now, your relationship with your caddy will be a little different. No, you won’t have to do Zoom conferences with him on every hole, but you will be asked to take your own club out of the bag, if that’s OK.
“We’ve thought about the interaction of clubs coming out of the bag and things of that nature,” Dennis said.
“We’ve talked about players retrieving the golf ball from the hole, including in practice situations, and likewise, the very few touch points that do exist on a field of play throughout a round, bunker rakes, flag sticks, we’re asking the caddies to handle those tasks and be very cognizant of disinfectant procedures following touching any item, and for everyone at the end of each hole.”
Let’s skip ahead to the worstcase scenario.
What happens when a player tests positive? Will the whole tour be shut down?
The answer is no.
The player’s name won’t be released for privacy reasons, but he’ll have to withdraw from the tournament. Immediate contact tracing will be done to see who he was near in recent days, which is why social distancing is of utmost importance. Nobody wants Rory McIlroy sidelined because he fistbumped the wrong caddy.
There is no specific number of positive tests that would lead to shutting down a tournament, but the tour is keeping in close contact with health officials from host cities.
“Of course, if there was a situation where it wasn’t possible to provide all of our constituents with a safe and healthy environment, then we wouldn’t do so, or we would look for an alternate site,” Levinson said.
With $100 million of prize money lost due to tournament cancellations, you’ll be happy to know the purses will be unchanged when tournaments restart. In four weeks’ time, it’s expected the PGA Tour will be one of, if not the first, major North American sport to reopen its doors and play for million-dollar cheques.
You better hit the golf course and shake off the rust.