CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE ROSE TO THE OCCASION

Just a great day at the office

JUSTIN ROSE hit the ground running as golf returned from a three-month break yesterday.

The former world No.1 said he had enjoyed his first day back “in the office” at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas. Rose shot a superb bogey-free 63 in the first PGA Tour event since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sport.

Ryder Cup star Rose, who had struggled for form at the start of the season as he missed three out of four cuts, said: “I enjoyed the first day back in the office!”

Fellow Brit Ian Poulter shot an opening 66 – and then revealed he had played only three practice rounds in the last three months. The world No.58 said: “It’s great to be back.”

The event – the first on the PGA Tour since early March – drew a starstudded field with 16 of the world’s top 20 in action. But while golf was back on the PGA Tour, it felt so different.

The lack of crowd noise was replaced by a political consciousness and Rickie Fowler (above) on an on-course microphone. A full 91 days since the Players Championship was cancelled, the opening tee shot of the Charles Schwab Challenge was hit by Covid-19 charity fundraiser Ryan Palmer at 6.50am.

The 8.46am tee time was kept free and the horn blew to stop play to remember George Floyd. Eight minutes and 46 seconds was the length of time the 46-year-old black man was pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer before he died on May 25.

PGA commisioner Jay Monahan stood on the first tee and declared: “We have reserved the 8.46 tee time to pause for a moment of silence, prayer and reflection.”

The PGA Tour is the second mainstream US sport to return after NASCAR, a motorsport in which the audience is 91 per cent white.

World No.1 Rory Mcilroy, who admitted recently he would never play golf with US President Donald Trump again, had called for greater racial diversity in golf before the tournament.

The unusual pre-event atmosphere in Texas extended to the course, where caddies wore the names of frontline workers on their bibs.

With no fans present you could hear the mutterings of the players, with defending champion Kevin Na exclaiming after one shot: ‘Oh my Lord, that was off the hosel.”

A limited number of spectators, all wearing masks, will be allowed at the Memorial Tournament next month as a testing ground for the staging of the Ryder Cup in September.

But for now the new normal involves pre-tournament testing - all 487 onsite tests were negative - daily screening, hand sanitiser on every hole, caddies wiping down clubs and flags, and on-course social distancing.