CADDIE WHACK

Positive tests hit G-mac & Koepka

GRAEME MCDOWELL and Brooks Koepka are among the latest players to withdraw from a PGA Tour event after their caddies tested positive for Covid-19.

Former US Open winner Mcdowell has pulled out of the Travelers Championship, which starts today in Connecticut, amid concerns he too may have contracted it following

Ken Comboy’s positive test.

And three-time Major winner and former world

No.1 Koepka will also sit the event out after Northern

Irish bagman Ricky Elliott’s test.

American players Chase Koepka, Cameron Champ and last week’s winner Webb Simpson have been forced to withdraw as well.

Mcdowell (inset) planned to get tested again yesterday before returning to his Florida home.

The 40-year-old told Golfweek: “I’m going to get myself out of here, home to Florida and decide whether I need to quarantine myself from my family.”

Lancashire-born Comboy believes he may have been exposed to the virus when travelling on a crowded flight after the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas two weeks ago.

The caddie said he had a mild sore throat last Thursday and went to bed early and reported it in a PGA Tour questionnaire on Saturday.

He was tested later that day and the result came back positive on Tuesday.

Mcdowell added: “The alarm bells have started to ring now that Kenny has failed this test. We’re a close-knit team. We roomed together last week, we spent six hours in a car. He’s carrying the virus so in some way I have to be carrying it too.”

Portrush man Elliott also tested positive for the virus yesterday morning at TPC River Highlands.

Koepka said: “I’m going to pull out to protect everybody else. I think it’s the right thing to do. The only way this Tour can continue is if guys to do this sort of thing and be proactive about it.”