THE NEW NORMAL Silence and no spectators mark PGA Tour’s big return
GOLF returned on the PGA Tour yesterday but it looked and felt different.
Crowd noise was replaced by a political consciousness as well as Rickie Fowler on an on-course microphone.
Bryson DeChambeau seemed to have spent the last three months pumping iron and eating pies, while Justin Rose could not miss a putt.
Ninety-one days on from The Players Championship being cancelled, the first tee shot of the Charles Schwab Challenge was hit by Colonial member and Covid-19 charity fundraiser Ryan Palmer at 6.50am local time.
The 8.46am tee time was kept free and the horn blew to stop play to remember George Floyd.
Eight minutes and 46 seconds is the length of time prosecutors say the unarmed black man was pinned to the ground under a white police officer’s knee before he died in Minneapolis last month. PGA commissioner Jay Monahan stood on the first tee and said: “We have reserved the 8.46 tee time to pause for a moment of silence, prayer and reflection.”
Players, staff, volunteers and media joined together in a remarkable scene for US society and golf.
World No.1 Rory McIlroy, who recently admitted he’d never play golf again with Donald Trump, had called for greater racial diversity in golf on the eve of the event.
But Harold Varner III, the only black player in the field in Texas, said: “I’ve talked about this a hundred times, a million times – it’s access. It’s just so expensive to play golf and that’s the problem.”
The unusual atmosphere extended to the course where caddies wore the names of frontline workers on their bibs but where there were no fans to cheer birdies.
Instead, punters could listen in on the players, with defending champion Kevin Na exclaiming, “Oh my Lord, that was off the hosel” after one shot. Brian Harman, out in the first group, said: “You can hear people hitting tee shots around the course.
“I had to back off a couple putts because someone hit a tee shot.
“There’s usually a wall of people in between here and there so you don’t hear that kind of stuff. The sound travels a lot worse. It’s odd to see the place with no fans.
“It’s definitely different. We miss the fans and hopefully we can get them back.” Limited spectators, all wearing masks, will get into the Memorial Tournament next month in a potential blueprint for the Ryder Cup.
But the new normal also involves pre-tournament testing – all 487 on-site tests were negative this week – daily screening, hand sanitiser on every hole, caddies wiping down clubs and flags, plus social distancing.
Palmer, who carded a twoover 72, said: “We’re all taking risks to be here. Everybody is pretty confident that we’re going to all be safe.
“What will be a successful week for the PGA Tour?
“Just being out here is successful, getting started. I don’t see anything holding us back moving forward. Today was the biggest day, just getting this first day off. People are going to watch golf back home and be interested to watch it tomorrow. That’s a great thing.”