Memorial other events ask dewine to allow fans

Tournaments spell out precautions; state offers no timetable for response.

The Memorial Tournament and three other professional golf events in Ohio are requesting that Gov. Mike DeWine allow fans to attend their summer tournaments, which would mean lifting or easing the ban on gatherings of 100 people or more that was instituted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A letter addressed to DeWine and co-signed by the four tournament directors reads: “We appeal to you to permit the four Ohio professional tournaments to allow fans this coming July and August.”

The letter, dated May 15, includes proposals on how the tournaments will implement safety measures to protect spectators, including social distancing, issuing protective equipment (masks, sanitizers, gloves and screening) and temperature screening outside tournament grounds.

The tournament directors also insist that “without fans these tournaments will not be successful or viable.”

Memorial Tournament director Dan Sullivan would confirm only that “we are working on a plan and details to follow,” but added that the Memorial will go forward with or without fans.

The same cannot be said of the LPGA Marathon Classic in Toledo.

“If the question is, ‘Could you play the tournament without spectators?’ We couldn’t,” Marathon tournament director Judd Silverman said. “When you run the numbers, if (there are) no spectators then you’re returning all of the sponsorship money ... and once you return all that money it puts our event deep into the red, to the point we can’t afford to do that.”

Silverman said the tournaments hope to hear back from DeWine’s office in the next two weeks, but the governor’s office did not confirm a timetable.