A year after sport’s shutdown, PGA Tour sees hope on horizon
The backdrop was a navy blue board filled with 33 logos of The Players Championship. Sitting next to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was the gold trophy as he spoke about scrapping the tour’s premier event last year and how golf has navigated through the coronavirus pandemic.
Monahan mentioned the phrase “light at the end of the tunnel” on three occasions during his news conference Tuesday, which typically is more of a “State of the Tour.”
This was a state of the pandemic.
The news felt mostly positive. The tour has played 36 out of the 39 weeks since it returned, stopping only because of holidays, not an outbreak. It has not had more than three players test positive for the coronavirus at any one tournament.
Memories are still fresh from last year. Players received a text late at night after the first round saying that The Players Championship was canceled and there would be no tournaments for at least a month (it turned into three months).
Hideki Matsuyama had tied the course record with a 63 before the tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., was canceled.
“I will be there on Thursday. I look forward to it,” Monahan said. “Just proud, most importantly, to be back here a year later — proud of our players, proud of all the caddies, everybody that has worked so hard to get us back to this point in time.”
The field features 48 of the top 50 in the world, missing Brooks Koepka and Matthew Wolff. The tournament is allowing 20% of capacity for spectators, which will be somewhere short of 10,000 people.
Mickelson 101: On Aug. 22, 1993, when Phil Mickelson won the International against a field that included Jack Nicklaus and Roger Maltbie, he moved into the top 100 of the world ranking for the first time and had stayed there ever since then.
Until now. Mickelson, who has earned ranking points in only two of his past 10 events, slipped to No. 101 this week. That ends a record streak of 1,425 weeks — accounting for the 12week freeze from the pandemic — inside the top 100.
Briefly: The RBC Canadian Open, the fourtholdest national championship in golf, has been canceled for the second straight year because of circumstances related to the COVID19 pandemic. The tournament, which dates to 1904, was to be played June 1013 at St. George’s Golf & Country outside Toronto . ... The Players Championship has not had a backtoback winner since it began in 1974, the only tournament that old without a successful title defense. … Jason Day (2016), Tiger Woods (2013, 2001) and Greg Norman (1994) were the only players who were No. 1 in the world when they won The Players Championship.