PGA Championship postponed, four more events are canceled

First the Masters, now the PGA Championship. Two days after a federal recommendation to not hold events of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks, the PGA of America decided to postpone the second major of the year, which was set for May 14-17 at Harding Park in San Francisco.

The PGA Championship will be rescheduled. Augusta National announced Friday that the Masters, scheduled for April 9-12, also would be played at a later date.

“We’re all working hard to get a date that makes sense for the championship and hopefully for Harding Park,” Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, said in a telephone interview. “Our intent is to hold the championship as close to normal, whatever that is anymore.”

The new normal is no golf for the next two months because of fears over the new coronavirus.

Shortly after the PGA Championship announcement, the PGA Tour said it was canceling an additional four tournaments on its schedule — the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.

The tour also said it was canceling three PGA Tour Champions and postponing one — the Regions Tradition, the first of five majors on the 50-and-old circuit, moves from May 7-10 to Sept. 24-27. The tour said none of its six tours, including China, Latin American and Canada, will be holding events through at least May 10.

The USGA said the U.S. Women’s Open ( June 4-7 in Houston ) and U.S. Open were going ahead as scheduled, but it canceled all the May qualifiers for those championships with hopes of designing a new system.