Lessons from a fanless Travelers tournament
The Travelers Championship being held without fans was a unique experience all the way around. But there are times during professional golf tournaments where you can catch golf with very few fans — or none at all — depending on when you go and where you are on the course.
“I’ve been to a number of other tournaments, when you go early in the week at certain times, where golf is being played without fans,” said Nathan Grube, the tournament director of the Travelers Championship. “I’ve seen golf played without fans at our tournamernt before. What was so weird and different to process was our event is typically surrounded by fans (around the 18th green). I’m used to seeing things in a certain type of theater. It was strange.”
But not having any spectators in attendance didn’t make the preparation any easier. All of the health and safety precautions the Travelers staff and the PGA Tour had to make for everyone on the grounds each day — Grube said his estimate was just under 1,000 — were very necessary in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And now the tournament directors for future PGA Tour events — even ones that are being held in 2021 — are asking the tournament directors who have already been through it for advice.
“I spoke with (the tournament director) at the AT&T Pebble Beach (to be held in February, 2021) about how we set up the hospitality. They still could be dealing with the effects of this,” Grube said. “Three or four tournaments this week asked about our food and beverage, how we were able to feed 300 volunteers a day. There are so many steps to do that in a safe way. That took a lot of planning.”
Grube said some of the ways they handled food and beverage, the safety in preparing and packaging meals and delivering it versus having a buffet style meal, very well could be used at future Travelers Championship tournaments.
Grube also said that golfers operated their own carts and self-parked versus getting shuttled back and forth to the practice areas from the locker rooms. But he noted that would be much harder to do with fans in attendance and the clubhouse parking lot being full.
The PGA Tour’s COVID-19 testing has evolved since restarting its season a month ago. It’s biggest test came during Travelers week when eight golfers withdrew for either testing positive for the coronavirus, their caddie testing positive or out of caution.
There was speculation on social media that the Travelers would be canceled before it even started. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was scheduled to
speak that Wednesday afternoon, June 24. But that was only to discuss how the testing had gone and how it would change for the better.
“We knew Jay was coming up (from Florida) to have a press conference at the beginning of the week,” Grube said “When someone asked me, ‘Is he going to cancel the tournament?’, I remember looking at that person like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Once I heard (that question), I could see why people would think that. If 30 guys would have tested positive, I’m assuming we would have had to have that conversation.”
Health being compromised is something each tour event has tried to avoid, from the golfers on down. This is something that is a top priority for the other professional sports attempting to come back.
And it may be something all events going forward need to look at even when a vaccine becomes available.
”Everyone will have to take a new look at how they conduct their event,” Grube said. “We are lucky our sport can be played in a socially distant manner. Everyone will have to rethink and relook how to do things in a safe way.”
JAMES IN U.S. AMATEUR
Milford’s Ben James has earned a spot in the U.S. Amateur field next month.
Don James, Ben’s father, said the email came from the United States Golf Association on Thursday. James earned the exemption based on his World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The U.S. Amateur qualifiers, like all of the USGA’s other championships, were eliminated this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am so pumped to play in the biggest amateur event in the world,” Ben James
said. “This is really a oncein-a-lifetime experience.”
The 120th championship will be held at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Oregon, Aug. 10-16. The expected field of 264 golfers will be reduced to 64 after two rounds of stroke play. Then match play begins.
“It will be a great challenge, but I’m totally up for it,” James said. “As long as I make it to match play, I have a chance to win.”
James’ next event will be the Western Amateur July 27-Aug. 1 at Crooked Stick GC in Indiana — the same course where John Daly won the PGA Championship nearly three decades ago as the ninth alternate.
PARENT CHILD CHAMPIONSHIP
The CSGA will host its first Parent Child Championship on Tuesday at Wethersfield CC.
This will be the 84th year the CSGA has held the Father & Son Championship, which is Aug. 19 at Tumble Brook CC. This new tournament gave fathers a chance to play with their daughters.
“With more girls playing the game, we want to give them an opportunity to compete,” CSGA executive director Mike Moraghan said. “It’s something of an experiment. We are hoping to get good participation and hoping it gets bigger and better every year.”
There were no age restrictions. The competitors are using a Chapman format, where both team members play their ball for the first two shots per hole — except on a par 3, which is just the tee shot — then play alternate shot until the hole is completed.