PGA Tour made wrong decisions for right reasons
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Golf is bound by traditions, by rules, by immutable expectations. We cherish sportsmanship, play the ball as it lies, and turn to Augusta in April. Two of those constants have been eroded – brazenly at times – and now the most immovable bulwark of them all has been breached, too.
“Unfortunately, the ever-increasing risks associated with the widespread Coronavirus COVID-19 have led us to a decision that undoubtedly will be disappointing to many,” wrote Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley in a Friday (under)statement announcing the postponement of the Masters to some unspecified date. Disappointing to many indeed. To the fans, for whom the Masters represents the pinnacle of American golf and annually harkens a new season. To the young ladies who aspired to be this year’s Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. To Rory McIlroy, whose career Grand Slam is again a dream deferred. To the dozens of kids qualified for the Drive, Chip & Putt finals, who have learned about the hurdles life throws up that Mom can’t help them surmount.
The PGA Tour learned something this past week, too, albeit slowly.
The Tour began Players Championship week as it does every other, making decisions in a golf silo largely unmolested by world affairs. But days of a chaotic news cycle and alarming health alerts exposed an organization struggling to grasp a jarring new reality: It was being held to an altogether higher and unfamiliar standard, one being applied equally to sports leagues, captains of industry and heads of state.
The Tour was being asked to play its part. Not just play golf.
What we saw was a number of wrong decisions made for the right reasons. There was nothing ignoble about a desire to get one of golf’s biggest tournaments in under the wire before the world went sideways. But as events accelerated, the decision making stuttered. Playing the tournament without spectators would have seen a winner declared at TPC Sawgrass, but it would also have seen both the Tour and golf itself branded as losers. The image of disconnected, tone-deaf golfers blundering on with reckless indifference to public health would have been a future stain just as difficult to erase as those in the sport’s past.
The tournament was staffed with volunteers, predominantly seniors who are more at risk. McIlroy expressed concern about potentially carrying the rapidly spreading virus home, where his mother suffers from a respiratory condition. International players fretted about navigating travel restrictions and the growing crises in their home countries. Yet there were the usual blithe dismissals about hysteria from those who must be fortunate enough not to have family or friends living in dread because they’re immuno-compromised during treatments for cancer or the like. There was surely no shortage of people here who didn’t have the luxury of a cavalier lack of empathy.
An overabundance of caution endangers no one. A slight overreach imperiled many. It took until Thursday night, but in the end commissioner Jay Monahan made the right decision for the right reasons. For all of the criticism coming his way, there should also be an acknowledgment of his willingness to reverse himself barely 10 hours after so publicly declaring a course of action.
Augusta National followed suit within hours. The PGA of America stands as the next domino, its major championship scheduled two months hence in San Francisco. The USGA watches and awaits its turn in the crucible. The LPGA outpaced all of them in taking decisive action.
What lies ahead is unclear, though it’s probably too much to hope that when we emerge on the other side we’ll do so with a fresh appreciation of what we have enjoyed too casually until now. It’s a weary cliche that golf is about risk and reward.
In its own bumbling, haphazard way, the golf world navigated the risk this past week. Its reward is a week in Augusta, Georgia. When? File that with the other unknowns.