PADRAIG PLANNING TO TRAVEL LIGHT
RORY MCILROY says by spearheading golf’s return in a charity match tomorrow he will lighten the coronavirus gloom.
The televised match, which takes place at Seminole Golf Club, Florida (right), will see the world No.1 play with Dustin Johnson against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a £3million skins game in aid of Covid-19 charities.
With the backing of the PGA Tour, this will be seen as a first tentative step since the lockdown, with no pro golf having been played since the Players Championship was abandoned after one round on March 12.
“For us to go out and play a golf
ONLY a handful of people close to Padraig Harrington will travel with him if the Ryder Cup happens this year. It was supposed to be a party of 150.
The nature of how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world is encapsulated in the radical shift in the European captain’s travel plans.
“I’m now down to four, something like that,” said the
Harrington believes Mcilroy’s game is the first “stepping stone” to staging the Ryder Cup in September.
Speaking in the week the US PGA was originally scheduled, Harrington admits that playing the Ryder Cup this year is still
Dubliner, who decided not to head to the States for the re-start of the PGA Tour as he didn’t want to have to quarantine for 14 days.
What Harrington is clear on is that the European Tour won’t be pushing for the tournament to go ahead in 2020 for financial reasons.
That’s despite the Tour being at a standstill for now after the cancellation of a number of highprofile tournaments, including the
Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
“The European Tour is sitting on one of the biggest assets in sport,” he stressed. “They’re not going anywhere.
“When you look at the financial side of it, it’s not for financial reasons to have it this year. Nobody needs it for that reason.
“Financially, it’d probably be better to have it next year. But just for the good of sport, it would be good to get something out there.”