It’s one and done at the Players
Players is canceled after one round and tour will be shut down for three weeks, right before the Masters.
PGA Tour cancels the last three rounds and the next three weeks’ events.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The Players Championship went from having no fans to having no players.
In a surprise announcement Thursday night, the PGA Tour canceled the rest of the Players and decided to shut down its other tournaments for the next three weeks.
Only 10 hours earlier, as the opening round was underway and fans continued to stream into the TPC Sawgrass, Commissioner Jay Monahan announced no fans would be allowed at tour events for the next month because of the fears over the coronavirus outbreak.
It was a bold decision in light of other leagues either suspending play or canceling entire tournaments.
And then the tour changed course.
“We did everything possible to create a safe environment for our players in order to continue the event throughout the weekend,” the tour said in a statement. “But at this point — and as the situation continues to rapidly change — the right thing to do for our players and our fans is to pause.”
The Players is the flagship event of the PGA Tour that offers a $15million purse, the richest in golf. There was no immediate word whether it would be rescheduled.
Also shut down were the Valspar Championship next week in the Tampa, Fla., area, the Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas, and the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
The next scheduled event would be the Masters, set for April 9-12.
Augusta National’s only comment regarding the coronavirus was March 4, when the club said it was in contact with government and health officials and at that point all its events remained on the calendar.
Monahan leaned on golf being a noncontact sport played outdoors over sprawling acreage, a set of circumstances that don’t apply to leagues that chose to stop playing.
C.T. Pan of Taiwan withdrew before the first round. He posted a tweet — which he then deleted — saying he was the only one not playing, “same number as the hand sanitizers in the clubhouse, locker and dining.”
Pan later tweeted that he withdrew to reduce the risk of getting the virus: “Our lifestyle is like a circus, traveling from one place to another. We believe this is a time to exercise caution by not playing this week.”
Rory McIlroy said it was a “scary time” and that the tour made a step in the right direction by eliminating fans. But he said it would take only one player or caddie to test positive for the virus.
“We need to shut it down then,” he said without hesitation. “I think for us to keep playing on tour, we all — the tour players and people that are involved — need to get tested.”
He said he would get tested next week.
So the last golf for a while turned out to be a calm Thursday on the TPC Stadium Course, where Hideki Matsuyama tied the course record with a 63.
And now there’s nothing, at least until the Masters.
Augusta National has a history of not rushing decisions. Even so, McIlroy found himself looking ahead to the first major of the year.
“I don’t see how they can let spectators in if they do play it, at this point,” he said.