PGA set to hold tribute for Floyd

Minute of silence planned for each day at Colonial

The PGA Tour is leaving the 8:46 a.m. tee time vacant this week at Colonial as part of a tribute to George Floyd and to support efforts to end racial and social injustice.

In a memo to players Tuesday, Commissioner Jay Monahan said there would be a moment of silence in each of the four rounds at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, that will coincide with the 8:46 a.m. tee time.

The time reflects how long — 8 minutes, 46 seconds — authorities say Floyd was pinned to the ground under a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee before the handcuffed black man died.

“It has quickly become a universal symbol for the racial injustice faced by the black community,” the memo said.

The PGA Tour has been shut down the last three months because of the coronavirus pandemic, and it returns at Colonial with attention shared among the health and safety concerns of running a tournament and the civil unrest sparked by Floyd’s death across the country.

Monahan and Harold Varner III, one of three PGA Tour members of black heritage, had a 10-minute conversation last week that the tour posted to its website to try to figure out ways golf could do its part.

“I think there will be discussion. I think some will forget about it. I think so many people will move on,” Varner said Tuesday after arriving at Colonial. “But the conversation I had with Jay when we weren’t being recorded, I think this week won’t be the last week.

“I’m just super fortunate to be able to say something and it matter, but also be a part of the change,” Varner said. “Everyone in this society right now is going to be a part of that.”

The memo said the vacant 8:46 a.m. tee time for the 148-man field was “an effort to amplify the voices and efforts underway to end systemic issues of racial and social injustices impacting our country.”

The LPGA Tour lost its first major because of the COVID-19 pandemic when the Evian Championship in France was canceled. The LPGA Tour cited ongoing travel and border restrictions, along with government quarantine requirements for not holding the tournament on Aug. 6-9. It will return to the schedule next year in Evian-les-Bains. The LPGA Tour is set to resume in Ohio with the Marathon Classic on July 23-26. For now, it has majors scheduled in August, September, October and December.