C.T. Pan leaves the Players Championship: ‘Not going to play’

The PGA Tour’s flagship event is on at TPC Sawgrass but one player has decided he will not be a part of it.

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The PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, is on, with the first round underway at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

But one player in particular has decided he will not be a part of it.

C.T. Pan, scheduled to tee off at 2:02 p.m. ET on the 10th hole alongside Adam Long and Si Woo Kim, tweeted on Thursday morning that he had “left hours ago. Not going to play.”

For a few hours, he was still listed on the leaderboard on the PGA Tour’s website, only to be removed and replaced by Brendan Steele, who was the first alternate.

There has been mass cancellations of sporting events and other large gatherings of people across the country due to the coronavirus, but the Tour announced just after midnight on Thursday that golf will resume as planned.

PLAYERS: Tee times, TV | Scores

Then, about 12 hours later, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced that starting Friday, fans will not be allowed at Tour events through the Valero Texas Open, which starts April 2.

But it appears Pan didn’t want to take any chances.