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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Veteran caddie Tony Navarro was cleaning a short iron on the range at Harbour Town Golf Links late Friday morning when his boss, Nick Watney, who was getting ready for the second round of the RBC Heritage, took a phone call.
Less than a minute later, Watney was shaking his head in a negative way and taking off his golf glove.
“We have to go,” he said to Navarro.
Watney had been told he tested positive for the coronavirus.
“His mind was racing,” Navarro told Golfweek on Saturday. “I just packed up and left the golf course with him and in the car he explained to me he tested positive. He was so concerned about everybody else. His concerns weren’t with him. He was thinking about where he’d been, who he had been in contact with, and he wanted to let them know. He’s so sensitive for others. That’s just his No. 1 concern – if he infected anyone else.”
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Watney, 39, withdrew from the tournament. Navarro, 60, moved out of the house the two were sharing here and into a villa on the Sea Pines property. Both have to self-quarantine for at least 10-14 days, with follow up tests throughout.
Navarro said he spoke to Watney, who tested negative last week and earlier this week when he arrived in Hilton Head Island, on Saturday morning and that he was feeling better.
“He feels good and just hopes and prays he didn’t infect anybody,” Navarro said.
After Watney tested positive, the PGA Tour began implementing its response plan developed in consultation with medical experts, including contact tracing. Watney’s playing partners in the first round – Luke List and Vaughn Taylor – were tested Friday, as were their caddies. Sergio Garcia, who flew privately to South Carolina with Watney on Tuesday, was also tested Friday. He texted Golfweek and said his result was negative.
In all, according to the PGA Tour, 11 people were tested and all 11 tested negative including Navarro.
A few hours after Watney became the first PGA Tour player to test positive, Navarro took two COVID-19 tests – one in each nostril – and was told late Friday night the first test came back negative. He’s awaiting the results of the second test – that one takes between 24 and 48 hours to deliver results.
Navarro – and the health officials he’s in contact with – are confident the second test will come back negative. Navarro took a saliva test before he went to last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge and then took a COVID-19 test when he arrived at the tournament. When he got to the RBC Heritage, he took another COVID-19 test. All three came back negative.
“I’m fine,” said Navarro, who started caddying for Watney in 2017. He’s also looped for major champions Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd, Ben Crenshaw, Jeff Sluman, Adam Scott and Gary Woodland. “I’m very sure I don’t have it.
“I wanted to drive him home to Texas, but the Tour wouldn’t let me. We couldn’t go anywhere we can’t get to on one tank of gas.”
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Navarro, who drove alone from Texas to South Carolina after Watney missed the cut in last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge and visited his daughter, Sarah, in Woodstock, Georgia, said he and Watney cooked and ate in every night they were here in Lowcountry. The two only went to the grocery store once.
“We played very early on Thursday, so we were up since 4 a.m. We finished by 11:30 and then hit balls for an hour and a half. Then we went to the house and he wanted to take a nap,” Navarro said. “He got up about 5 o’clock and said he didn’t feel good. He wears a monitor on his wrist that tracks his heart rate and it was kind of sending him some signs that alarmed him a little bit.
“But we had dinner. Got some sleep.”
Friday morning, Navarro said Watney, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, woke up and said he had a few symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and while he didn’t feel great he didn’t feel terrible. Still, Watney wanted to get checked out and met with a physician, who administered a COVID-19 test.
“They tested him. They told him what he could and couldn’t do. He got a call from the Tour that said it was fine for him to go hit some balls because we were supposed to play at 12:21,” Navarro said. “So about 11:15 a.m. we went to the golf course, hit a few putts, and as he started to warm up, he got the call.”
During his self-quarantine, Navarro can leave the villa only for necessities, like food or medicine, but must wear a mask. And Navarro is just as concerned about Watney as he is about himself.
“I’ll be around and help him with anything he needs as much as I can,” Navarro said. “Hopefully no one else tests positive and we wait this out and get back to business in a few weeks.”
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