World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is going to play a lot of golf after Sunday’s TaylorMade Driving Relief charity event at Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
During media availability ahead of the event, McIlroy said he hasn’t worked on his game “in earnest” during the COVID-19 shutdown but will do so starting next week when he turns his attention to the possible restart of the PGA Tour season.
If the Tour resumes play in June, McIlroy will be ready – and busy.
“I just want to get back out and play. Right now, I’m planning to play the first three events and then see where we go from there,” McIlroy said.
That blueprint means starts in the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 11, the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina, the following week, and then a trip up to Cromwell, Connecticut, for the Travelers Championship.
“It will be nice to get back out and play,” the reigning FedExCup champion said. “Obviously we’re going to have to take as many precautions as possible to be able to put Tour events on again, but I think the PGA Tour has got a very robust plan in place, and if they can execute it the right way, I see no reason why we can’t start June 11. If we do, I’ll be ready to go in Fort Worth.”
The PGA Tour sent a 37-page comprehensive memo to players Tuesday detailing safety and health rules and guidelines for the return, including layered testing protocols and social distancing standards.
“If you take the necessary precautions, wearing a face covering, washing your hands frequently, sanitizing your hands frequently, practicing social distancing, I really do think it’s possible,” McIlroy said of the restart. “I think if everyone follows the guidelines and does the right thing, I see no reason why you wouldn’t be comfortable with the logistics of getting to an event and from. The Tour is going to put on a charter (flight) and there’s going to be a lot of testing and make sure that no one is getting on these planes or into these hotels or onto the golf courses that have tested positive for COVID-19 or showing signs that they may be positive. They are going to have to self-isolate and take all those precautions.
“I feel comfortable getting back out there and playing and traveling.”
McIlroy will team with world No. 5 Dustin Johnson and face the duo of No. 17 Rickie Fowler and No. 110 Matthew Wolff in the charity event at Seminole. The teams will compete in a skins game with all money going to charity – McIlroy and Johnson will be playing for the American Nurses Foundation, Fowler and Wolff for the CDC Foundation. UnitedHealth Group pledged $3 million in charity skins. Farmers Insurance will give $1 million for birdies, eagles, albatrosses and holes-in-one to benefit Off Their Plate, which helps coronavirus health care workers.
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The foursome also will hook up again in Texas as Johnson, Fowler and Wolff said during a conference call Thursday that they plan on playing the Charles Schwab Challenge, as well.
“I feel like hearing how a lot of the board meetings and PAC meetings have gone the Tour is obviously taking it very seriously and is going to use all the measures needed to make sure that they’re confident going forward and when we do go to Colonial it’ll be the safest environment possible,” Fowler said.
The recommended safety measures to combat the coronavirus inside the ropes provide unique challenges. Players and caddies six feet apart, hand sanitizers and wipes on every hole, the player pulling the club out of the bag and putting the club back into the bag. And no spectators.
“I think everything is going to be weird, just because it’s going to be so different for us from what we’re used to,” Johnson said. “I haven’t really thought about what the weirdest thing will be, but it’s all just going to be different.
“Obviously we’ll get used to it pretty quickly.”
Social distancing will take some time to get used to.
“When (player and caddie are) in the fairway or on the tee at a par 3 and looking at the yardage book and talking about the shot and what’s going on, you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing it separately and talking at a safe distance,” Fowler said. “You wouldn’t be able to whisper to each other. We might have to speak up a little bit more than normal to talk from more than a few feet away. Maybe I’ll keep a club in my hand and hold my caddie at an arm’s length or something.
“It’ll be interesting. We’ll kind of have to take it as it goes and learn, because it is all very different.”
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