Golf’s governing bodies say they’re keeping a close eye on the coronavirus and its potential implications on tournament calendars.
While some pro tours have canceled or postponed events, the United States Golf Association is not altering its qualifying schedule at this time for the U.S. Open nor the U.S. Women’s Open.
There are U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers scheduled for China, South Korea and Japan in late April. Japan will host a final qualifying stage for the U.S. Open in late May.
At the USGA’s annual meeting on Saturday in Pinehurst, North Carolina, CEO Mike Davis indicated that everyone get prepared now.
“People are trying to be proactive and think through what is kind of the worst-case scenario and what do we need to be doing now,” he said.
John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships, added, “We have a great security consultants team and they’re watching this closely through the State Department. … being mindful of how we are going to prepare in the coming weeks, not months but weeks.”
He was asked if the USGA has emergency plans in place.
“Yes. We have weather protocols. We have emergency situation protocols,” Bodenhamer said. “I think the answer is absolutely yes, and we’re in the middle of progressing that now.”
“It’s not just our 14 national championships,” Davis said. “We run close to 700 qualifiers for those, and some of those are international in nature.”
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour released a statement on Monday, about three weeks after the PGA Tour Series-China postponed two qualifying tournaments scheduled in Indonesia and Thailand. The Tour says it’s closely monitoring the coronavirus situation with input from the CDC and WHO. The Tour says no additional schedule changes are planned beyond the events on its China series that have been impacted.
“We are establishing additional protocols to promote the health and safety of all participants and fans at our tournaments, and we will regularly review our schedule in light of revised CDC and WHO reports and make any updates as necessary,” the Tour’s statement said.
On Sunday, Sungjae Im, who is from South Korea, won the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic in Florida but spoke afterwards of his concern for the coronavirus.
“To be honest, I’m a little concerned and worried about how fast this virus is spreading,” he said through a translator. “As of right now, all I can do is pray for the best and just hope moving forward that not many more people get affected and hopefully this virus can be calmed down.”
Korea has reported more than 3,500 cases, second only to China.
The European Tour postponed the Maybank Championship, which was set for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from April 16-19, and the Volvo China Open, scheduled for April 23-26 in Shenzhen, China.
Three LPGA events – set for China, Singapore and Thailand – were canceled, and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship was postponed by the R&A.
On Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a “public health emergency of international concern,” followed a day later by the United States’ own declaration. There have been more than 3,000 deaths worldwide and more than 89,000 confirmed cases, including 86 in the U.S., as of March 2.
More than 45,100 people worldwide have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins.
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