SCOTTSDALE – Kevin Streelman provided an interesting piece of information regarding the return of the PGA Tour.
On Monday at the Scottsdale AZ Open pro-am, Streelman said the Tour plans to charter planes to transport players and caddies between events. Streelman is one of a handful of Tour pros, along with fellow Scottsdale resident and PGA Tour Champions player Kirk Triplett, competing in the mini-tour event this week.
The PGA Tour season is scheduled to resume June 11-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Streelman, who is from Chicago but nowadays lives in Scottsdale, just up the road from Talking Stick Golf Club, site for the Scottsdale AZ Open, talked about getting to that first event in a month.
“There will probably be four, five, six of us who will split a plane to get to Colonial,” Streelman said. “The Tour has chartered planes, like big ones, for all the players and caddies in between events, trying to keep our bubble nice and tight.”
Following the Schwab is the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina, June 18-21. Then the Tour is off to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, June 25-28, for the Travelers. Then it’s the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit July 2-5.
Those first four events back, for now, will be staged without fans.
“It’s going to be different for sure,” said Streelman about PGA Tour golf without spectators on site. “It’s necessary and the priority is getting good competition, have a nice TV product for our fans, that’s definitely the priority.
“But, the leaders are going to miss that excitement. My favorite memories are being in the heat, seeing what you got, hearing that electricity roll around a PGA Tour event on Sunday afternoons, as we know here (at the Waste Management Phoenix Open), the craziness. … to me, that’s part of what do it for.”
Dahmen won the Scottsdale AZ Open in 2017, which he says was his last professional win.
“I kind of laugh at that one,” Dahmen says. “I really don’t have any fans anyways. I have my wife out there, a couple of stragglers.
“Koepka was like ‘Without fans, who’s going to find our golf ball?’ and I was like ‘Welcome to everybody else’s world’. So we’ll see how it all shakes out.”
Dahmen said it’ll be especially weird celebrating a winning putt without the roar of the crowd.
“You kind of feed off the crowd when you’re playing well. … I know there’s a lot of moving parts,” he said in regards to getting the PGA Tour back online.
He said the players have been told a few things about the return, including that they will all be tested at each tournament. He’s hoping the test is not like the one seen in those viral videos, where a long Q-tip goes deep into someone’s head.
“I think it’s going to be a saliva test,” Dahman said, who then joked: “There might be a lot of guys who don’t play if we’re sticking that down our nose three or four times a week.”
Triplett, whose last competitive round came at the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California, on March 8, says it’s a tough call as to when pro golf should come back.
“I don’t have an answer. I’m not here playing this week to make some big statement,” Triplett said, who noted that his son is also in the Scottsdale AZ Open field.
“I respect both sides. I respect the people that are out of work and want to get back to work and make a few bucks. I respect the people that are afraid of what this disease could do to them or their family.”
So can golf help lead the charge back to a world with pro sports?
“I think so. We play outside. That’s one. We social distance as it is. If you’re six feet away, you’re probably too close anyway,” Dahmen joked. “If we get proper testing and we know everyone is negative. … golf is in good position to lead the charge back and sports is, I think, is important for American culture.”
The Scottsdale AZ Open is a 54-hole stroke play event with a field of 162 players. After 36 holes, there will be a cut to the low 50 players and ties. The total purse is $130,000 with $20,000 going to the winner.
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