When Haley Moore collected her trophy, she asked Cactus Tour owner Mike Brown if he had any toilet tissue or sanitizer to go along with the $2,500 check. Brown threw in a roll at last week’s stop and, well, every little bit helps.
As of now, golf has been deemed an essential activity in Arizona, which means Brown divvied up a $6,650 purse among six pros. There were a total of 17 players competing at Sun City Country Club. Moore, an LPGA rookie, shot 65-69-69 to win by two strokes over Symetra Tour player Sophia Popov.
With the LPGA on a break due to the coronavirus outbreak, Moore has competed on the Phoenix-based mini-tour for the past three weeks.
“Really, this is all we can do right now,” said Moore, who drove in from California. “I’d rather do this than just sit at home.”
Brown said he has fielded a handful of emails and texts in recent weeks from critics who believe that hosting events during a pandemic is irresponsible and unsafe. There’s certainly been plenty of chatter on social media about the subject. Someone even sent an email to Sun City this week.
Still, Brown maintains that he doesn’t feel any pressure.
“There were 219 rounds of golf played out here the first day,” said Brown. “We had 17 girls. They’re not attacking the members. They’re not attacking the course.”
For those who are opposed to the idea of organized competition, Brown asks, “Does that mean that a $5 Nassau can’t be played in a men’s group?”
Players went off in twosomes in two carts. Moore said the carts were sanitized before and after the round. The rakes are gone and there’s foam cut from pool noodles down in the cups. Sometimes the ball bounces out due to the foam, which has resulted in a new golf term for the times: “My daughter got foamed,” one parent told Brown at the scoring table.
“These girls are much safer playing out here in these conditions than they are going to the grocery store or Costco,” said Brown, who noted that the teenage daughter of a firefighter and a nurse was in last week’s field.
When golf courses were shut down in Sacramento, instructor Noah Montgomery rented a condo and drove to Phoenix with three of his students, including 16-year-old daughter Hanna. The retired first responder said he’s lucky that he bought a 12-pack of toilet paper on the drive out of town.
Montgomery also works with Paige Lee and amateur Anika Varma, who moved to the U.S. from India for coaching. There are no handshakes or hugs these days. They stay in separate rooms in the condo and eat whatever Montgomery cooks on their own time. They play golf during the day and do homework at night.
“I don’t see anything that’s doing harm,” said Montgomery. “I just don’t.”
On the first tee Thursday morning, Brown said, “Excuse me, quiet please,” as Moore teed off. Everyone chuckled because there were no spectators at the event. Brown believes that point gets lost on people when they think of a professional golf tour.
“When I bought the tour my wife said, ‘Do you have live scoring?’” Brown recalled. “She should’ve known better.”
Moore wasn’t the only mini-tour winner in the desert this week. Over on the Outlaw Tour in Buckeye, Arizona, European Tour player Calum Hill took home the top prize of $4,500. And because these mini-tours can’t seem to escape controversy, 14 players were disqualified from that event for playing from the wrong set of tees on a par 3. Ryan French chased the story on the “Monday Q Info” twitter account.
Both tours plan to host tournaments in the Phoenix area next week.
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