Early in the week at any PGA Tour event, scores of people mingle on the range and around the practice green. Players, caddies, agents, media members and representatives from equipment makers chat and conduct the business of golf.
Drivers are adjusted, new putters are tried, training aids are demoed and stories are exchanged. However, like every other facet of life in America in the time of COVID-19, that will change when the PGA Tour resumes.
Golfweek has learned from multiple sources that the PGA Tour conducted a conference call with several manufacturers May 1. During the call, an outline was presented about how equipment makers will be able to operate at places such as Colonial Country Club, Harbour Town Golf Links and TPC River Highlands as the PGA Tour restarts its season in June.
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In essence, a bubble will be created around the players at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the RBC Heritage and the Travelers Championship, and equipment reps will not be allowed inside it.
The technicians who ordinarily work closely with players are not going to be allowed on the practice range, in the clubhouse or on the course. The equipment reps will not be required to be tested for the coronavirus before they arrive at Tour venues, but no one will be allowed inside the equipment vans except that company’s representatives.
The PGA Tour’s vice president of communications, Joel Schuchmann, confirmed the Tour is planning to create distribution centers where anything that ordinarily would be exchanged between brands and players will go to be cleaned and sanitized.
For example, if a player wants a new driver, he will have to contact an on-site company representative and request it. The club technician will build the driver, but if he does not have the shaft or grip the player requests in the truck, he will need to contact that shaft or grip company’s rep and have it dropped off outside the truck because no one will be allowed in inside the manufacturer’s vans.
After the technician finishes building the club, he must take it to the distribution center, enter the area at one end and leave the club with a worker. The club will then be cleaned before the player enters the distribution center through a different entrance and retrieves it.
During the call, PGA Tour officials said each company would be allowed one equipment truck on site, which is typical, but each truck could be manned by only one technician and one other company representative. As with many aspects of the PGA Tour’s plans, that limiting of onsite reps may change because it was pointed out that getting things such as golf balls, gloves and accessories to dozens of players from large brands like Titleist, Callaway and TaylorMade could be challenging for just one person.
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Another organizational call with equipment makers, hosted by the PGA Tour, is planned this week.
“Everything is fluid at this point,” said Chris Tuten, Titleist’s vice president of Tour leadership. “The health and safety of our team members are of the utmost importance, and we are having daily internal discussions as to how we will approach it when that day comes. It would be premature for us to comment on how everything will work at this point, but we are in constant contact with the PGA Tour and hopefully we have a better idea later next week.”
Ben Schomin, Cobra Golf’s director of Tour operations, builds equipment for Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau. He was on the call May 1 with the PGA Tour and already has hotel rooms booked and plane tickets purchased to fly from his home in the San Diego area to Texas, South Carolina and Connecticut.
Asked how nervous he was about traveling and working at PGA Tour events again, his answer came quickly.
“Zero. Zero percent right now,” he said. “A hotel and a plane, right now, are probably far cleaner than any hospital that you could walk into.”
Like everyone else around the world, the pros and the PGA Tour reps who service them are being forced to adapt.
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