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The PGA of America is determined to stage the 2020 PGA Championship and will do so without fans if it comes down to it.
Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, was a guest on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio on Tuesday and discussed the plans to stage the major championship this year.
“August feels pretty good to us,” he said.
The PGA Championship was originally set for May 14-17 but it was postponed to Aug. 6-9. It is keeping its current location at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco but Waugh admitted that could change, too.
It was one week ago that golf’s governing bodies made a slew of schedule announcements, including new PGA dates, new dates for the Masters and the U.S. Open and the cancellation of the Open Championship.
Waugh said if they need to keep Harding Park free of fans, that’s what will happen.
“Our plan is to try and do it as normally as possible, with fans, obviously, and have a fairly normal PGA Championship at Harding Park,” he said. “If the safest way – or the only way to do it – is to do it without fans, we’re fully prepared to do that.
“We believe that having it as a television event is worth doing regardless of whether there’s fans there or not. Obviously that’ll change the experience but we think the world is starved for some entertainment, and particularly in sports. We think golf has a unique ability to be first out in sports, in that we’re played over a couple hundred acres and naturally have social distancing.”
Waugh added that there are three plans right now.
“Plan A is with fans. Plan B is without fans and Plan C is – if San Francisco or California does not think they could hold it – figure out if there is somewhere in the country that could hold it.”
On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom cast doubt that sporting events with fans could return this summer.
“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and get to a vaccine.”
If TPC Harding Park loses the 2020 PGA Championship, the next open spot on the list of future venues is 2025, with 2030 also open at this time.
“We’re going to do everything we can to play the PGA Championship this year,” Waugh said.
.@PGA CEO Seth Waugh currently has 3 plans for the @PGAChampionship scheduled August 6th-9th at @TPCHardingPark:
Plan A) Hold it as normal with fans
Plan B) Hold it as normal without fans
Plan C) Stage it at another site pic.twitter.com/uc6CeT5vPf— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) April 14, 2020