Putting together a golf tournament on the PGA Tour comes with making contingency plans this year.
Mark Brazil, tournament director for the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, is working on scenarios.
Already, the Wyndham Championship was pushed back a week on the PGA Tour schedule to Aug. 13-16 when a reshuffling occurred in early April because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The PGA Championship was reset for Aug. 6-9 (in what had been the Wyndham Championship’s spot) after the decision was made to scrap that tournament in mid-May.
“We wanted to do whatever was necessary to accommodate the PGA Tour so they could make out a schedule,” Brazil said. “We knew there was going to be some shifting.”
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Many factors are out of the control of tournament organizers, who are anticipating a scaled-down version.
“The health and safety of everyone associated with the Wyndham Championship and the Piedmont Triad community will remain our No. 1 priority …,” Brazil said. “The Wyndham Championship staff is fully engaged in preparing for this year’s tournament, and we look forward to welcoming fans to Sedgefield in August.”
Yet it’s unclear in what form the tournament might take place. Brazil said the possibilities include limited fans and no fans, even “maybe having half the fans where they practice social distancing.”
Or …
“I can definitely see a golf tournament that doesn’t have fans and it would be just for television where we can sit around and watch,” Brazil said.
Brazil said he’s appreciative that the Wyndham Championship remains on the schedule. There’s also the convenience of the tournament moving just one week.
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“This is uncharted waters with all tournaments,” Steve Wilmot, tournament director for the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., said earlier this spring. “We’re all in different phases of our planning.”
Wilmot’s tournament was scrapped about a month before its original April dates, then added back to the slate for June. He chairs the PGA Tour’s tournament advisory council.
Wilmot said the impact that PGA Tour events have on providing funds for community charities is insurmountable.
In the Wyndham Championship’s case, the on-course infrastructure that’s built each year is a few months away from launching at Sedgefield Country Club.
The Wyndham Championship has bounced around on the schedule through the years. It had come after the PGA Championship until that major was shifted from August to the spring.
Wyndham Rewards and Sedgefield Country Club have been supportive of the moves, Brazil said.
As has been the case since 2007, the field for the FedEx Cup playoffs will be set following the Wyndham Championship.
The Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte would have been contested this weekend, but that was called off — and it won’t be back in 2021 either. Because the Presidents Cup is slated for Quail Hollow Club in the fall of 2021, the Wells Fargo Championship next year is set for TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Washington, D.C.
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