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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The PGA Tour is sticking to its guns and announced Thursday evening that the Players Championship will be contested without fans for the remainder of the event at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Despite nearly every other sports association canceling or postponing its upcoming schedule, including the LPGA Tour, which postponed its next three events, the Tour remains adamant that its signature event will go on.
“As stated previously, the PGA Tour is in constant communication with local health authorities, and we are tracking and monitoring the health information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization and other government agencies,” the Tour said in its release. “This is an incredibly fluid and dynamic situation, and we have been and are committed to being responsible, thoughtful and transparent with our decision process. So while this is our Operations Plan for the Players at this time, we will make appropriate changes and provide updates as new information becomes available.”
PLAYERS: Tee times, TV | Scores | Photos
Only player family, player support and essential personnel will be allowed in the venue. No VIPs or honorary observers will be present and no standard bearers will walk with groups. Media members will be allowed to follow play outside-the-ropes only. All hospitality areas will be closed, and all on-course food vendors will be closed. The marshal presence will be extremely limited. Only essential cross walks and approximately one position per fairway and green will be manned.
“I’m sorry for all the fans that come out and support us like the way they have,” Phil Mickelson said after a 3-over-par 75. “I’ve never played a Tour event like we were going to play tomorrow with no fans. It will be a very weird experience, and I feel bad for the people here that have supported this tournament for so many decades to not be able to come on out. But this is a pretty serious thing that we need to do all we can to make sure that people don’t lose lives.”
The most recent PGA Tour tournament that was played without spectators came at last year’s Zozo Championship in Tokyo, where Tiger Woods won his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour title.
There is no planned changes to the broadcast presence or distribution. Scoring/ShotLink will deliver the full product, which involves one walking scorer with each group, two volunteers at each fairway and two volunteers at each green. These stationary volunteers also provide ball-spotting services. With most sporting events canceled, PGA Tour golf may enjoy a boost in viewership this weekend.
“There’s an element here of we have the best players in the world and everybody in this country and around the world is trying to figure this out and sports is the great unifier,” Monahan said after his midday press conference. “If you can put this event on television it’s going to be a source of inspiration for some people, particularly if you can do it in a safe way for those that are on property, and that’s where we think we are.”
Former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell may have summed it up best among the players when he said, “it’s a sad situation, but it’s important that sport and certainly professional sports do their best job to realize that what we’re doing is insignificant compared to what’s happening out there and obviously anything we can do to help contain this thing is really important that we do so.”
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