Nick Watney became the first positive COVID-19 test on the PGA Tour on Friday. He found out while preparing for the second round of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.
Watney left the practice area and then withdrew from the tournament. He was sharing a house this week with his caddie, Tony Navarro, as well as Brendon Todd’s caddie. All three are now in self-quarantine for the next 10-14 days, with follow up tests throughout.
Sergio Garcia, who flew privately to South Carolina with Watney on Tuesday, was also tested Friday. He texted Golfweek to say that his result was negative.
On Saturday, after his round, Garcia said he felt terrible for Watney, calling him one of the nicest guys on Tour.
“Unfortunately, it had to happen to him,” Garcia said, who then made an odd declaration.
“There’s a lot of other people that probably deserved it a lot more than him, and he’s the one that got it.”
Garcia then continued with more praise for his friend.
“Nick is unbelievable. He’s a good friend. He was very worried about me. He sent me several texts. I talked to him. He must have said sorry to me probably 25 times. I told him that it’s all good.”
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Garcia then talked about how a positive test for himself would’ve kept him from making a second straight cut.
“After missing the cut last week by one and this week finally playing nicely in the second round and being in the middle of the pack, if I would have given positive (COVID-19 test), then I wouldn’t be able to play on the weekend, and I would have been very, very disappointed.
“Fortunately for me, it was fine. Hopefully, his (Watney) is not bad, and we can have him back as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. I feel terrible about it. But unfortunately, it’s the way it is, and we all knew coming out here and playing that there’s a possibility of catching it some way.
“We’re hoping that no one gets it, but I’m sure that, unfortunately, he won’t be the first and he won’t be the last because there’s a lot of things that can happen. There’s so many unknowns about this virus that we don’t. … we think we know a lot about it, but there’s a lot of things we don’t know. Hopefully, he recovers very soon and very quickly, and we can have him back.”
Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio contributed to this article.
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