Former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem guided the Tour through two serious situations, the aftermath of 9-11 and the 2008 recession.
Former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem guided the Tour through two serious situations, the aftermath of 9-11 and the 2008 recession.
He said neither situations approach what his successor, Jay Monahan, has to cope with in trying to bring the Tour and its constituents out of the suspension of play because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We get a lot of credit for what happened during that period with the [2008] downturn and after 9/11,” Finchem said earlier this week on a teleconference to announce his election to the World Golf Hall of Fame. “It wasn’t really all that difficult in the sense that we were successful in coming up with a strategy. The thrust we had was we want to come out of this better off than when we went into it — how do we get there?”
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Finchem then mulled a frightening figure.
“Twenty-two million people are unemployed right now … new unemployed,” he said.
The unemployment rate during the 2008 Recession peaked at 10.2 percent. The current rate is approaching 18 percent. No one knows how many companies will be able to continue sponsorships and corporate hospitality deals with the Tour, or how many people will be able to afford tickets once fans are allowed into tournaments.
The good news is that the Tour emerged from the 2008 recession with few title sponsorship cancellations, and what few did cancel were quickly replaced. Some of the corporate team Finchem members had on board are with Monahan now.
“He’s got a great team … some of that team was inherited from the time I was doing the job, but it’s a terrific team which he has strengthened considerably even in these last three years,” Finchem said. “And that makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t make his job — I wouldn’t suggest it makes his job any easier. It makes the ability to deal with issues more realistic, and certainly, that’s the course he’s followed.”
Finchem said he and Monahan have had “a couple conversations about what was happening.”
“He hasn’t leaned on me much at all,” Finchem said. “From time to time, he’ll share with me what direction he’s going. He lives about 100 yards from me, so if he wanted to talk to me about something, he knows I’m available. But he’s got to steer the ship. He’s got a million things going on, and I’m quite aware of that.”
The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which was canceled after one round in March, won’t be put back on the schedule.
The Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship have all been slated for late summer or fall dates, part of the revised professional golf schedule announced earlier this week that also preserves the Ryder Cup in its original date and the FedEx Cup playoffs only one week later — provided the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
The PGA Championship (Aug. 6-9 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco), the U.S. Open (Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.) and the Masters (Nov. 12-15 at Augusta National) survived outright cancellation. Only the Open Championship won’t be played.
The PGA Tour also is planning to resume in Fort Worth with the Charles Schwab Challenge May 21-24 and will use the weeks vacated by the move of the U.S. Open to September and the cancellation of the Open Championship and Olympic golf to reschedule some of the nine events that were lost in March, April and May.
However, The Players Championship, which was canceled after one round on March 12, won’t be one of them.
The easy answer: Players Week had actually arrived in March. There were two practice rounds and one competitive round, with the entire build-up at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course completed.
When the tournament was canceled, the hospitality and fan areas were then torn down, tickets were refunded and the 144 players in the field received an equal share of half the $15 million purse.
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The PGA and the U.S. Open build-ups were only partially finished and then halted when the governors of those states issued shelter-in-place orders. Augusta National has mostly permanent infrastructure and doesn’t erect corporate tents.
A PGA Tour spokesperson said that while holding The Players in the summer or the fall was discussed, it would have been impractical to have had a build-up twice within a five-month span. There’s also doubt that the tournament could have mustered enough volunteers to pull it off.
The other issue was trying to play a world-class event in the summer in Florida. The heat and traffic on Bermuda grass would have presented challenges from an agronomic standpoint, along with the strong possibility of weather delays because of almost-daily thunderstorms.
The last time a major championship was played in Florida was the 1987 PGA in Palm Beach Gardens. It was so hot and the PGA National Course was so burnt out that Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell hinted that The Players might not be the fifth major — it could shoot higher.
“If the PGA wants to lose is precarious status as the fourth major golf title, then all it has to do is make a few more brilliant decisions like this one,” Boswell wrote.
He also penned: “It’s not true that Florida is closed in August. But it should be.”
Since then, the southernmost major championships were the 2001 and 2011 PGAs.
Agronomy has come a long way in 33 years, and TPC Sawgrass superintendent Jeff Plotts said his staff could have prepared the course to the satisfaction of the field — barring a summer of record heat — and the newer strains of warm-weather Bermuda grass would have held up to the traffic of more than 400 competitive rounds in four days.
“I think we could have gotten it done,” Plotts said.
But any potential Players date in the late summer also could have run into tropical weather, risking another cancellation. September is the rainiest month in the area under normal circumstances, and the tournament could not have been played in October because the overseeing process to get the course ready for a March date begins that month.
Rescheduling The Players for August or September, only to risk another cancellation with a hurricane hovering off-shore?
In the end, the PGA Tour opted for caution — and to wait until March 11-14, 2021, for the next Players.
The United States Golf Association made a number of announcements Monday morning, including the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open, to be played at Newport Country Club
NEWPORT, R.I. — Figuratively stationed on the 18th fairway with nothing more than a wedge to the pin, the U.S. Senior Open became one of the latest major sporting events to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States Golf Association made a number of announcements Monday morning, including the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open, to be played at Newport Country Club from June 25-28, and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, slated for July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The U.S. Open, which was set to be played June 18-21 at Winged Foot in New York, has been postponed to Sept. 17-20 at the same location.
“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA, said in a statement. “Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer.”
Planning for the 2020 U.S. Senior Open began long ago, and an official announcement was made during an intimate gathering at the Newport Marriott in April 2017. It would have been the 41st installment of the tournament, which heads to Omaha Country Club in Nebraska next year and Saucon Valley Country Club in 2022.
“It’s out of our control,” Barclay Douglas, president of Newport Country Club, told The Daily News via a phone conversation Monday morning. “It’s unfortunate because a lot of people worked hard and were anticipating this.”
The bulk of that work started about 18 months ago, when employees with the USGA, led by championship director Hank Thompson, set up shop in an office building on Third Street in Newport.
“It’s not like throwing together a family reunion,” Thompson told The Daily News back then. “I like to say it’s a big jigsaw puzzle, where you take all of these pieces and you start fitting them together. It may not all fit together today, 18 months out, but as you proceed through that timeline, they start to fit.
“And every now and again, you might have to get a hammer and bang one or two in.”
The U.S. Senior Open would have been the fifth United States Golf Association tournament played at Newport Country Club. It was canceled Monday because of the coronavirus pandemic. [NEWPORT DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO]No hammer was big enough to foresee the nail that is the coronavirus pandemic. Evan Smith, the president and CEO with Discover Newport, the area’s tourism bureau, said the cancellation didn’t come as a huge surprise, given what’s transpired in the past few weeks.
Still, he feels for all those involved with such a massive undertaking.
“My first reaction was how hard so many people have worked for the past two years, the people at Newport Country Club and the USGA,” Smith said. “They’ve been working on this project, and I feel for all of them because that hard work has been wiped out by a silent enemy.”
The field of players likely would have included first-timers Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera and KJ Choi, as well as Rhode Island natives Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley.
“The field was going to be fantastic — a lot of new names and great names,” Douglas said. “I think everyone was looking forward to it.”
Newport Country Club is one of five founding members of the USGA, the others being Chicago Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York, St. Andrew’s Golf Club in New York and The Country Club in Massachusetts.
Newport, with its historic clubhouse, hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1895. In more recent times, the course along the Ocean Drive that overlooks the foot of Narragansett Bay, was the site of the 1995 U.S. Amateur, when a young Tiger Woods prevailed, and the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open won by Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
While the sites for the next two Senior Open championships are set, a future stop in Newport certainly isn’t out of the question.
“I think these relationships will carry on,” Smith said. “Certainly there is no date set for a future event in Newport, but the relationship with Newport Country Club and the USGA is a strong one and has been for decades. I think you’ll see another major golf event [in Newport].”
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A USGA official told The Daily News during a kickoff event in March that between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators were expected to attend the tournament during the course of the week. Smith said the cancellation of the Senior Open is just the latest blow to the area’s economy.
“The second quarter of this year has been totally wiped out,” Smith said. “When you look at the different conferences and events, all of those things have been devastating for the industry — in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Something like golf could have been our fabulous comeback, an enormous kickoff, but these are the cards we were dealt,” he said.
Smith said the USGA shared with him with an economic impact study from the 2018 Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “The total was about $10 million, and I have no reason to doubt that report,” Smith said.
The South Bend Tribune last summer reported that officials in the Indiana city anticipated an economic impact of between $15 million and $25 million for the Senior Open contested at Notre Dame’s Warren Course.
Douglas said another USGA event at Newport Country Club will come down to “scheduling,” but said the game’s governing body in the United States “enjoys Newport.”
“They enjoy the history, and the people and the town,” Douglas said. “To be continued.”
As for the 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, it was expected to be the third USGA Open championship and fifth overall USGA championship hosted by Brooklawn Country Club.
The club — located outside of Fairfield, Connecticut — was founded in 1895, hosted the 1974 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, the 1979 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Jerilyn Britz; the 1987 U.S. Senior Open, won by Gary Player; and the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior, which was won by 16-year-old Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff.
In an attempt to salvage a season severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, golf’s leaders released details of a revised schedule Monday with the British Open being canceled altogether and a shift in dates for the remaining three majors. The …
In an attempt to salvage a season severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, golf’s leaders released details of a revised schedule Monday with the British Open being canceled altogether and a shift in dates for the remaining three majors.
The Masters, which was supposed to be played this week at Augusta National Golf Club, has been re-scheduled for Nov. 9-15 in Augusta, Georgia.
Instead, the PGA Championship will become the season’s first major. It is still expected to be contested at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and has been pushed back to Aug. 6-9. The PGA had been played in mid-August for many years before relocating to May last year as part of a schedule change to finish the season before football began. To accommodate the PGA, the Wyndham Championship has shifted back one week to Aug 13-16, and the trio of FedEx Cup playoff events have also been delayed one week, with the Tour Championship in Atlanta now scheduled for Sept 4-7.
The U.S. Open, which was originally to be held at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York from June 15-18, will now be played Sept. 17-20, the week before the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, which remains intact.
“It’s a crazy puzzle,” PGA Tour pro Graeme McDowell said in late March. “I can’t imagine how much time the tours have spent figuring out a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D.”
The R&A announced it has canceled the 149th British Open, scheduled for July 16-19 at Royal St. George’s in England. It will be played there the week of July 11-18, 2021. The 150th Open will be played at St Andrews from 10-17 July 2022.
“Like everybody I’m very sad and disappointed that the R&A has canceled The Open,” reigning champion Shane Lowry said in a video tweet. “You can trust me when I say the Claret Jug is going to be in safe hands for another year.”
The PGA Tour canceled the Players Championship after the opening round on March 12 and later canceled or postponed all tournaments through the PGA Championship, which originally was supposed to be played May 14-17.
The Tour did not confirm whether there would be any further postponements. As of now, the season is expected to resume with the Charles Schwab Championship, May 21-24, but it did state in the joint release that it will seek to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the Men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July. The Tour will make further announcements about this potential, as well as its fall schedule, in the coming weeks.
“This is a difficult and challenging time for everyone coping with the effects of this pandemic. We remain very mindful of the obstacles ahead, and each organization will continue to follow the guidance of the leading public health authorities, conducting competitions only if it is safe and responsible to do so,” golf’s governing bodies and tours said in a joint statement. “In recent weeks, the global golf community has come together to collectively put forward a calendar of events that will, we hope, serve to entertain and inspire golf fans around the world. We are grateful to our respective partners, sponsors and players, who have allowed us to make decisions – some of them, very tough decisions – in order to move the game and the industry forward.
“We want to reiterate that Augusta National Golf Club, European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour, The R&A and USGA collectively value the health and well-being of everyone, within the game of golf and beyond, above all else. We encourage everyone to follow all responsible precautions and make effort to remain healthy and safe.”
The coronavirus outbreak has now reached the doors of Royal St. George’s with the R&A announcing on Monday that the 149th Open Championship has been canceled. The British Open was scheduled for July 16-19, which would have been the final major championship of 2020.
Next year’s Open will be played at Royal St. George’s July 11-18, 2021, so the 150th playing in 2022 will still be held at the Old Course, July 10-17.
The R&A has decided to cancel The Open in 2020 due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The 149th Open will now be played at Royal St George’s from 11-18 July 2021 and The 150th Open at St Andrews from 10-17 July 2022. Full Statement: https://t.co/iZ3HiU7wwVpic.twitter.com/IoqiEfs8Fu
The last time the Open was not contested was from 1940-1945 because of World War II. St. Andrews hosted the 1939 Open and then served as host for the return of competition in 1946. The Open was also not held from 1915-1919 due to World War I.
Last week, the R&A and USGA jointly announced the Curtis Cup, a female amateur biennial team match, was being moved back a year from its originally scheduled dates of June 12-14, 2020.
These moves come on the heels of the cancellation of the most important Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year. In a move that had been signaled strongly over the last week, the All England Club canceled Wimbledon for 2020, citing the “likely trajectory” of the coronavirus outbreak in the United Kingdom and the logistical impossibility of setting up the event at a point later in the summer.
It will be the first time Wimbledon hasn’t crowned a champion since the tournament paused between 1940 and 1945 due to World War II.
USA TODAY Sports’ Dan Wolken contributed to this article.
LPGA commissioner Mike Whan faces an ever-changing puzzle when it comes to his tour’s schedule. His mind remains on the needs of players.
Mike Whan was on his way to the gas station recently, wearing the protective gloves his wife had given him, when the plight of several players came to mind.
He thought about Sierra Brooks, the promising Symetra Tour rookie with grand plans for the LPGA. He thought about LPGA rookie Albane Valenzuela, a former Olympian and Stanford All-American who played three tournaments before the world hit pause. He thought about Mel Reid, the feisty English player who grinded on the Ladies European Tour for years before coming to America.
He thought about them all sitting at home.
“They’ve done all the work to earn this,” Whan said. “They’re there. They’re at this stage. Yeah, it sucks. I feel like we’re letting them down.”
During these unprecedented times, Whan met with the media for the first time via a Zoom video call. Earlier on Friday, his team had released a revised schedule that puts the LPGA back in action on June 15. They’ve been on ice since mid-February, feeling the brunt of the cononavirus earlier than most due to the Asia spring schedule.
“We were COVID before COVID was cool, I guess,” Whan said, “because nobody really knew what coronavirus was back in January when we first started talking to China, Thailand and Singapore about it.”
Back then, when a health minister told Whan that his tour might be put in quarantine if someone at the tournament site tested positive for coronavirus, Whan thought there might be a translation issue. Isn’t quarantine a military thing?
“He goes, ‘No, no, we would actually put you in a hotel for two weeks and then just check temperatures and make sure no one gets sick,’” Whan recalled. “And I’m thinking, can you imagine the LPGA being quarantined in a foreign country?”
Now the word “quarantined” is a part of the global conversation.
One year ago, Whan was boasting to his board about how recession-proof he thought the tour was because of its global diversity. Lightning should’ve struck then, he said, because the idea of a global economic shutdown never entered his mind.
The very thing that fueled the LPGA’s rapid growth these past 10 years might be what ultimately slows down the tour’s recovery.
Whan was part of a meeting via phone with President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon that included commissioners of all major sports leagues.
Whan said he talks to a formalized task force in golf every couple of days. The pandemic has actually brought the game’s leadership even closer. He wouldn’t mind being the first tour, or even sports league, to host an event, provided that three things are true: 1) local government and gathering restrictions were in the tour’s favor, 2) the health guidelines where they’re playing were in their favor and 3) 75 to 80 percent of the players could get there.
Whan estimates that 35 to 40 percent of his membership is overseas right now.
Part of the reason he announced that four more events are being postponed and one, the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill, had been canceled, was to relieve the anxiety of players and caddies who were concerned about getting back into the U.S.
Gemma Dryburgh played twice this season before heading home to Scotland for the indefinite break. She set up a net in her garden to be able to hit balls after the golf courses in her area closed two weeks ago.
The new schedule release, she said, at least gives a more realistic date to aim toward.
“I think one of the hardest things about this situation is that it is hard to motivate yourself when you have no idea when we will play again,” she said.
Azahara Munoz is hunkered down in Florida and grateful that her family back in Spain remains healthy. She’s eager to get back on tour, of course, but only when it’s safe for everyone.
“Not just when it’s good for us,” she said.
As of now, there are four canceled events on the LPGA schedule: three events in Asia and Kingsmill. Whan said there will likely be more. It’s possible that title sponsors will partner up for events later in the season. He doesn’t want to fill every open date on the calendar in case he needs to move another major championship.
Right now, the U.S. Women’s Open has moved to December. It could be the tail end of the season, or if summer events get wiped out, Whan could introduce a wrap-around schedule that goes into 2021. He’s calling it the “year of the asterisk.”
The scenarios seem endless. Some have fans, some don’t. Limited hospitality. Multiple dining rooms or media rooms to cut down on crown size. Safety measures can increase the costs.
“We’ve had a few sponsors say to us, if you need me in 2020, tell me where you need me,” said Whan, “and if I don’t fit, tell me that you just need me to be back in 2021.”
It’s an ever-changing puzzle, and Whan, the compassionate, tireless, outside-the-box-thinking commissioner who turned around the LPGA, won’t rest until he no longer has to worry about his players on his way to the gas station.
But even then, he sees the bigger picture.
“I’ve said this many times: My desire to play golf has never been higher,” said Whan. “My worry about my desire getting in the way of what’s right has to be just as high. We want to play. Don’t get me wrong. And my players want to play, and I think if you said to them, let’s go play, they’d be there before I got there. But we can’t – while we want to be a force of good, we can’t be a force of setback, either.”
Paris Hilinski would have made her ANWA debut this week, then the coronavirus hit. She continues to stay sharp, ready for golf’s return.
Only a few weeks ago, Paris Hilinski was preparing for her Augusta National Women’s Amateur debut.
The 16-year-old beamed when she received her invitation in January for the second annual tournament. She knew being included among a select group of women to compete at Augusta National was “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
On March 13, that opportunity to stand alongside the iconic foliage in Augusta, Georgia, with some of the best amateurs in the game was postponed along with the event itself, the Masters and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve never been more excited than when my (ANWA) invitation arrived and I’ve worked tirelessly to have my best game ready for the incredible opportunity,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “But as tough as it may be I completely understand and support today’s decision to postpone and prioritize the health and safety of all. While I’ll miss playing competitive golf for awhile, I’m looking forward to time with my family and promise you I’ll be training harder than ever to be ready for what’s next. My passion and love for the game is stronger than it (has) ever been.”
Her accomplishments so far this season include the ANWA invitation and placing third at the ANNIKA Invitational USA in January. She was hoping to build off last year’s experience this spring during the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and the Women’s British Amateur but her schedule kept taking hits. Shortly after the ANWA was postponed, the USGA canceled all Four-Ball events and the Women’s British Amateur was rescheduled.
While disappointed she won’t play these notable events this spring, Hilinski is grateful for the experiences gained and invitations received. She’s confident they’ll bear fruit in the future despite the delays of COVID-19.
“I learned so much,” she said of the 2019 USGA events. “I think both of those events were such a big playoff so I definitely learned how to play under that kind of pressure. The U.S. Open is a little different than the U.S. Am, but I feel like if I qualified again I would go in so much more prepared than last year.”
Additional cancellations and postponements are expected to pile up as COVID-19 has not yet peaked in the United States. As of Saturday morning, there were more than 276,000 confirmed cases and 7,122 deaths in the United States, according to the New York Times.
The pandemic has understandably impacted Hilinski’s training. The sophomore who splits her time between her birthplace of Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida, said she usually practices several hours every day, but her trips to courses have become less frequent as the impact of coronavirus becomes more visible.
Currently residing in Palm Beach, Hilinski said she visited her regular courses, the Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound and the Floridian where she’s coached by Claude Harmon III, last week but both she and her parents are nervous about continuing the once routine activity.
“We’re a little concerned because you just keep hearing things on the news about how it’s becoming more and more contagious,” Hilinski said. “So I think they get a little worried and stuff and it’s a little scary because there’s so much unknown.”
In Florida, there were over 10,260 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths as of Saturday morning, according to state and local health agencies, hospitals and C.D.C. data. In Palm Beach County alone, there were 856 cases and 33 deaths.
On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a shelter-in-place order which went into effect Friday at 12:01 a.m. ET. The order lists golf clubs as essential businesses, but the government exemption does not ease Hilinski or her parents.
Hilinski was unsure if she will continue to practice at the golf clubs as the confirmed cases and death toll across Florida continue to rise.
“I’m taking it day-by-day just because stuff is changing day-by-day,” she said.
Despite her youth, Hilinski understands the severity of the pandemic and why cancellations and postponements of events around world like graduations and tournaments continue to pile up. Everyone is making sacrifices for their own health and for the health of their communities — herself included.
Hilinski has committed to flattening the curve by adjusting her practice schedule while self-isolating at home.
Junior golfer Paris Hilinski. (Mpu Dinani)
With health and safety her top priorities, Hilinski has found indoor drills and workouts and has a putting mat in her garage. The routine, however altered it may be, comforts Hininski and is a testament to the hope she has in the midst of the rising chaos and uncertainty.
“Playing golf gives me a sense of comfort,” she said. “It’s something I look forward to doing everyday. I feel at peace on the golf course. There is something special about golf, even if you are just hitting into a net in your backyard.”
There will be a time when the virus passes and play resumes.
Whenever that may be, Hilinski will be ready.
“Right now I’m focused on the heath and safety of my loved ones and trying to be the best player and person I can be when golf gets going again,” she said.
The LPGA canceled the next five events on its schedule due to the threat of novel coronavirus and is now on hold until June.
The LPGA is on hold now until June. The tour announced on Friday that the next five events on its schedule have either been postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus crisis. Next up if all goes as planned: the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship June 19-21 in Rogers.
The tour hasn’t staged an event since mid-February. Two of the top three players in the world, Jin Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park, have yet to compete in 2020.
The LPGA laid out its new schedule through September, noting several open weeks for events that had been previously postponed.
The first major of the year now would be the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, held June 25-28 at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
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The last major of the year will be the U.S. Women’s Open, which moved to Dec. 10-13. The championship will now be played over two courses for the first time in event history. Both the Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit courses will be used for the championship.
“The Jackrabbit course is really good!” said Stacy Lewis. “It’s tighter off the tee, smaller greens. I’ve played it more than (Cypress Creek). Could be cold and wet weather-wise, but I think we have to do all we can to play as many tournaments as possible this year.”
The new Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Florida, originally scheduled for May 14-17, will now take place Nov. 12-15. The ShopRite LPGA Classic in Atlantic City, New Jersey, originally scheduled for May 29-31, will move to July 31-Aug. 2. The Meijer LPGA Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan, originally scheduled for June 11-14, is looking to reschedule.
The Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill, scheduled for May 21-24, won’t be played again until 2021.
“We are so thankful to all our partners for their flexibility and willingness to work with us during this very difficult time,” said LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. “This has been a truly collective effort to reschedule tournament dates and work together to provide LPGA players with as many playing opportunities as possible once it is safe for us to resume competing again. As we watch the world come together in this battle against this virus, we are so thankful for all of the support from our valued partners and we continue to wish for the health and safety of all the extended members of our global LPGA family.”
The Kia Classic, which was scheduled to take place in March, will now be held Sept. 24-27 in Carlsbad, California, just after the ANA Inspiration and Cambia Portland Classic.
Should the events in June be pushed back as well, the tour said alternative dates are available. The LPGA is scheduled to be in Asia for four weeks in October and November.
The CME Group Tour Championship wasn’t mentioned in the tour’s release, but it would make sense for it to follow the USWO in Naples, Florida.
The NCAA granted all spring-sport athletes an extra year of eligibility after seasons were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NCAA Division I athletes in spring sports will be given an extra season of eligibility to make up for the one that was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the association announced Monday.
But the decision by the NCAA Division I Council, which handles day-to-day rules making for the association’s top-level schools, will allow the schools to determine how much scholarship aid to give next year to athletes who were in what would have been their final season of eligibility this year.
However, the Council did agree to adjust scholarship limits to account for incoming athletes and athletes who decide to stay for an extra season.
The Council’s eight-member leadership group signaled its position 2½ weeks ago, when it issued a statement saying that “eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I athletes who participated in spring sports.”
On Monday, the full Council faced the prospect of several alternatives: Covering athletes in winter and spring sports. Covering only athletes who are presently in their senior year. Covering athletes in all classes.
The prospect of taking any action would have been difficult under the best economic circumstances. But with athletics department revenues — like those for higher education, as a whole — under present strain and additional threat in the future, it could be very difficult.
Schools outside the Power Five would face lower amounts, but FCS schools that have relatively robust spring sports offerings could be looking at a cost of around $400,000.
Much bigger problems could come in ticket revenue and donations, matters would get much worse if the football season is affected.
Football drives not only ticket sales but also television contracts, the value of schools’ local multi-media/marketing rights deals; shoe-and-apparel agreements and payments that some customers must pay for the right to lease suites or buy prime tickets. Guarantee-game payments, a feature of many early-season matchups, also could be impacted.
Earlier this week, Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte acknowledged all of those issues, but said the athletes should come first.
“There’s ramifications for everything,” Del Conte said during an interview with Austin radio station KTXX-FM, The Horn. “The economy has dipped, what does that mean? … We know it’s a tough time for everybody.
“So we’ve got to do things to make sure that we do things right by our student-athletes. I’m in favor of either proposal (to cover seniors or athletes in all classes). Doesn’t make a difference to me, as long as our kids have a chance to come back.”
Sarah Burnham won this week’s Cactus Tour event– a women’s professional tour that is playing golf in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
There aren’t many trophies being handed out these days. Even fewer paychecks. Sarah Burnham managed to snag both at this week’s Cactus Tour event, closing with an even-par 72 on Friday at Sundance Golf Club in Buckeye, Arizona, to win by four at 4-over 220.
A trio of players, including two amateurs, finished second at 224. Burnham, a former Michigan State standout in her second year on the LPGA, moved from Minnesota to Phoenix over the winter and happens to live in the neighborhood of the only women’s tour competing in the country due to a global pandemic.
“I’m lucky I’m able to play,” said Burnham.
There were 16 players in the field this week. Burnham, playing in her second Cactus Tour start, took home a $2,800 paycheck. She had boyfriend Jackson Renicker on the bag for the first time. Players went out in twos to keep in line with social distancing practices. Rakes were removed from the bunkers.
Burnham likes to pull the flagstick during competition, but under the new coronavirus precautions, had to adjust to leaving them in. Pool noodles were cut down and placed inside the cup. The sound of the ball hitting the noodle wasn’t nearly as satisfying, she said, but a necessary safeguard.
Sarah Burnham and her boyfriend/caddie Jackson Renicker on the Cactus Tour (Sarah Burnham)
“One of the girls I played with today, she swore her ball was in the hole but the noodle (kept) it out,” she said.
Given all that’s going on in the world right now though, who can complain?
And in even more unusual twist, players were given a 15th club this week to use out of the exceptionally rocky desert so that their own clubs weren’t damaged. Burnham didn’t end up using the extra club but appreciated the gesture.
“I don’t know if I’ll play next week,” she said. “I think I’ll just take the week off from competition, see what happens with the tour. I think Arizona might be considering a lock down.”
Mike Brown, a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy who’s determined to give players an opportunity to compete, has owned the Cactus Tour for the past decade. He plans to keep hosting events as long as golf courses are open.
In an effort to keep things light, Brown also presented Burnham with a roll of toilet tissue as part of her winnings.
