Tag: coronavirus golf

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will not allow spectators in 2021

The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will not allow spectators in 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Unfortunately, much of what has made 2020 so difficult will carry into 2021.

The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, held Feb. 11-14, will not allow spectators due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, the tournament announced Friday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday the state’s strictest measures since the beginning of the pandemic in an effort to temper the surge of new cases and resulting deaths. In the past week, the state has recorded 114,748 new cases, up 21 percent from the previous week. The daily new case total every day this week has consistently reached new records for the state.

“Unfortunately our 2021 event will be unlike any of the previous editions of the tournament since Monterey County remains in a tier that will not permit live audiences at professional events in California,” said Steve John, CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation in a statement. “Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our guests, partners, vendors, volunteers, PGA Tour professionals, caddies, their families, and our community. We continue to work closely with the PGA Tour, as well as local officials, to determine what our event will look like in February.”

While the tournament will not be able to have fans in attendance for the February tournament, Monterey Peninsula Foundation and the PGA Tour still plans to support its charitable partners has it has done through the event since 1947.

The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will be televised by the Golf Channel and CBS.

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Bringing Golf Back: What is the PGA Tour’s impact on local communities?

Two tournament directors discuss why the PGA Tour is important to local communities and how sponsorships have been affected during COVID-19.

Golfweek and USA TODAY Sports spoke to Travelers Championship tournament director Nathan Grube and CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation Steve John about why the PGA Tour is so important to local communities.

Grube and John also discussed how sponsorships have been affected during the coronavirus pandemic and what the legacy of the PGA Tour looks like.

Watch the latest edition of “Bringing Golf Back” below.

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Click here if you missed Part 1, which discussed the focus players needed to maintain during the break, and check out Part 2 here, which explained changes for club manufacturers.

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Mark Calcavecchia on COVID-19: ‘Until you have it, you really shouldn’t say anything.’

Mark Calcavecchia hopes he’s on the mend, but he wouldn’t wish COVID-19 on anyone. The PGA Tour Champions veteran and former British Open champion tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, and drove his 45-foot Tiffin motor coach 1,800 miles from …

Mark Calcavecchia hopes he’s on the mend, but he wouldn’t wish COVID-19 on anyone. The PGA Tour Champions veteran and former British Open champion tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, and drove his 45-foot Tiffin motor coach 1,800 miles from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, site of this week’s Sanford International, to his home in South Florida.

“Driving with COVID wasn’t that much fun,” Calcavecchia said after being reached via telephone. “Somehow I did it in 3 ½ days, but when I got home everything just kind of fell apart.”

Calcavecchia, 60, played in the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National event and finished T-15, his best result of the season. He and wife Brenda drove to Omaha, Nebraska, for a couple of days, where he conducted a clinic for members at The Players Club on Sept. 4. Longtime caddie Troy Martin, and his wife, Mary, are members there and 40-50 people attended with social distancing practices in place, Calcavecchia said. Attendees wore masks, but two days later, Martin and his wife, Mary, tested positive after she suffered from headaches.

Calcavecchia continued on where he played Sand Hills (“my favorite”), The Prairie Club and Dismal River with fellow pro Lee Janzen, who tested negative.

“I sent a spit-test in nine days ago and it came up positive. I went to Sioux Falls and the test was positive on Sunday. I started feeling crappy on Sunday,” Calcavecchia said.

Wife Brenda tested negative three times. Calcavecchia said he’s been taking Tylenol for his fever, which he said hasn’t gotten worse than 101.

“I had a little runny nose at first and just thought it was allergies,” he said. “When the fever goes away for awhile I feel OK. It’s aches and pains, can’t get comfortable, the whole nine yards.”

He also tweeted: “I’ve never had so many symptoms hit me all at the same time.”

Calcavecchia hopes that he will only have miss this week’s event and the Purse Insurance Open at Pebble Beach next week. The Champions Tour takes a two-week break before returning for its final four events of the season.

On Saturday, PGA Tour pro Kevin Kisner apologized for an insensitive tweet in response to a post by former NBA player Rex Chapman.

The original tweet referenced that a friend’s parents died from COVID-19 and that Chapman’s family also had been personally affected by the pandemic. He expressed his frustration with President Donald Trump’s handling of COVID-19.

Kisner responded, saying, “Guess they can’t follow the guidelines.”

After social media erupted against him, Kisner deleted the tweet and posted an apology.

When asked what he thought about Kisner’s comment, Calcavecchia said, “To each their own. I don’t know him, but until you have it you shouldn’t really say anything.”

Bringing Golf Back: Life of a caddie under new circumstances

Golfweek spoke with caddies Paul Tesori (Webb Simpson) and Joe Skovron (Rickie Fowler) about what life is now like on Tour.

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Bringing Golf Back: Being a caddie has been challenging due to COVID-related changes on the PGA Tour, but vets have been adaptive to the new environment. Golfweek and USA TODAY Sports spoke with caddies Paul Tesori (Webb Simpson) and Joe Skovron (Rickie Fowler) about what life is now like on Tour.

Click here if you missed Part 1, which discussed the focus players needed to maintain during the break, and check out Part 2 here, which explained changes for club manufacturers.

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Perrine Delacour, with an assist from the PGA Tour, back to work after 14-day quarantine

LPGA player Perrine Delacour is back to on tour after 14-day quarantine after her caddie tested positive.

Perrine Delacour couldn’t wait to get to Scotland. After her fill-in caddie tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Marathon LPGA Classic, Delacour, who tested negative, was forced to withdraw and quarantine in Toledo, Ohio, for two weeks.

When it came time to test again, Delacour didn’t want to solely rely on the LPGA’s saliva test that needed to be driven from Ohio to New Jersey over the weekend to be processed. She had a 7 p.m. flight to Scotland Sunday and wanted to make sure that she was on it for her debut in the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. (Her Inverness caddie, who never showed any symptoms and never again tested positive, had already been cleared for Troon.)

Delacour wanted to take as many tests as she could but struggled to find a place locally that could turn around the results fast enough. She called the LPGA, but their only option was the test center in New Jersey.

“It was like a nightmare again,” she said.

Delacour then called her regular LPGA caddie, Jeremy Young, who was working on the PGA Tour for Jim Herman, winner of the Wyndham Championship, for help. Young suggested checking to see if the PGA Tour could test her over in Akron, Ohio, site of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

Delacour drove the 2 ½ hours from Toledo to Akron on Saturday for a 1 p.m. appointment and received her negative results by 8 p.m.

She also took tests in Detroit and Toledo. All came back negative.

Once Delacour arrived in Glasgow on Monday, she took another COVID-19 test and waited in her hotel room for the results. She passed that one too and is cleared to play in the year’s first major.

Doctors also cleared her to practice last week in Toledo provided that she practice social distancing. She was able to get work in at Highland Meadows and played once more at Inverness. Prior to that, her host family in Toledo mowed down their yard a little shorter than usual so that she could practice wedge shots. Delacour said she can’t thank them and Young enough.

Going forward, she’d like to see the LPGA offer more tests for players after getting exposed to COVID-19, rather than waiting the full 14 days to get re-tested.

“Now I feel confident,” she said of her return to the tour. “I feel happy.”

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PGA Tour players who previously tested positive for COVID won’t get special groupings

The PGA Tour as amended its Health and Safety plan in accordance with CDC guidelines ahead of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

The PGA Tour informed players Tuesday it will remove unnecessary restrictions on individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and met criteria to return to competition.

Based on updated CDC guidelines and in consultation with the CDC and the PGA Tour’s medical advisors, the Tour’s Health and Safety Plan will now allow players who have tested positive and then been cleared to return to competition to be placed in normal groupings.

This follows the Tour adjusting tee times the evening before the first round of the Workday Charity Open so Dylan Frittelli, Denny McCarthy and Nick Watney — who had all previously tested positive for the virus and recovered — could compete in a group after each was cleared to return.

The Tour also said it will not subject individuals who have recovered from the virus to PCR testing for three months following the onset of symptoms for symptomatic players or the date of the first positive test for asymptomatic players.

Ahead of returning to play, affected players will consult with the PGA Tour’s medical team who will determine if each player meets the CDC guidelines to return to work.

The change is effective immediately.

Previously, the Tour reduced the period which a symptomatic positive must be fever-free in order to conclude isolation and return to work from 72 hours to 24 hours. The change was in accordance with CDC guidance as of July 17.

The change will be in effect for this week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and the Barracuda Championship as well as the Korn Ferry Tour.

As of Tuesday, seven players and two caddies on the PGA Tour have tested positive for the virus. The most recent was Grayson Murray on July 20 ahead of the 3M Open.

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Report: PGA Tour lifts travel restrictions for international players; Lee Westwood still says no to U.S. events

International players will no longer have to do a 14-day quarantine after the White House lifted several restrictions.

The PGA Tour informed players that it is lifting travel restrictions for international players.

A memo sent to players on Friday outlined a decision by the White House to end several of the mandated quarantine rules, which had been put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Players caddies and essential personnel are now exempt “as these groups are subject to COVID-19 testing and screening through the Tour’s rigorous health and safety protocols throughout a tournament week. This update replaces the 14-day quarantine period currently in place,” according to the memo from Tyler Dennis.

This should ease the return of any remaining holdouts ahead of next week’s World Golf Championship event and the return of the PGA Tour Champions, but not for Englishman Lee Westwood, who hosted this week’s Betfred British Masters on the European Tour. Westwood said he wouldn’t be taking advantage of this new ruling and still plans to skip the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational next week and the upcoming PGA Championship.

“I still don’t feel comfortable and I don’t feel like it is right to jump on a plane for 12 hours,” Westwood told reporters after his round. “I’ve felt out of my comfort zone this week, so if I got to Memphis I would feel uncomfortable playing golf tournaments at the moment.

“I’m 28 years of playing on tour and this is a shock to the system, isn’t it? Whenever I come out and play the tournaments now it is almost about seeing my mates and the sociable element of it all and you’re not getting that at the moment. You finish playing golf and go to the range. I’ve never seen so many players on the range at 8 o’clock at night trying to avoid their hotel rooms. There is a lot to think about where to play coming up really.

“It’s just not the life I’m used to. I got out on the golf course and I am struggling for motivation a little bit. There is a lot more to consider. The two American tournaments, next week and the following week, I’m still concerned that America doesn’t take it (the virus) as seriously as the rest of the world. It still seems to be one of the hotspots for outbreaks. I can control me not getting the virus and take all the measures I can, but somebody might pass it on. I don’t really want to get ill with it and I’m slightly asthmatic. If I tested in Memphis I would have to stay there for two weeks… right now there are too many ifs.”

Westwood, 47, is ranked No. 34 in the world. His decision comes on the heels of fellow Englishman Andrew (Beef) Johnston withdrawing from the British Masters out of an abundance of caution and fellow Brit Eddie Pepperell saying he would be skipping the PGA Championship out of health concerns.

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Sites for 2020 Women’s Mid-Amateur, Senior Women’s Amateur to host events in 2021

The sites hosting the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in 2020 will also host in 2021, the USGA announced.

The host sites scheduled for the 2020 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur will roll over and host those events in 2021 after both were canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the USGA announced Tuesday.

The Women’s Mid-Amateur will be held at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, from Sept. 25-30, 2021, and the Senior Women’s Amateur will take place at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Alabama, from Sept. 10-15, 2021.

Fields for both the Women’s Mid-Amateur and Senior Women’s Amateur championships will consist of 132 players. The tournaments will begin with two rounds of stroke play, followed by a cut to the lowest 64 scores for match play.

Entries for both events will open in the spring of 2021.

The 2021 Women’s Mid-Amateur, which is open to female amateurs 25 and older with a handicap index not exceeding 9.4, will mark the third USGA championship Berkeley Hall Club has hosted after hosting the Men’s and Women’s USGA State Team Championships in 2005.

The 2021 event will be played on the club’s Tom Fazio-designed North Course.

“Berkeley Hall Club and our surrounding community are thrilled that we were able to work with the USGA to ensure the 34th U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship will still be taking place here,” general manager and COO of Berkeley Hall Club Adam Kushner said in a statement. “The opportunity to host some of the most talented amateur players in the world is something that we have been preparing for, and are glad that it will still be able to come to fruition. After this challenging year, next year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur is something we will all look forward to more than ever.”

The 2021 Senior Women’s Amateur, open to female golfers 50 and older and whose handicap index does not exceed 14.4, is also the third USGA championship The Lakewood Club will host. The club previously hosted the 1974 and 1986 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateurs.

The 2021 event will be played on the club’s Dogwood Course.

“Hosting a USGA national championship is a great honor and we welcome the opportunity to open our doors to the world’s top golfers,” The Lakewood Club director of golf Niall Fraser said in a statement. “Our club is committed to making the 59th U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship a memorable event for all involved. Being able to host this event in 2021 after much preparation and uncertainty this year is a dream come true.”

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PGA Tour events will not have fans through end of 2019-2020 season

As had been expected, PGA Tour events have been announcing separately that fans will not be part of the equation for the rest of the 2019-20 slate. 

As had been expected, PGA Tour events have been announcing separately that fans will not be part of the equation for the rest of the 2019-20 slate.

A report from Golf Channel citing multiple sources. said earlier that all events would be played without fans for the rest of the season.

On Monday, the BMW Championship, Wyndham Championship and others all announced the move.

The 2019-20 season officially ends at the conclusion of the FedEx playoffs — the Tour Championship in Atlanta — meaning the next event that could include fans is the Safeway Open on Sept. 13.

The schedule is obviously jumbled, since the U.S. Open and Masters are both scheduled to be played in what is technically next season, although those events are not run by the PGA Tour. There is no word on whether those events will have fans.

Haley Moore’s scorching 62 laps the field for a third Cactus Tour title

After the LPGA paused its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Haley Moore kept competing. She’s won three events since March.

Haley Moore was enjoying a post-round pomegranate cosmopolitan when she answered the phone. She deserved to celebrate after scorching the field with a 10-under 62 in the desert.

The 21-year-old entered the final round trailing LPGA veteran Alena Sharp by one stroke at Troon North. Moore wound up winning this week’s Cactus Tour event by nine. No other player in the field broke 70 in the final round.

Two-time major champion Anna Nordqvist finished fourth. Karen Kim played alongside Moore on Friday and aced the 13th hole en route to a 70 and a third-place finish. Kim bought Moore and any other takers a beer after the round.

 

Moore won last week’s Cactus Tour event at Stallion Mountain by three strokes after a final-round 64. She has now won three times on the Cactus Tour since the LPGA stopped staging tournaments due to COVID-19. (The superstitious Moore also wore the same outfits for all three rounds this week as she did last week.)

“It’s definitely going to be pretty high,” said Moore of her confidence level when the LPGA restarts on July 31 in Toledo, Ohio.

The 62 included two eagles in the span of three holes on Nos. 9 and 11. Moore hit both par 5s in two and drained a 20-foot putt on the ninth and a 4-footer on the 11th. It tied her personal low, set when she was in middle school.

Moore is in the field for the first two events in Toledo, Ohio: LPGA Drive On Championship and Marathon Classic. She’ll have to qualify out of those to earn a spot in either of the fields in Scotland. The former Arizona standout is ready to make whatever last-minute arrangements are necessary to make that trip should she punch her ticket.

John Chance, the caddie she met at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, will be back to work for her in Toledo and will remain on the bag for the rest of the year. Chance lives in Georgia and caddies at Augusta National.

Moore played in a dozen tournaments during the LPGA’s coronavirus break, including 11 on the Cactus Tour.

“I’m just happy that Mike (Brown) was able to keep this tour going,” said Moore of the Cactus Tour owner who barreled on in the Arizona desert despite early criticism. “This tour helped me get ready for Q-School before I became a pro.”

And now it has given her a bona fide hot streak heading into Phase II of her rookie year.

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