Tag: coronavirus postponements

Looking to see the 150th Open at St Andrews live? It’ll cost you as much as $11.5K

Some tickets have just gone on sale, but they’re part of “hospitality experiences” released Saturday by the R&A — and they won’t come cheap.

The Swilcan Bridge. The Claret Jug. A star-studded field.

The 2022 Open Championship will certainly be one for the ages — in fact, it will mark the 150th such event, with the celebration delayed a year due to this year’s cancellation.

Want to be part of the fun? Some tickets have just gone on sale, but they’re part of “hospitality experiences” released Saturday by the R&A — and they aren’t cheap.

In fact, the top-tiered weeklong tickets run about $11,500, after taxes are added. So what does that kind of coin get you in return?

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• Official Admission ticket to the 150th Open with Fast Track entrance
• Located on the fourth floor of the Old Course Hotel with stunning views of the Road Hole and across the famous Links course
• Reserved seating in the 18th green grandstand
• “Behind the scenes” experiences with unprecedented access to restricted areas at the Open such as the NBC Studio, Media Center and other VIP experiences
• Personal shopping experience
• Q&A with a past or present player
• Access to the West Deck Terrace at The Old Course Hole l
• Reserved parking pass (1 per 2 guests)
• Private tables to suit your group size
• Full TV coverage of play throughout the facility
• Private restroom facilities
• Welcome desk with experienced hosting staff

And don’t forget the food and drink package, which includes:

• A full Scottish breakfast with a selection of fruits, pastries, juices and specialty coffee
• Á la carte lunch menu featuring local and seasonal produce
• Traditional afternoon tea upon return from the golf course
• Complimentary premium drinks package including Champagne, fine wines, beers, spirits and soft drinks
• Access to the Whisky Tasting Room

So you’re not exactly roughing it.

“We recognize it has been a very challenging year for our fans around the world and we are delighted to give them something to look forward to. The 150th Open promises to be an unmissable event in the global sporting calendar and we have seen a real sense of urgency among fans to make sure they are part of this special occasion at the Home of Golf,” said Brett Tonkyn, Head of Hospitality at The R&A.

“Our official hospitality packages will provide fans with a magnificent setting to enjoy and celebrate this historic Championship and we are encouraging those fans wanting to experience the 150th Open in this unique way to act fast to secure their place at St Andrews.”

Other packages including fewer amenities have also gone on sale and get as low as $525 for a single day and can be found here. General tickets for the 149th Open at Royal St George’s Golf Club are also available, but those same tickets have not yet been made available for the 150th event.

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Masters will be played without patrons or guests in 2020

After months of deliberation, organizers of the Masters announced on Wednesday that the event will be played with fans and patrons.

After months of deliberation, organizers of the Masters announced on Wednesday that the event will be played without fans and patrons.

This note came from Masters organizers today:

Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced today that the 2020 Masters Tournament will take place November 9-15 without patrons or guests on the grounds.

“Since our initial announcement to postpone the 2020 Masters, we have remained committed to a rescheduled Tournament in November while continually examining how best to host a global sporting event amid this pandemic,” said Ridley. “As we have considered the issues facing us, the health and safety of everyone associated with the Masters always has been our first and most important priority.

“Throughout this process, we have consulted with health officials and a variety of subject matter experts. Ultimately, we determined that the potential risks of welcoming patrons and guests to our grounds in November are simply too significant to overcome.

“Even in the current circumstances, staging the Masters without patrons is deeply disappointing. The guests who come to Augusta each spring from around the world are a key component to making the Tournament so special. Augusta National has the responsibility, however, to understand and accept the challenges associated with this virus and take the necessary precautions to conduct all aspects of the Tournament in a safe manner. We look forward to the day when we can welcome all of our patrons back, hopefully in April 2021.

“We appreciate the support and patience of all those we serve – including the Augusta community, our corporate and broadcast partners and our friends in golf – as we continue to plan for this historic event.”

All 2020 ticket holders will be guaranteed the same tickets for the 2021 Masters. Augusta National will communicate directly with all ticket holders and 2021 ticket applicants in September.

Previously, Augusta mayor Hardie Davis predicted a patron-less Masters Tournament was likely when the rescheduled event is held in November.

The golf club postponed this year’s Masters Tournament events from April 9-12 to Nov. 9-15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Augusta added 1,460 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the two weeks leading up to August 6, bringing the Richmond County total Wednesday to 3,921, which is just under 2% of the population.

Davis, who is not affiliated with the club, said it will look out for the safety and well-being of all but refused to say whether he wants patrons to attend.

“They’re very thoughtful,” he said of the Augusta National. “They’re going to take those necessary precautions to ensure the health, welfare and safety of not just the competitors but also this city.”

Players have weighed in on the move, like 1992 Masters champ Fred Couples, who expects the conditions will make this a tournament like none other.

“I’ve only gone to Augusta once other than getting in there on the Sunday before the Masters and it was the end of November. We teed off at 8 a.m. and I hit driver, 2 iron into the first green. The next day it was cold and windy and I needed a rescue,” Couple said. “So, I’m not sure what the weather will be like in early November, but I will say this, the greens were unreal and as good as any Masters I ever played. The fairways were a little thin, but we’re talking Augusta, usually, it’s an 11 out of a 10 when we play. I don’t think it will touch 70 degrees, so it will play extremely long and be a unique situation.”

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College golf insider: Which conferences will likely play this fall?

We asked our Lance Ringler to put together a list of each conference and their current status as the fall season approaches.

The college sports landscape is rapidly changing as various fall sports have been wiped from the calendar for this year. On Tuesday, the Big 10 and Pac-12 announced they will not have football this fall.

But what about college golf?

We asked our Lance Ringler — who works with college coaches and knows the college game as well as anyone — to put together a list of each conference and their current status as the fall season approaches.

Ringler admits this list is ever-changing and may be updated.

As of Aug. 11, however, here’s a look at each conference and what Ringler has heard from multiple coaches.

Conference Status
American Athletic Conference No fall golf
ASUN Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 17
Atlantic 10 Conference No fall golf
Atlantic Coast Conference No fall golf
Big 12 Conference No announcement on any changes
Big East Conference No fall golf
Big Sky Conference No announcement on any changes
Big South Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 3
Big Ten Conference Conference only
Big West Conference No fall golf
Colonial Athletic Association Up to each school’s discretion
Conference USA No announcement on any changes
Horizon League Fall golf starts Oct. 1
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference No fall golf
Mid-American Conference No fall golf
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Up to each school’s discretion
Missouri Valley Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 18
Mountain West Conference No fall golf
Northeast Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 10
Ohio Valley Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 17
Pac-12 Conference Conference only
Patriot League No fall golf
SEC No announcement on any changes
Southern Conference No announcement on any changes
Southland Conference No announcement on any changes
Southwestern Athletic Conference No fall golf
Sun Belt Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 3
The Ivy League No fall golf
The Summit League Fall golf starts Sept. 23
West Coast Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 24
Western Athletic Conference Fall golf starts Sept. 27

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Charles Schwab chairman Rob Hood on this week’s event: ‘Had to start from scratch’

Golf will resume this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge — the first PGA Tour event since the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

The bubble is in place. The COVID-19 tests are ready.

Golf will resume this week, in earnest, as players arrive at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Charles Schwab Challenge — the first PGA Tour event since the coronavirus pandemic took hold mid-March.

How will tournament organizers handle this week’s proceedings, which will be unlike any other in the history of the Tour?

Very carefully, according to Charles Schwab Challenge tournament chairman Rob Hood, who has spoken with numerous media outlets in the days leading up to the event. He and tournament director Michael Tothe have been repeating a similar script, insisting that the Tour’s testing and limitation protocols will keep everyone on site at minimum risk.

When asked if there’s a specific number of people that, if tested to be positive for COVID-19, could shut down the tournament, Hood told the crew on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive that he wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know the specific headcount at this point but there are a lot of procedures in place,” Hood said. “Everyone who comes on to property will have to be thermal screened and checked off the list. We basically have two groups of people — those that have been tested and those who have not been tested.

“The ones that are tested, of course, will be the people that are in close proximity to the players but everyone who comes on the property will be thermal screened and have to answer a list of questions, and then checked off so we know everyone who is on the golf course and we know that they’ve all been cleared.”

Since the PGA Tour shut down March 12 after the first round of the Players Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tour officials, other players, tournament directors and health experts developed a plan for the resumption of play at Colonial Country Club.

That 37-page plan details safety and health rules and guidelines for the return, including layered testing protocols and social distancing standards. Its objective is to create a safety bubble to limit as much risk as possible.

Hood said the membership at the prestigious Colonial Country Club and the entire Dallas-Fort Worth golf community have been understanding in the need to keep players isolated. That means no access for some who often pay top dollar to be given access.

“We’re ready to go,” Hood said. “I’m looking out the window now and everybody is just working hard and just excited to get started.

“We have to make sure that their health and their safety is our No. 1 priority and the membership gets it. They get it. We really had to start from scratch here.”

The field at the Schwab is the best in its history as 101 of the players have won on the PGA Tour, the most winners in a field outside of the Players Championship during the FedEx Cup era. All of the world’s top 5 will be on hand, the first time a tournament field can boast that since the Official World Ranking began in 1986.

The Charles Schwab Challenge is the first PGA Tour event since the Players Championship, which was canceled March 13 after the first round. Eleven tournaments with more than $90 million in purse money have been canceled.

 

Steph Curry tied to new Columbus PGA Tour event

The new event at Muirfield Village will be hosted by NBA star Steph Curry, an avid golfer who had previously been tied to a PGA Tour event.

It appears a fill-in PGA Tour event in Columbus, Ohio, that will precede the Memorial will have an identity of its own — with a famous face.

Muirfield Village Golf Club will play host to back-to-back PGA Tour events in July — a one-time event July 9-12 followed by the Memorial Tournament July 16-19 — according to a memo sent to tour players Tuesday and obtained by Golfweek.

That tournament, to be held without fans, will have a 156-player field. Its title sponsor is Workday, which provides software services for finance and human resources.

The Workday sponsorship is tied to a new event hosted by NBA All-Star Steph Curry, an avid golfer who hosted a non-PGA Tour charity tournament sponsored by Workday in the fall of 2019.

Memorial Tournament director Dan Sullivan confirmed that Muirfield Village will host the extra tournament.

The Memorial will follow with the 120-man field afforded to invitational events, but it has not been determined whether fans will be allowed.

It is not known what role Memorial Tournament founder Jack Nicklaus will play in the new tournament, which the tour created to take the place on the schedule of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois. That tournament was canceled last week over concerns with the pandemic.

Playing a second straight tournament at the same site will allow the Tour to maintain a safety “bubble” for players, keeping them in at the same venue for two weeks.

Curry has long embraced his love for golf, and has played in numerous events.

The NBA star brought golf programs to life at Howard University, an NCAA Division I school in Washington, D.C. Curry announced in August he was committed to funding men’s and women’s teams at the university for six years beginning with the 2020-21 academic year.

He also has shared his love for trick shots:

This isn’t the first time Curry has been tied to a PGA Tour event, but a previous partnership fell through.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Tour nixed plans for a proposed Curry-hosted event that had previously seemed to be gaining steam toward being on the calendar in the 2019-20 season.

There looked to be a viable host in Lake Merced Golf Club after members approved course upgrades and a title sponsor also appeared in the offing. The event was expected to be slated for September 2019 (with Sept. 19-22 held open).

Report: Columbus to get second PGA Tour event, replacing John Deere

Columbus will host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament.

Columbus will host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament scheduled for July 16-19, according a memo from the PGA Tour that was obtained by ESPN.

The Columbus-based tournament will serve as a fill-in this year for the John Deere Classic, which was scheduled to be held July 9-12 in Silvis, Illinois, but canceled because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The Memorial, postponed from June 4-7 to the spot once occupied by the canceled British Open, hopes to have spectators at its event but has not been given official clearance to do so.

The new event will also be played at Muirfield Village Golf Club, although it will have a different sponsor, according to the memo.

The PGA Tour is currently building a bubble around players and caddies at all tournament events, and have added charter shuttles for all between sites, so the opportunity to keep players housed in one area for an extended period of time is an attractive one.

The Korn Ferry Tour, for example, is running multiple events in the Jacksonville area to start the season and later moving to San Antonio for consecutive tournaments.

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PGA Tour could add second event in Columbus this year

Columbus could be in the mix to host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament scheduled for July 16-19.

Columbus could be in the mix to host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament scheduled for July 16-19, two sources confirmed to the USA Today Network on Friday.

The Columbus-based tournament would serve as a temporary fill-in for the John Deere Classic, which was scheduled to be held July 9-12 in Silvis, Illinois, but canceled on Thursday because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. It was to be the first tour event to include spectators.

“There are multiple options, more than a handful,” a PGA Tour player told Golfweek.

Another personal with extensive knowledge of the situation texted The Dispatch that Columbus appears to top the list of options.

Other leading alternative sites include Detroit and Akron, according to Golfweek, with Lexington, Kentucky, and Carmel, Indiana, also possibilities.

Columbus and Detroit make sense as a way to keep PGA Tour players stationed in one location for two consecutive weeks of tournaments. Detroit Golf Club is scheduled to host the Rocket Mortgage on July 2-5 without fans.

The Memorial, postponed from June 4-7 to the spot once occupied by the canceled British Open, hopes to have spectators at its event but has not been given clearance to do so.

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Akron’s Firestone County Club currently hosts the Senior Players Championship in August; Lexington was set to host the Barbasol Championship, a PGA Tour event held opposite the British Open, until it was canceled in April because of COVID-19; and Carmel is home to Crooked Stick, which held a national junior event this week.

Would Muirfield Village Golf Club host tour events back-to-back?

Memorial Tournament director Dan Sullivan dismissed Internet reports — including speculation that Muirfield Village would host an invitational event one week before the Memorial — as unfounded rumors, adding that he was focused on getting the Memorial ready to go.

The last time the same course hosted pro events in consecutive weeks was in 2014 when Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina was site of the U.S. Open followed the next week by the U.S. Women’s Open.

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Other than Muirfield Village, Ohio State’s Scarlet Course and Scioto Country Club each have experience holding professional tournaments. Scarlet already has the Nationwide Children’s Championship, a Korn Ferry Tour event held Aug. 20-23, while Scioto hosted the Senior U.S. Open in 2016.

As of Friday morning, Scarlet had not been contacted by tour officials as a potential one-year replacement, Scarlet head pro Brian Kelly said. The pro shop at Scioto also was unaware of any contact from the tour.

roller@dispatch.com

@rollerCD

PGA Tour cancels John Deere Classic, per source

The John Deere Classic, which was to be held in July, is the latest casualty on the PGA Tour schedule.

Golfweek has learned that the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic will not be held this year.

The tournament was scheduled for July 9-12 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, and would have been the fifth event played in the Tour’s revamped schedule. The first four events, beginning May 21 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, will not be allowing fans.

Sources tell Golfweek that John Deere Co., didn’t want to have fans at the popular Quad Cities event and risk a possible outbreak of coronavirus at a large gathering.

“They felt if we don’t have fans it’s just a TV show and that’s not what the tournament is about,” said a PGA Tour insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t at liberty to speak on the subject. “They’d rather take the money they’d be allocating to the tournament and give it to the community.”

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But the Tour is working on contingency plans to fill the gap in the schedule. While sources say nothing has been definitively decide, the Barbasol Championship, which is scheduled as an opposite field event one week after the John Deere at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, could jump into the opening. The Barbasol has a $3.5 million purse compared to the $6.2 million that was supposed to be offered at the John Deere Classic.

Efforts to reach JDC tournament director Clair Peterson were not returned at the time of publication.

This year’s tournament would have marked the 50th anniversary of the John Deere Classic.

It’s the 11th Tour event that has been canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Davis Love III hopeful November Masters will help his RSM Classic

Davis Love III thinks the Masters Tournament on a one-off basis in November could be a boost to the field of the RSM Classic.

Davis Love III thinks the Masters Tournament on a one-off basis in November could be a boost to the field of the RSM Classic, the PGA Tour event he hosts at the Sea Island Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.

Love, who conducted a 45-minute Facebook Live question-and-answer session with fellow St. Simons resident Zach Johnson, said he’s “thrilled” that the RSM, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last fall, comes a week after the Masters, which has been rescheduled for Nov. 12-15 at the Augusta National Golf Club.

Love said his reason for optimism is simple: the driving distance from Augusta to Sea Island is 200 miles. Since many of the world-class players in the Masters have historically followed that high-pressure week up with a trip to the laid-back South Carolina Low Country to play in the RBC Heritage, 136 miles way, Love reasons they might do the same to play at Sea Island Nov. 19-22.

“Having the Masters the week before has always helped the Heritage,” Love said at the Sea Island Performance Center, where he and Johnson fielded questions for 45 minutes. “Players would just drive over from the Masters and have a more relaxing week [at Hilton Head]. We think this will be very similar, going to a world-class resort the week after a major. It fits nicely into the schedule.”

Last year’s RBC Heritage field included European stars Tommy Fleetwood, Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell, and U.S. stars Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau.

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Love noted that under the revised PGA Tour schedule, the Tour Championship will be played in Atlanta Sept. 4-7, which will decide the 2019-20 FedEx Cup champion, followed two months later by the Masters and the RSM Classic.

“There’s going to be so much great golf in Georgia,” he said.

Love predicted that field strength as a whole will improve for the rest of the season, given the fact that by the time the schedule resumes, players will have been idle for three months.

“Every event is going to get more guys playing because we’re behind,” he said. “Behind on contractual obligations, making a little money … there are a lot of reasons to play … [world] rankings, FedEx points. We’re all anxious to get back.”

Both Love and Johnson will be playing during the first two weeks of the PGA Tour’s re-start. Johnson is in the field for the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, June 11-14, while Love, who is playing a hybrid PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions schedule, will play in Hilton Head.

They are past multiple champions on those events. Johnson won at Colonial in 2010 and 2012 and Love holds the tournament record with five RBC Heritage championships, the last coming in 2003.

Those two events, plus subsequent tournaments in Cromwell, Conn., and Detroit, will be played without fans.

They’re both more than ready to return.

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“We want to get back to work,” Love said. “I agree with being safe but it’s time to go.

“I applaud the Tour for getting a plan,” Johnson added. “It will be different [without fans] but it’s time.

Both players also addressed the upcoming Ryder Cup, which will be Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. Love, a two-time Ryder Cup captain, and Johnson will be assisting U.S. captain Steve Stricker.

For Johnson, it will be his first turn as a vice-captain after playing in five Ryder Cups.

“Personally, it’s the best thing I’ve ever been associated with from a competitive standpoint,” he said. “You want to play. Davis and I are competitors first. It’s where we want to be and what we strive to do. That said, if you can’t play, if you can be a part of the team and serve, you want to do that. It doesn’t matter to what degree or capacity. Any time you can represent your country, you’re going to take advantage of it.”

Love said the brawny, windswept course that sits astride Lake Michigan should play into the hands of a U.S. team that will be loaded with bombers such as Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Gary Woodland.

“Whistling Straits will look like, for the European team, that they’re at home,” Love said. “[Architect] Pete Dye did an incredible job with a piece of property to make it look like links golf. We have a lot of players who played well there in the past [at three PGA Championships] and it’s a big, long, hard golf course. We have great ball strikers who can handle a tough golf course in tough conditions.”

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Golf with fans? Organizers from the Memorial and others are pressing for it

Representatives from four professional tournaments in Ohio are asking the state’s governor to open these events to spectators.

The Memorial Tournament and three other professional golf events in Ohio have gone on the offensive by requesting that Gov. Mike DeWine lift or ease a ban on large gatherings and allow fans to attend their summer tournaments.

A letter addressed to DeWine and co-signed by the tournament directors of the Memorial, Marathon Classic in Toledo, Bridgestone Senior PGA Challenge in Akron and Nationwide Children’s Championship reads: “We appeal to you to permit the four Ohio professional tournaments to allow fans this coming July and August.”

DeWine’s order limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people was put in place March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter, dated May 15, includes proposals on how the tournaments will implement safety measures to protect spectators, including social distancing, issuing protective equipment (masks, sanitizers, gloves and screening) and temperature screening outside tournament grounds.

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The tournament directors insist that “without fans these tournaments will not be successful or viable.”

Memorial Tournament director Dan Sullivan chose not to release details specific to his event, including whether fans at Muirfield Village Golf Club would be required to wear masks.

“We are working on a plan and details to follow,” Sullivan said. But he confirmed that the Memorial will go forward July 16-19 with or without fans.

The same cannot be said of the LPGA’s Marathon Classic, held July 23-26 in Sylvania.

“If the question is, ‘Could you play the tournament without spectators?’ we couldn’t,” Marathon tournament director Judd Silverman said. “When you run the numbers, if (there are) no spectators, then you’re returning all of the sponsorship money … and once you return all that money, it puts our event deep into the red to the point we can’t afford to do that.”

Silverman stressed the community bonding aspect of fans being able to attend tournaments, and the letter attempts to drive that point home.

“We also wish to communicate that while each of our events has a different business model, we all rely on sponsors and fans as critical elements to our success,” the letter reads. “The positive impact the tournaments deliver to the State, our host communities and the many charities which benefit is a direct result of the support we receive from hosting sponsors and fans at our events.”

But in-person attendance goes beyond altruistic giving; it also is about getting sports back to normal, which includes fans attending events that give off energy.

Professional golf returned to live broadcast on Sunday with the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity skins event that featured Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff at Seminole Golf Club in Florida.

One might list golf among the few sports in which not having fans on-site makes little difference, with the game’s polite applause and only occasional crowd roars. But the made-for-TV skins game revealed that even golf needs its galleries. Watching the four players stroll Seminole in shorts while carrying their own golf bags, and with barely any banter to increase interest, turned the event into somewhat of a sterile snoozer. (There was, however, more than $5 million raised for COVID-19 relief.)

Golf followers are about to find out how an actual PGA Tour event held without fans looks and sounds or does not sound when the Charles Schwab Challenge tees off June 11 in Forth Worth, Texas. How will the watching experience register without galleries?

The Ohio tournament directors hope they don’t have to find out for themselves.

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Silverman said the four events hope to hear back from DeWine’s office in the next two weeks, but the governor’s office did not confirm a timetable.

“We did get a letter. It’s something our teams have been working on,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. “Our large venue group and tourism group are well into work on it. I can’t say how soon we will have an announcement.”

The letter urges DeWine to consider the distinctive nature of golf tournaments: “We are hopeful you recognize the unique attributes professional golf tournaments offer relative to hosting fans in an expansive outdoor environment.”

The Bridgestone Senior Players Championship (Aug. 13-16) and Korn Ferry Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Championship, played Aug. 20-23 at the Ohio State Scarlet Course, have more time to work with. But the Memorial needs to know about fan admittance by June 1 and the Sylvania tournament by June 20, Silverman said.

“We’re all committed to move forward with the governor and have reduced numbers of attendees relative to a traditional year,” he said.

Just so that number is not zero.

Rob Oller is a columnist for the Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at roller@dispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @rollerCD

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