Tag: covid protocols

Pregnant reporter says PGA Tour fired her after she failed to get ‘religious exemption’ on COVID protocols

Gregson said she tried to get a religious exemption from the PGA Tour but was not granted one.

Reporter, producer and host Teryn Gregson said in a social media post Monday that the PGA Tour fired her for refusing to follow protocols set by the organization to deal with COVID-19.

Gregson, who is 22 weeks pregnant with her second child, worked for the PGA Tour for 5½ years. She was a full-time employee and said she tried to get a religious exemption from returning to the PGA Tour offices, but was not granted one.

She was notified of her dismissal last Friday.

“I was in need of religious exemptions from their vaccine protocols of masking and testing,” Gregson said in her post. “They would not accommodate me in such a way that I did not have to violate my religious beliefs.

“I was hoping we could come together on this.”

Reached by Golfweek, the PGA Tour responded to a series of questions.

“The PGA Tour does not have a vaccine mandate for its employees,” the Tour said in a statement. “In September and based upon guidance from medical and legal advisors, the PGA Tour established additional health and safety protocols for those who choose to remain unvaccinated. There have been numerous communications to employees about these specific health and safety protocols.

“Regarding religious exemptions, there is no need for a religious exemption from a vaccine requirement because – again – we do not have a vaccine requirement at the PGA Tour. We do, however, have a process for reviewing requests for medical or religious accommodations (from both vaccinated and unvaccinated employees) for Tour health and safety protocols. All are reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a request qualifies and what accommodations can be made.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWTSoGxAqoz/

Gregson also appeared Monday on the conservative Steve Deace Show on BlazeTV and said that she had COVID this past summer. She is not vaccinated.

Gregson had been working from a studio in her home since the global pandemic began March 2020. However, the PGA Tour established rules for its employees to return to work at the PGA Tour’s offices in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., beginning November 1. The original date to resume in-office work was June 1, but a highly transmissible Delta variant led to a spike in new cases and hospitalizations in Northeast Florida. This led the PGA Tour, with guidance from local and state officials as well as the Tour’s medical advisor, Dr. Tom Hospel, to move the mandatory date to return to the office to September 1 and then November 1.

Fully vaccinated employees are not required to wear masks within the building. For unvaccinated employees, masks are required to be worn “at all times, including in conference rooms, fitness center, simulator and when walking through hallways. Masks can be removed while sitting at a workstation if social distancing can be achieved or when eating/drinking. In addition to masking requirements, all unvaccinated employees will undergo weekly COVID-19 screening tests.”

“They told me that (my request) was an undue hardship,” Gregson said on the Deace Show. “And that I had to come back in the office to be able to collaborate with my team.”

The PGA Tour said nearly 94 percent of its employees are fully vaccinated.

“In the months leading up to our eventual return, we rolled out a series of employee communications via emails, newsletters, videos and moderated Q&A sessions to answer questions related to COVID, vaccinations, health and safety protocols and general return-to-office onboarding,” the statement continued.

“When mandatory in-office work for Northeast Florida employees at our new Global Headquarters and PGA Tour Entertainment building commenced on November 1, the vaccination rate of employees was at 90 percent. Presently, all Tour employees based in Northeast Florida are required to return to the office and follow health and safety protocols.”

Multiple efforts by Golfweek to reach Gregson went unanswered.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

 

‘COVID Envelope’ could make Ryder Cup debut this week

“This is certainly something that I’m sure is causing a lot of thought.”

HAVEN, Wis. – Just as the Ryder Cup has a plan to deal with injured players, it now has an arrangement if a player contracts COVID-19 and is unable to play.

It’s called the “COVID Envelope.”

Due to the captain’s agreement for the 43rd Ryder Cup – which was delayed one year because of the global pandemic – each captain ahead of Sunday’s singles action will put the names of three players in an envelope in case someone on the other team can’t play due to a positive COVID-19 test.

It’s similar to when a player is injured and can’t play singles; the captain places the name of one player in an envelope, and in the event the other side’s player can’t play, the player in the envelope would not play and the match would be recorded as a half.

The envelopes would only come into play for Sunday. On the first two days of play, four players sit out in each of the four sessions. Thus, if there is an injured player or if a player tests positive for COVID, a substitute is at the ready.

Also according to the captains’ agreement, any player who tests positive for COVID, even while playing a match, is immediately ineligible for the remainder of that match and the remainder of the Ryder Cup.

If there is an injury or a COVID positive test before the matches begin, a player not on the roster could replace the player.

[listicle id=778158323]

Each of the 24 players and caddies tested for COVID-19 before traveling to and then upon arrival at Whistling Straits, the PGA of America said. There have been no positive tests.

“There’s lots of protocols. So just like an injury name in the envelope, there’s a COVID name in the envelope. While we’ve asked, it’s still not completely clear what happens if we have, God forbid, a COVID outbreak of a number of players, but for one player it’s pretty straightforward,” Europe captain Padraig Harrington said Tuesday at Whistling Straits. “There’s an injury envelope and there’s a COVID envelope, so that’s two separate envelopes at this stage.

“This is certainly something that I’m sure is causing a lot of thought and a lot of time thinking about; what would be too many and what would be sustainable?”

According to the captain’s agreement, that scenario would be addressed by the PGA of American and Ryder Cup Europe.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Tulane to require proof of negative COVID test or vaccination for admittance to home games

With a growing number of positive COVID tests and hospitalizations, New Orleans has implemented new protocols. OU plays Tulane September 4th.

[mm-video type=video id=01fd0krdx1mwygx8jwps playlist_id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fd0krdx1mwygx8jwps/01fd0krdx1mwygx8jwps-fdc60a6f6365049bfaac9d9884026bf7.jpg]

COVID-19 has been the reality of our lives in the United States for nearly a year and a half now. It doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon either. A virus that has claimed countless lives and has impacted the financial and social constructs of the country will continue to play a role in how society operates in the fall of 20212.

As positive cases and hospitalizations soar in recent weeks, many cities and states across the countries are working to determine how to combat this recent surge. Universities will have to figure out how best to address it for the safety of their student bodies.

According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Tulane University looks to be the first to require proof vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours to gain admittance to athletic events on campus.

The Oklahoma Sooners will travel to play the Tulane Green Wave on September 4th in New Orleans. With testing procedures already in place for the Sooners, it’s unlikely this will affect Oklahoma all that much.

When speaking to the media, D.J, Graham estimated that 90% of the team was vaccinated. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated players will submit to testing and the schools must meet certain thresholds to play or games may be subject to forfeit.

Those it may impact are fans hoping to make the trip for the game. Regulations stipulate that proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours of game time — and not the antigen testing that’s done more rapidly — will be required to enter.

Questions will soon turn to capacity levels in stadiums as states look to stem the rate of positive tests and hospitalizations.

Lynch: Complaints about British Open COVID rules make players look like the whiny 1 percent

Those who have enjoyed less stringent guidelines on the PGA Tour didn’t take the R&A’s COVID rules for the Open well.

The Open Championship has long been a bonanza for bellyaching by professional golfers, regardless of where the game’s oldest major is contested. British weather is too fickle (accepted as fact by all but disputatious Scots). British food is too lardaceous (“Do you have any vegetables that aren’t fried?” a former editor once asked a waiter. Answer: “No.”). British water pressure makes showering feel like being peed upon (if only the water were that warm). And that’s all before the capricious linksland bounces that short-circuit the minds of those accustomed to hitting a golf ball through the air and seeing it stop in proximity to where it landed.

This year’s Open at Royal St. George’s should have been this year’s Open at St. Andrews, but because last year’s Open at Royal St. George’s didn’t happen, this year’s Open at St. Andrews has become next year’s Open at St. Andrews, while last year’s Open at Royal St. George’s becomes this year’s. One thing hasn’t changed: the griping. What has changed is that it has commenced much earlier than usual.

This week the R&A outlined for Open competitors the COVID-19 safety protocols that will be in place for the tournament. For players, caddies and coaches who have enjoyed the successful but less stringent guidelines on the PGA Tour, the R&A’s communique went down about as well as a haggis breakfast with a hangover.

[listicle id=778079535]

While players are exempt from Britain’s mandatory quarantine, they will be required to provide a negative COVID test within 72 hours of entering the country and another on arrival at Royal St. George’s, unless they travel on a charter flight from the Scottish Open. Tests are required regardless of vaccination status. Players will not be allowed to visit restaurants, grocery stores or bars where they might mingle with the public. But the real source of angst—like generations of Open-going professionals before them—is accommodations.

They must stay in either an official hotel or in private self-catering homes with a maximum of four occupants, all four of whom must be part of the player’s support group—defined as caddies, coaches, medical support or translators. Alert fans will already have noticed this isn’t sufficient manpower to transport Bryson DeChambeau’s gadgetry to the range, much less accommodate the rest of his entourage. Players are also allowed one accredited family member. Unlike players and support teams, family members are not exempt from quarantine—which is currently a minimum of five days. That means many are likely to skip the trip, which would be devastating for Brit tabloid media’s traditional WAGs coverage.

The ban on visiting pubs, restaurants and grocery stories also applies to support teams and family members, and the verboten locations also includes the accommodations of other players. “No one outside the accommodation buddy group is permitted to visit others in self-catering/private accommodation,” the R&A warned. “This would be seen as a breach of the COVID-19 protocols and could lead to withdrawal from the Championship.’’

There go Jay Monahan’s hopes of a detente dinner between DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

Players are also subject to being disqualified if they are in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The PGA Tour currently requires daily testing of players deemed to be a contact but withdrawal only if the player tests positive, as happened to Jon Rahm at the Memorial Tournament. The R&A gave no indication that a positive result would be needed before booting a player from the Open for being a contact.

“Our absolute priority is maintaining the safety of the players, fans and all involved in the Open and we are doing as much as we can to minimize the risks,” the R&A said. “We fully recognize the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and that case numbers are rising in many parts of the country. The U.K. has strict contact tracing legislation in place and we are creating a minimized risk environment to protect players, caddies, officials and staff.”

The Claret Jug on display on the 1st hole tee box during the final round of the 2019 Open Championship. (Steve Flynn/USA TODAY Sports)

The triggering word there is “fans”—32,000 of them, to be exact. About 80 percent of a typical daily crowd at an Open. Complaints from players, coaches and caddies center on the presence of so many fans while they must exist in a contained bubble (cost is the unspoken subtext here, since caddies and coaches often share homes to save money but can’t do so under these rules). In fact, protocols are strict for spectators too.

Every fan in attendance at Royal St. George’s is required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test in the previous 48 hours. A test taken on Monday admits a spectator for Tuesday and Wednesday, but if they want to return later in the week then another test is needed. Fans will also be kept socially distanced from players at all times. This hardly suggests a mob of potentially viral spectators running rampant.

We don’t have to search hard these days to find COVID guidelines that are excessive, arbitrary and non-sensical. Some of the R&A’s rules seem so too, not least the puzzling disregard for vaccination status in deciding how insulated a person must remain for the week. In its effort to return fans (and revenue) to the only major championship that wasn’t held in 2020, the R&A is adopting a lockdown mentality that seems overbearing. But it’s not wholly unreasonable.

Britain has suffered more than 128,000 COVID-related deaths and is seeing a spike in cases due to the worrisome Delta variant. After 15 months, there exists in Britain the same frustration and anger about travel and social restrictions and about government mismanagement as you’ll find in most other affected nations. The precariousness of this social and political tinderbox only adds to the importance of this summer’s effort to return British fans of all sports to stadia. The Open is a major test of that strategy. In that environment, it’s not beyond the pale to ask players and their teams to suck it up for a week in a comparatively comfortable bubble.

Those who consider that to be an intolerable burden are free to vote with their feet and stay home, but public grumbling about being inconvenienced amid a deadly pandemic just makes golfers look like the whiny one percent. Sometimes a professional just has to forget about things out of their control and focus on the job at hand. This is one of those times. And if that’s simply too big an imposition, well the PGA Tour has an opposite field event that week in Kentucky.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=778112735,778112687]

When will fans return to the LPGA? Not anytime soon.

A number of PGA Tour events have welcomed a limited number of fans for several months, but it will be some time before the LPGA follows.

Michelle Wie West returns to the LPGA this week for the first time in nearly two years, but it will be a quiet affair. There will be no spectators at the 2021 Kia Classic in Carlsbad, California, due to strict local guidelines. Players aren’t even allowed to bring one guest onsite.

Likewise, there will be no fans at the ANA Inspiration, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Players are allowed one guest for the year’s first major, and dining out at restaurants is still prohibited.

While a number of PGA Tour events have welcomed a limited number of fans for several months now, it will likely be some time before the LPGA brings fans back to any U.S.-based events, especially with three of the next four events on the LPGA schedule to be played in California and one in Hawaii.

The tour hopes to have a limited number of spectators at the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill in late May but, as a tour official noted, it will be with guidance from the local health authorities.

The LPGA is moving forward with plans to compete in Singapore and Thailand in late April and early May under strict health and safety guidelines for players. The LPGA created a similar bubble last August when the tour spent two weeks in Scotland.

After Kingsmill, the LPGA returns to the West Coast for the new match-play event in Las Vegas followed by the U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club. A decision has not yet been made on fans at the USWO but on Tuesday, San Francisco moved into the less-restrictive orange tier.

“It is important to have fans attend the U.S. Women’s Open,” said USWO championship director Matt Sawicki in a statement provided to Golfweek, “but health and safety protocols for all attendees remains our first priority. We are working closely with the City and County of San Francisco as well as the State of California to create the best environment possible.

Earlier this week, R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers released an open letter to fans about this year’s AIG Women’s British Open at Carnoustie. Last year’s AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon was the only major sporting event held in Scotland over the summer. While the event at Royal Troon was a rousing success, it did not include fans.

“We are greatly encouraged that we will be able to welcome fans at the AIG Women’s Open,” Slumbers wrote, “and I would like to assure you that we are working with the Scottish and UK governments, our health and safety advisers, agencies and our partners at AIG to progress our plans to ensure that everyone can enjoy the action at Carnoustie safely.”

[lawrence-related id=778093599,778092419,778091590]