Carlota Ciganda decided to get tested for COVID-19 and it came back positive. She isolated in her apartment and has since recovered.
Six weeks ago Carlota Ciganda’s muscles started to ache. She also spiked a fever and battled headaches. The Spanish player decided to get tested for COVID-19 and it came back positive. She isolated in her apartment in Arizona and continued to test positive.
“I did the quarantine two weeks; came back positive,” she said. “I wait another week, positive. And I think my fourth one, so yeah, a month, came back negative.”
Ciganda’s ordeal was first reported in the Spanish media. By the time she arrived in Toledo, Ohio, she was feeling good. Understandably, Ciganda chose to keep her mask on when met with the media at Inverness after an opening 2-under 70. She’s four back of leader Danielle Kang. Ciganda, a two-time winer on the LPGA, is currently No. 16 in the world.
“After 10 days I was feeling fine,” she said. “Just a little annoyed that I couldn’t really practice much or do much, because obviously it’s a horrible feeling knowing you can spread the virus to someone else.”
Ciganda was tested twice by the LPGA before she was allowed to tee it up in Friday’s opening round. In all, a total of 466 pre-travel and onsite COVID-19 saliva tests were given to players and caddies before today’s restart. Three tests came back positive: Marina Alex, Gaby Lopez and one caddie.
“I think I should have antibodies for at least a couple months,” said Ciganda, “but to be honest, I don’t know. I didn’t even get that test done, so I don’t know if I have them. I hope I have some, so that way will be tougher to get it again.
“I’m still very careful keeping the distance. I’ve been washing my hands all the time and just not going anywhere. Just from here to the hotel, getting some food. You have to be careful, especially to keep everyone healthy and to keep playing.”
The tour conducted 233 pre-travel tests of players and caddies prior to them departing for this week’s LPGA Drive On Championship.
The LPGA has released an update on its COVID-19 testing results following its initial three weeks of testing.
The tour conducted 233 pre-travel tests of players and caddies prior to them departing for this week’s LPGA Drive On Championship. Tour player Marina Alex, who is asymptomatic, tested positive during this phase as did one caddie. The caddie was only scheduled to work Drive On and did not travel to the event. Alex is expected to return to competition at next week’s Marathon Classic after a 10-day quarantine.
“At the advice of my primary care physician, I have remained in isolation while continuing a testing regiment which has successfully provided three negative tests in the last seven days,” said Alex in a statement on twitter. “I have exhausted every resource possible to be able to compete at Inverness, however due to current CDC guidelines and the current protocols the LPGA has put in place for our safety my official clearance date does not allow me to compete this week.”
The LPGA further tested 233 players and caddies on-site in Toledo this week. Mexico’s Gaby Lopez tested positive and two tests are still pending after their initial results were inconclusive. The tour did not reveal any more information about whose results are pending or their status for Friday’s opening round, but anticipates getting results prior to the start of the first round.
Lopez has withdrawn from the event and is self-isolating.
Last week on the Symetra Tour, 205 players and caddies were tested prior to traveling to the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan. Fatima Fernandez Cano tested positive and withdrew from the event. She has since recovered and been cleared to play.
The Drive On Championship kicks off at 7 a.m. on Friday at historic Inverness Club.
Local caddies aren’t being used for the rest of the year on the LPGA, so players are using some different options.
Lindsey Weaver dusted off the old push cart from her AJGA days for this week’s LPGA Drive On Championship. Veterans like Jacqui Concolino and Alison Walshe chose to carry their bags. Caddies are optional on the LPGA for the first time, and a handful of players at Inverness Club opted out.
“We were getting a lot of jawin’ from some of the girls, asking if we were back in junior golf,” said 32-year-old Concolino, “asking what colleges we were looking at.”
Lindsey Weaver will use the same push cart from junior golf in this week’s Drive On event. (Golfweek photo)
Local caddies aren’t being used for the rest of the year on the LPGA. With mandatory COVID-19 testing in place for players, caddies and staff, the tour is working hard to keep the bubble tight and costs down.
Kris Tamulis planned on having a caddie this week but hers didn’t get tested in time so she’s carrying a pencil bag.
Linnea Strom’s caddie is in Sweden. She flew over to the U.S. to quarantine for two weeks but thought it best that her caddie stay back in Europe until the tour heads to Scotland in two weeks. He’ll catch up with her there.
Strom has only been a professional for 2 ½ years and said she didn’t always use a caddie when she competed on the Symetra Tour. (The developmental tour already allowed players to carry their own bags or use a push cart.)
“Basically last year was the first time I had a full-time caddie,” Strom said. “It’s not that long ago.”
Stacy Lewis was against making caddies optional from the get-go. The former No. 1 has had the same caddie, Travis Wilson, her entire career and considers him to be a crucial part of her success.
“I feel like we have a hard enough time getting good caddies out here, and I feel like doing something like that is going to push them away more and maybe make them feel like they’re not welcome or like they’re not needed,” said Lewis. “We’re a professional golf tour and I think we need to look like it.”
There are at least seven players in the field of 134 who aren’t taking a caddie this week.
“This temporary option is meant primarily to avoid the local caddie situation where a player may have health concerns working with someone who they don’t know,” said Kelly Schultz, VP of Communications for the LPGA. “We fully expect the overwhelming number of players to be using caddies and are encouraging them to do so. Caddies are a critical part of LPGA tournaments and competitions and we will resume our mandatory policy in 2021. This is not the beginning of a long-term plan to phase out caddies. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Angela Stanford believes caddies will always be a vital part of the tour, but she still made sure to pack her small carry bag in the SUV in case her regular looper, Ryan Hilton, suddenly can’t work any given week.
She understands why Whan made the caddie rule flexible, noting that as a rookie she had to ask her sponsor for a cash advance so that she could even get started on the tour to compete. If going without a caddie financially allows a player to compete during a pandemic, she said, then so be it.
“We don’t make the money the PGA Tour does,” said Stanford, “and some of these girls haven’t made a dime in six months.”
Louise Ridderström carries her bag down the first hole at Inverness alongside fellow player Ryann O’Toole. (Golfweek photo)
Some players, like Walshe and Weaver, didn’t have a consistent caddie prior to the pandemic and felt it was simply easier to go without one for now.
While Inverness isn’t too difficult of a walk, it is demanding in nearly every other way. Most are seeing it for the first time too.
Walshe carries her bag all the time when she’s at home. For Thursday’s practice round she had a portable speaker strapped to her bag and a handful of golf balls to keep it light. She has a push cart in the car, just in case bad weather comes into play.
“I’m confident that I won’t exhaust my efforts by carrying,” she said.
The LPGA has a firm return date in sight. The 2020 season will resume with back-to-back events in Ohio in early August.
The LPGA has a firm return date in sight. The 2020 season will resume with back-to-back events in Ohio in early August. One of those events is new to the schedule, and one has been adjusted from its original July dates.
The LPGA will restart with the LPGA Drive On Championship, a three-day, official tournament to be played July 31-Aug. 2 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, which will host the Solheim Cup in 2021. The event is new to the schedule in 2020 and will feature a field of 144 players competing for a $1 million purse.
The event will take place without sponsors, pro-ams or spectators, but will be televised on Golf Channel.
The Marathon LPGA Classic will be played the following week at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, with fans present. That event, one of the longest running on tour, has been moved off its original July 23-26 date and back to the Aug. 6-9 date vacated by the Evian Championship, which was canceled last week.
The Marathon received approval from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to allow fans on-site much like the Memorial, a PGA Tour event to be played at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, on July 16-19.
“Thanks in part to the generosity of our partners who could not reschedule their events in 2020, we are adding a valuable additional playing opportunity for our LPGA Tour members,” said LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. “We are so appreciative of our longtime partners, Marathon and Dana, as well as the memberships at Highland Meadows and Inverness, for adjusting their schedules and helping us create a valuable two-week stretch in the Toledo area as we work to safely return to competition. This new event will allow us to test our COVID-19 protocols before we get to welcome back our fans at the Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Dana.”
Following the two scheduled events for Ohio, the LPGA is scheduled to continue with back-to-back stops in Scotland at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open on Aug. 13-16 and the AIG Women’s British Open on Aug. 20-23.
The next domestic LPGA event still on the schedule is the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, to be played Aug. 28-30 in Rogers, Arkansas.
