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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – After making three consecutive birdies to close his round and turn his day around in the Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy got drug tested.
He hopes more tests take place.
Many more.
The defending champion said after his round Thursday the PGA Tour would need to shut down if one player, caddie or anyone associated with a tournament tests positive for the coronavirus. The PGA Tour decided its flagship event and the following three tournaments on the schedule would proceed as scheduled but without spectators.
Fans were in attendance for the opening round but will not be permitted the rest of this week and through the Valero Texas Open.
“Everyone needs to get tested,” McIlroy said. “For us to keep playing on Tour, all the Tour players and people that are involved need to get tested and make sure that no one’s got it, because obviously everyone knows you can have it and not have symptoms and pass it on to someone that’s more susceptible to getting very ill from it. So it’s a scary time.
“I think that the PGA Tour has made a step in the right direction and I think we just have to play it by ear and take it day by day. Someone said to me yesterday, that today’s overreaction could look like tomorrow’s underreaction. So just got to take it day by day and see where this thing goes.”
PLAYERS: Tee times, TV | Scores | Photos
As far as the Masters a month from now, McIlroy said he “couldn’t see how they can let spectators in if they do play it at this point.” McIlroy also said he would get tested next week when he goes to his Florida home.
As part of the marque afternoon group with world No. 2 Jon Rahm and No. 3 Brooks Koepka, McIlroy finished at even-par 72 and will start Friday’s round nine shots behind leader Hideki Matsuyama.
Rahm and Koepka can overtake McIlroy for the world’s top spot. Koepka needs to win and McIlroy finished worse than 45th, while Rahm can become No. 1 with a victory or a solo second-place finish, depending on what McIlroy and Koepka do.
“It will be a little strange to play here over the next few days with no fans, but that’s what we have to do to try to do our bit in terms of trying to stop the spread and trying to keep everyone healthy,” McIlroy said.
Koepka, looking for his first top-10 since September, made a quick trip to see swing coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas before heading to TPC Sawgrass. Koepka birdied three of his final four holes for a 70.
He is in the field for next week’s Valspar Championship. “If the event’s going to go on I’ll be there,” he said. “It’s just crazy time right now.”
He said the rest of the week at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass will be weird without fans.
“Eerie,” too, he said. “That’s what makes this golf course so fun, so exciting is all the fans cheering and booing when you hit a bad shot. That’s what you want, you want that excitement, that aura around you, and tomorrow we’re not going to have that. It will be a bit weird.”
Rahm shot 69 and said the atmosphere on the course was great.
“Honestly we had a lot of fun out there. I think people were trying to take advantage that it the only day they were going to be able to watch golf live in maybe possibly a whole month,” Rahm said. “It’s just too bad that there’s that, you know, a little bit of I don’t know if it’s concern on everybody or just worrisome of what’s going on and what could happen.”
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