If they can play in Scottsdale, what’s the Tour waiting for?

A small event next month is attracting PGA Tour pros ready to get things re-started down in Arizona at the Scottsdale Open.

Organizers of the Scottsdale Open, an independent professional tournament with a $125,000 guaranteed purse, confirmed this week that they will play the event as scheduled May 12-15 at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Az.

Several well-known pros, including Charlie Beljan, Joel Dahmen, Kevin Streelman and Kirk Triplett, are among the 156 committed entrants at present. Alex Cejka and Colt Knost. both PGA Tour veterans, are among the alternates.

Streelman is the 34th ranking player on the 2020 PGA Tour money list having won $1.4 million to date this season. He finished second at February’s ATT National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, and teamed with pro football star Larry Fitzgerald to win the pro-am.

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Dahmen ranks just ahead of Streelman at $1.43 million. He was top five in his two most recent starts, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Genesis Open.

Cejka has won $104,000 this season.

The event, which under normal circumstances you would never hear of, is a 54-hole non-PGA Tour sponsored tournament usually populated by players who envision their future on the Korn-Ferry Tour. It will be played without a gallery.

In announcing that the tournament would go forward, organizers issued this statement.

"“Multiple health officials across the country as well as the Arizona State Governor’s Office have stated, with the right precautions, golf can be a safe activity. Based on current information a decision has been made to proceed with the Scottsdale AZ Open as scheduled.”"

They added…

"“We will continue to listen to the experts, follow CDC guidelines and implement safety measures as necessary.”"

The PGA Tour’s revised schedule does not anticipate any tournament activity until mid-June, when the interrupted season will resume with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.

But the confirmation by organizers of this minor, non-tour event that they intend to safely move forward – coupled with the decision by several recognized Tour veterans to participate – raises a valid question: What is the PGA Tour waiting for?

The COVID-19 situation obviously varies from state to state. What is right in one location would not be right in another.

But as noted by the Scottsdale event organizers. golf generally is a safe activity by commonly understood medical standards. Unlike most American sports, it is a non-contact game. With galleries excluded, that means it can easily be played while applying accepted standards for social distancing.

Players and caddies can be tested ahead of time for any indication of the virus, and excluded from play in the event they test positive. Clubhouses need not be opened beyond providing access to restrooms.

Beyond that, caddies can be required to use latex gloves for protection in the handling of equipment such as flags and rakes. In fact the only rules adjustment needed for the conduct of a safe, sanitary, and virus-free tournament in many low-virus locations in the U.S. would be one permitting the gloved caddie, rather than merely the player, to remove a ball that has been holed.

Surely the game’s overseers would be willing to pay that temporary price to get tournament activity underway.

There are many places in the nation – with many tournament-quality courses — where courses are open right now. Hotels, as a rule, are clean and have plenty of space available for participants.

Why should the PGA Tour be in any hurry to re-start its season? The interest of players of the talents of Streelman, Cejka and Dahmen indicates that some pros are eager to get back to work. But beyond that, at a time when all other major sports are shut down for the foreseeable future, the Tour is now in the process of squandering away an extended window when it could command a functional monopoly on live sports viewing in this country.

Golf is not in a position to let that sort of opportunity to show itself off to an eager audience slip away by needlessly sitting on the sidelines for another month and a half…not when it doesn’t have to.

And while playing a normal schedule at usual tour sites may not currently be feasible, conducting a sponsored Tour event – perhaps with a more limited field and limited course prep – is entirely feasible. Given the paucity of live sports programming these days, it would likely draw large audiences, the rights fees from which could be donated to COVID-19-related causes.

That would generate both good attention and goodwill.

If state officials believe a professional tournament can be safely played at a non-descript event in Scottsdale, the PGA Tour can also safely do it. But that still leaves unanswered the question: What is the Tour waiting until mid-June for?