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PGA Tour: Discussions of Restrictions, Practice Mean Tour is Nearly Back

By Tim Letcher

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Rory McIlory of Northern Ireland plays a tee shot as fans look on during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Rory McIlory of Northern Ireland plays a tee shot as fans look on during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) /
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Discussions of COVID-19 restrictions and scenes of players practicing indicate that the PGA Tour is about to restart. And fans are ready for it.

The PGA Tour is coming back! It’s really coming back!

For those who did not believe the tour’s plan to start back in June was really going to happen, the evidence is mounting, more every day, that the tour really is going to come back.

More proof came forth on Tuesday when Brendon Todd, speaking to reporters on a teleconference, discussed what he had heard from PGA Tour officials regarding testing for COVID-19. Todd indicated that the information he had been given was that players, caddies, officials and volunteers would all be tested before being allowed on site.

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According to Todd, decisions about how caddies will be restricted, or not, are still to be determined. Will caddies be allowed to rake sand traps? Will they be allowed to tend and/or handle flag sticks?

Meanwhile, players are starting to gear up for whenever play returns. The evidence is all over social media.

Players like Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, who will participate in the Skins match against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff on May 18, have been seen on Twitter working on their games.

Brooks Koepka, visiting with Dan Patrick on his show, says he’s ready to get back to action. Shane Lowry, who will remain the Open Champion of the Year for another year, is getting back on the course as well.

All of the evidence still points to the tour returning at Colonial for the Charles Schwab Challenge the week of June 8. Unless there is some sort of major setback regarding the coronavirus, that should be the week that an actual golf tournament returns.

Fans will not be allowed to attend at Colonial, or for another few weeks, but the sport itself will be back. And, for everyone who has been waiting for a live sporting event on television, it will be a welcome sight.

It will be interesting to see how the tour handles the regulations that each state currently has in place regarding the coronavirus. While the tour will open in Texas, the first few weeks will include stops in South Carolina, Connecticut, Michigan and Illinois. Each of those states may have regulations in place that are different than others, and the tour may have to make some adjustments week-to-week in order to protect the safety of players, caddies, tournament officials and others to best protect everyone involved.

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While the game will look different in June, and may include masks, rubber gloves and lots of hand sanitizer, at least the game itself is coming back. And for golf fans, as well as sports fans in general who have been waiting for this moment appear to be getting closer and closer with each passing day.

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