Fort Worth Mayor Has No Reservations About Colonial Return; PGA Tour Reportedly Plans To Use Chartered Flights Between Events

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig interviewed Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price, who has been working closely with the PGA Tour on plans to present the rescheduled Charles Schwab Challenge June 11-14. The mayor says she has no reservations about moving forward with the event and addressed the primary hurdle presented by Commissioner Jay Monahan: testing.

Price said that as of now, widespread testing is not available in Fort Worth, which the PGA Tour has said on a few occasions would be one of their criteria for returning at any of the events it plans to stage. But Price said she expected that to change "in about 10 days.''

"It has just been for people who show virus symptoms, but we have moved beyond that,'' Price said. "Pretty soon anyone will be able to get them, and that is what we are striving for. We're a town of 900,000 people, so it's going to be difficult for any city to test every one of their residents. But the testing is going to be much more robust.''

Complicating matters in the area: neighboring Dallas County saw a record-tying number of cases in its Monday report and the area also expects to lose federally funded testing capable of handling 1000 people per day even as numbers are going up.

Also, the current CDC guidelines on testing priorities fails to list professional golf or even anyone asymptomatic.

One question often asked about PGA Tour’s June return: air travel. A Golfweek report from Todd Kelly quotes Kevin Streelman, who said the plan is to use a chartered event between tournaments. I’m not sure how that affects the elite players who use private jets but it would seem to improve the chances of players not spreading the COVID-19 virus to air travelers while moving from city to city.

“There will probably be four, five, six of us who will split a plane to get to Colonial,” Streelman said. “The Tour has chartered planes, like big ones, for all the players and caddies in between events, trying to keep our bubble nice and tight.”

Oh it was a tight bubble already. But is anyone really wanting to be in a tight bubble of any kind just yet? Particularly one encased in hard surfaces with a robust air flow system? We’ll find out soon.

Report: PGA Tour "On Track" For June 11 Restart

GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard, citing a memo to players saying the PGA Tour is “on track” for a June 11-14 restart week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, says we can expect to learn details this week about how it will all work.

He reports that the “Health and Safety” plan will center around multiple tests and include things like no locker room, spacing-minded setup of operations and even making caddies optional. Though as he noted in the Golf Central report below, that plan still seems to be a bone of contention. Hoggard also cites one member of the players advisory council as saying he is "95% sure” the event will go forward.

PGA Tour Commissioner has said testing across the country needs to be “widespread” to not take away from the “critical need” currently still experienced.

As UFC dealt with positive tests this week, the LA Times’s Arash Markazi notes that dealing with the inevitable positive tests results opens up even more questions for sports leagues. In golf, the independent contractor status of players adds other wrinkles, particularly if the player is asymptomatic but is also precluded from playing in a battle to retain tour status.

Ultimately, those are minor concerns in the grand scheme of our current COVID-19 world.

Increasingly, I sense the greatest fear with the PGA Tour’s fan-free return is not with a virus spread or lack of safety planning, but instead, optics. Given models showing huge daily death tolls and continued strain on front line response efforts in a variety of locations, what will it looks like if players competing, perhaps whining about flagsticks or bunker lies, or blaming bad room service for their play?

How those optics are gauged is beyond my pay grade and may not be something that can be tracked. But given all other golf organizations either suspending or cancelling events well beyond mid-June, the risk to both the Tour and the sport’s reputation is great if the return is seen as too abrupt.

To put it another way, years of goodwill earned with billions raised for charity and professional golfers seen as a certain kind of model citizen, could be put at risk. And for what? To get the FedExCup chase restarted and preserve the wraparound schedule?

Today, May 10th, the desire to play in mid-June seems like a big gamble with a low long-term reward. A month from now? Maybe not. After more people see golf courses as very safe places to be or the markets hosting events are deemed relatively safe, the risk may seem less dangerous.

Anyway, the full Golf Central segment:

Memorial Tournament Direct Shares What A Post-COVID-19 PGA Tour Spectator-Attended Event Will Look Like

If the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide takes place in July, 2020, it would be the second currently scheduled golf tournament in the COVID-19 era to welcome back include spectators (the John Deere Classic is scheduled to be the first).

Appearing on the Virtual Sports Report, the Memorial’s Dan Sullivan previewed things like no grandstands, volunteers in tournament-branded face coverings and more limited television coverage. Sean Zak at Golf.com documented all of the thoughts, but this is of particular note as we try to envision tournament operations of the future.

Among the biggest changes expected at the Memorial is tracking the whereabouts of fans. While there will be fewer spectators allowed on tournament grounds — ticket sales have purposefully been slowed to keep from over-populating — each spectator badge (and the badges of tournament staff/volunteers) will have within it an RFID tag. “At any time we can know, around the golf course, how many people are collecting in a certain area,” Sullivan said.

The full interview:

PGA Tour Restart In Texas Needs Plenty Of COVID-19 Questions Answered

Five weeks from attempting to restart the 2019-20 PGA Tour season in Fort Worth, Texas, the state still requires a 14-day quarantine for travelers from California; Connecticut; New York; New Jersey; Washington; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan, and Miami, Florida. International travel quarantining is unclear.

Logic would say the PGA Tour needs to have things buttoned up soon given that players coming from so many locations have just three weeks to get tested and then in place in Texas.

Adding to the situation in the Lone Star State, as Governor Greg Abbott reopens his state, he’s been heard on tape this week admitting that it’s “almost ipso facto” that reopening the state for business “will lead to an increase” in COVID-19 spread.

Welcome to the great state of Texas boys!

Until questions are answered by the Tour about how everything will work, they are rolling out a player each week to select, special media.

So this week’s player who answered his phone at just the wrong time was Brendon Todd. He presented his sense of how player testing will work (pre-tournament, start of the week on arrival and once more during the tournament) and that sounds solid, assuming testing is more prevalent by then.

Beyond that, I would have thought things would be more defined for players by now, at least off of his remarks. With three weeks to go until many in the field will need to know the plan on hotels, flights, clubhouse, locker room and other indoor elements (where the virus is more likely to spread). But at least Todd endorsed the idea of changing shoes in the parking lot, one of the stranger elitist peccadilloes facing an imminent and timely demise.

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com report on the call.

Todd, who said he spoke with Pazder, acknowledged there are risks, such as air travel and hotels, although he was told by tour officials they are working on one to two hotels where all of the tour players, caddies and officials would stay.

It is unclear at this point if clubhouses or locker rooms will be open. Todd said the latter would not be a problem.

"You're talking to a guy who played 20 Monday qualifiers two years ago and probably 10 last year,'' he said. "I'm all too used to changing my shoes in the parking lot. Even when you play the Desert Classic in Palm Springs we have different courses, you're in a parking lot. As funny as that may sound, it's not that big of a deal.''

Golf Digest Surveys PGA Tour Players On What Is Needed For A Return

Golf Digest’s reporters surveyed 35 PGA Tour players and just over half said they are only will compete “if there is a comprehensive testing plan in place at every event”. The next largest subset does not need testing but supports safety measures at events.

The options:

A) I don’t need anything to be different than before the virus. I’m ready to play.
B) I am willing to compete under whatever safety measures the PGA Tour chooses to implement, but don’t think we need comprehensive testing at tournaments.
C) I am only willing to compete if there is a comprehensive testing plan in place at every event.
D) I am not willing to compete until a vaccine or major medical development is in place.

And this was noteworthy:

Players, who were told they could answer anonymously, were also asked to elaborate further regarding their thinking. Some chose to go on the record while others asked for anonymity, but their responses help frame the issues many within golf are weighing as they contemplate a return to competition.

“I do trust [the Tour’s] decision-making process, but I’m not sure that the decision to start playing or not start playing has much to do with trusting their decisions,” said Stewart Cink. “To me this feels like a very personal decision about when the comfort level is enough to get back out there traveling. And also there’s still the very significant factor of social accountability and whether it's right to get back into a routine where everyone is traveling, etc.”

Increasingly, it seems travel worries and optics of returning are going to be as important as whatever testing protocols the PGA Tour develops.

Incidentally, Cink’s caddy, Kip Henley, called out Policy Board member Charley Hoffman this week on Twitter as another “rich guy sitting at home” in not considering the economic need to return to tournament play.

Hadwin: If Flagstick Stays In Hole, "That might make me honestly rethink playing"

Scott Stallings suggested PGA Tour players were “not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker.”

And now Adam Hadwin is wondering if he can play with flagsticks left in the cup to prevent excessive player/caddie contact with the pin.

Now, all of these great golfers are eager to get back and undoubtedly a few are practically inconsolable without golf to prepare for. But it’s also clear that when they return, things will change, less money might be there and some “sacrifices” will need to be made.

Hadwin is a very grounded person and comes off that way during the rest of the interview where he expresses empathy for those dealing with the virus. So it’s a bit startling to hear an elite golfer suggest in this time of pandemic that putting with the flagstick in has proven so untenable.

“Are we not going to be allowed to touch pins, or flags?” Hadwin said. “I putt with the flag out, so if we all of a sudden are going to be forced to putt with it in to not touch a flag, I’m going to have issues with that, and that might make me honestly rethink playing, because it changes everything.”

This picture painted by Hadwin illustrates an issue golf faces, assuming the sport and world listens to pros instead of just telling them this is (temporarily) how it’s going to be for a while.

“Maybe there’s one person wearing gloves walking with every group that pulls flags for us when we need to so caddies or players aren’t touching it,” Hadwin said. “If you force us to play with the flag in it changes everything. It messes me up on the greens and I can promise you I’m thinking about it. Doesn’t matter how well I’m hitting it; when I get on the greens I’ll be thinking about it, how I’m putting with the flag in and I haven’t been able to adjust to it and I shouldn’t have to adjust to it. Maybe I’ll protest, maybe I wouldn’t. If that’s the only possible way for us to play again, I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I’ll play and moan about it every day that I play and just go do it. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

I’d do a poll, but pretty sure 99% of you would vote for Hadwin going the route of “I’ll play and moan about it every day that I play and just go do it.”

The full interview:

Pat Perez On PGA Tour's June Return: "I think it's a little early"

Bob Harig at ESPN.com caught up with Pat Perez about what he’s been doing during the COVID-19 lockdown. Like many players, Perez hasn’t touched his clubs much, instead working on a new home renovation.

Perez offered this on the PGA Tour’s planned June 8th return.

"I think it's a little early,'' said Perez, 44, a three-time PGA Tour winner who is ranked 141st in the world. "But I understand what they want to do. Everybody wants sports back. Of course they do. Everybody wants to get back. But it's such a bigger deal than sports, it's such a small percentage of what is going on in the world right now. People are sick, we don't know who all has [the virus]. It's serious.”

Tour Player Warns: “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker"

I had not seen the stern warning from Scott Stallings in this James Colgan Golf.com piece, but it sent laughter down my spine and I hope, in these difficult times, you get similar joy from this Grade A, Bobby Joe Grooves level point missing.

Colgan writes:

These changes could see players putting with the flagstick in, playing without rakes in bunkers and pulling their own clubs to minimize contact with caddies, among other adjustments. While the proposed guidelines could allow golf to be played in the near future, Stallings doubts players would get on board with the changes.

“I just don’t think there’s any way guys are going to do that,” he said. “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies. That’s just not going to happen.

“I’m fully confident that there are going to be guys who choose not to play.”

The Golf.com Monday morning roundtable feasted on the Tour player and fitness fanatic’s declaration.

Sean Zak, senior editor (@Sean_Zak): Some probably will, but they’ll really look like sore thumbs. Are you really going to complain about an imperfect bunker when you could just be at home spending your money and not making any? Anyone who complains will not be embraced by fans, but then again, this is the Groupthink Tour. Their opinions tend to all be the same by the end of a tournament.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@JoshSens): Playing for “their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies.” Egad. The horrors! Not even Dickens could have dreamed up such hardship. I’m sure Stallings is right. Some players will push back, and they’ll look as ridiculous as the above sounds.

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer (@Alan_Shipnuck): The bunker thing is getting a lot of play, but there could be an easy solution: Why not have one designated raker per hole who cleans up after every player? But the larger point is that sports is going to be different for all of us when it returns, and the players would be wise to get on board.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: I think the game would be improved at every level without rakes in bunkers. Return to them their dignity. They are traps. They are to be avoided. The players will have to conform, or there won’t be a tournament in which to play.

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): I don’t see this being an issue, at least from the Tour’s bigger names. Ever since they officially canceled the Players, it’s been mostly sunshine and roses when it comes to Tour players and the rulesmakers. I would say the far bigger issue would be if players felt there was no effort being made to bring golf back, but that’s clearly not the case. I’m sure Stallings will come around.

Bunker rakes were down my list of golf reset values topics, but I think the topic just moved up the list.

Monahan Emphasizes Need For Widespread, Large Scale COVID-19 Testing If PGA Tour Is To Return

The Detroit News’ Tony Paul highlighted the remarks while attempting to determine if June’s Rocket Mortgage Classic could even be played. But a day after another oddly-timed schedule rollout tone deaf to over 4000 lives lost in a single day (in the U.S.) and parallels were suggested between a contagious virus pandemic and 9/11, Jay Monahan hit all the right notes discussing with Mike Tirico the possibility of a PGA Tour return.

Even better, not one mention of golf being played on 3-400 acres.

Talking to Tirico on his NBC Sports show, Lunch Time Live, Monahan made clear what is necessary for early June’s Colonial.

"We need to have widespread, large-scale testing across our country, where we are going to be able to test players, caddies and other constituents before we return," Monahan told Tirico. 

"But we need to do so (in a way) that's not going to take away from the critical need we're going to be facing."

Players were fairly muted in expressing strong views either way about the planned return, though Brooks Koepka wondered if the push was too soon while Justin Thomas praised Tour leadership for at least trying.

The full conversation was posted at YouTube:

R.I.P. The Greenbrier Classic

Jim Justice’s purchase of the Greenbrier Resort and subsequent ten playings of the Greenbrier Classic made for a welcome addition to the PGA Tour.

Besides bringing the pros to West Virginia and highlighting C.B. Macdonald’s work, the stop gave pro golf another look at an interesting old-school layout.

Lost though in the remaining 2020 schedule rollout was the tournament’s demise despite having seven years left on its existing contract, notes GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall. Officials with the event blamed the move to fall, in part, on what killed off the event, according to Beall’s report.

In a statement, Greenbrier officials said the tournament moving to the fall had not gone as well as hoped compared to its Fourth of July date. The Greenbrier said attendance and the attractiveness of sponsors "dropped significantly."

And this from AP’s

The yearly tournament, A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, has struggled to draw fanfare after moving from summer to fall. Last year, attendance dragged as the matches went up against college football home games, even as one of Justice's family mining companies bought 30,000 tickets to give away to fans.

“We are happy to reach a resolution with the PGA Tour that is mutually beneficial to both parties in this time of crisis,” said Jill Justice, the governor's daughter and president of The Greenbrier.

Just a reminder here that the PGA Tour rearranged it’s calendar schedule to the dreaded wraparound for two reasons: to avoid football season and to elevate the fall events into tournaments with FedExCup points status. The Greenbrier took a year off to accommodate a leap to the fall and now, is no more with seven years left on its deal.

PGA Tour To Players Uncomfortable With June Return : "You're an independent contractor. You're not required to be at any PGA TOUR event."

The PGA Tour rolled out an ambitious 2019-20 schedule completion, followed by a 2020-21 schedule start (minus the suddenly-defunct Greenbrier Classic and cancelled Canadian and Barbasol stops). But this comment from the PGA Tour’s Andy Pazder is certainly accurate, though insensitive to players who have COVID-19 concerns.

From a teleconference featuring operations heads Andy Pazdur and Tyler Dennis in support of the schedule rollout:

Q. What about the players who don't feel comfortable? There are going to be players who don't feel comfortable coming back. What happens to those players if you start and they're not comfortable coming back playing again?

ANDY PAZDER: That's a question I think you need to direct to individual players. My only experience with anything like this I guess would be the first few tournaments following 9/11. We had players that were uneasy about air travel. That's one of the beauties of being a PGA TOUR member; you're an independent contractor. You're not required to be at any PGA TOUR event. So they have that discretion to play tournaments where they favor the golf course or tournaments in this instance, to your question, they may or may not feel comfortable. But that's an individual player decision.

So I would direct you to reach out to some of the players that you know to get their direct perspective. I can't speak on their behalf as it relates to that.

Athletes in other sports have already begun to openly question the sanity of quarantining in the same hotels. For example, in baseball, which has considered a concept of stationary games and hotels, normally not-outspoken players are sensing their safety and sanity is not being taken into account (Bill Shaikin reports on the comments of Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw).

The PGA Tour’s plan is to have robust testing, as Rex Hoggard reports, and the repeated mention of this key point was reassuring. So was the plan to only go forward if testing is not being taken away from those on the front lines or more in need.

Details of how things work on course are still being worked out:

TYLER DENNIS: Yeah, so that's another part of our analysis that we've been working on, you know, from a health and safety point of view, but even with the rules officials, for example. So if you think about how a player and a caddie travel throughout their daily competition routine, we've looked at -- we've mapped out and are still in the process of finalizing what that day looks like, because we know that golf can be played in a safe way that abides by social distancing guidelines, and we're seeing that in many spaces across the country, by the way, at the amateur level. But we can apply some of those same principles to golf on the PGA TOUR.

So anyway, from the driving range to the first tee, all kinds of little details, scorecards and bunker rakes and flagsticks and how we can make sure all that is done in a socially distanced way and make sure that things stay safe and clean and sanitized. So there's a big project going on to think about those details, and as we get closer, we'll certainly share with you guys those details of how that day would look.

But in general I think that the daily life of a PGA TOUR golfer and his caddie won't be tremendously different. We're just going to have to have some nuances to relate to social distancing and safe sanitation practices.

Not addressed and still not clear beyond safety and logistics: the optics of returning and using resources in markets that are still under strain, and what damage that could do to the PGA Tour’s reputation.

Pros And Cons Of Push Playing Pro Golf Again In June

Eric Patterson at The Score lays out a smart list of pros and cons to the PGA Tour pushing to be playing in June, making it likely the first major sport to return. He calls it an “aggressive approach” and says the Tour has a chance to provide a “template” for other leagues.

So as Friday’s likely rollout, as other components to President Trump’s vision for reopening the economy are presented, keep on the look out for signs the Tour has secured testing and presented other safety-first ideas to get sports started again.

On the pro side he writes:

A successful return to play would provide other professional leagues the opportunity to determine exactly what's required to run a sporting event during the coronavirus pandemic. Lessons learned from the Tour's efforts to efficiently test players, safely travel between states, and piece together broadcasts with reduced crews could help accelerate the returns of other sports.

Unfortunately, there is no financial perk in setting that table.

Another “pro” left out: never having to see those virile and virus-friendly bro hug/shakes that we won’t have to endure again. Ever.

The con side makes you wonder what the insurance costs will be to play events when portrayed this way:

The PGA Tour can't really be confined to a single city or state, a luxury other professional sports have the opportunity to explore. Not all players can afford to charter private flights, either; pros will be frequenting airports, staying in hotels, and eating at restaurants on the road.

Imagine the backlash if a player tests positive for COVID-19 after returning to action and the PGA Tour is forced to shut down yet again. This single con might outweigh all the pros combined.

PGA Tour To Unveil June Restart Schedule And Replace Weeks Of Other Tournaments Cancelled By COVID-19

I hope that headline was not too subtle.

Yes, postponed or cancelled events like the Olympic Games, U.S. Open and Open Championship will be replaced by PGA Tour events. It’s a little hard to picture, but we’ll go with it and watch how this is rolled out. Namely, will there be any suggestion of measures taken to ensure all can safely travel to and play in these events?

What precautions are being taken for everyone else besides players?

One big change from rumored concepts: the RBC Heritage Classic that would be played this week will now move to the end of June as the second stop after Colonial. Travel between states remains a huge concern, while the U.S. has a travel ban on visitors from many parts of the globe.

From Brian Wacker’s GolfDigest.com exclusive:

After the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Tour has an opening on its calendar for a “Potential PGA Tour Tournament” from June 18-21, when the U.S. Open was to be held before the USGA announced its postponement to September. Scheduling conversations at the Tour remain ongoing and fluid, but according to multiple sources, the RBC Heritage, originally scheduled to be played this week at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, is likely to fill that slot.

He goes on to present a schedule which, absent a massive outpouring of COVID-19 tests and data, along with signs that travel will return to normal, makes this an wildly optimistic. Also, several of the markets targeted just may not be ready for any kind of event by then given the still-unfolding and increasing loss of life.

On a lighter note, no word yet on the Wyndham Rewards points ramifications, though layoffs, salary cuts and other struggles for the hotel chain might influence that.

The schedule sent to players:

Here it is....the new PGA Tour schedule..

First event....June 8 🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/w4zPBgWSNZ

— McKellar Magazine (@McKellarJournal) April 15, 2020

"Old-style frugality pays off for PGA pro in uncertain times"

Andrew Both of Reuters checks in with Australian Cameron Percy, a PGA Tour journeyman who observes quite a bit about the current shutdown. Of particular note is Percy’s perspective “borne of a modest Australian upbringing and an acknowledgement of the precarious nature of his profession even at the best of times.”

From Both’s piece:

“Every pro I’ve ever known has had a year where they’ve played like crap,” the amiable 45-year-old said at the Country Club of Wakefield Plantation course where he lives with his wife and three boys adjacent to the second hole in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I’ve always put money aside in case (of loss of form or injury). I drive a $20,000 car (Nissan Altima), don’t have a boat. Mum and dad taught me to save.

“My accountant is always suggesting I put money in the stock market but most of it is in the bank. What I’ve found from this (pandemic-related economic contraction) is that people don’t save any money any more.”

Percy is currently appreciating time resting his injured wrist, the result of a freak fall. Adam Stanley with Percy’s story overcoming the injury to regain his card.

As America Shuts Down To Stave Off A Pandemic, The PGA Tour (Eventually) Joins The Cause

We’ve all tried to refute the charge: golf is not as elitist as you think.

No, really, it’s full of good people and a beautiful sport. With, sure, moments we’d like to forget.

So as questions remain about America’s infrastructure to handle the COVD-19 outbreak, the world of sports— minus the PGA Tour until 9:54 pm ET,—took painful, and perhaps even excessive steps to stop the spread. We can only hope to someday declare today’s actions an earnest but shrewd overreaction. Absent information to the contrary, however, every major needed to take action to prevent the spread.

So amidst everything taking place and health matters that should be the primary focus, it still must not be forgotten that the PGA Tour, in “full speed ahead” mode all week at its wonderful but overinflated home event, became the last major American sports league to pull the plug.

This, after waiting until 12:15 am earlier in the same day, to issue a statement about the status of Players Championship opening round, and only then to offer first round refunds if so desired.

There were no pleas for vulnerable seniors to stay home.

No pleas to those under-the-weather to stay away.

No, “we-got-this”, to volunteers who consume consummate news outlets and might be uncomfortable exposing themselves to large crowds.

Business-as-usual.

Market-by-market.

From Task Force to Business Unit-approved.

Yet as first round play got underway, major events continued to be cancelled, financial markets kept sending the same grim messages, and America began boarding up the windows.

Yet in marching ahead with the Players and upcoming schedule, Commissioner Monahan again teed up the vast acreage card during a midday press conference. The very same assertion that property size would keep people safe and shot down in Monday’s surreal CNBC appearance, then uttered Tuesday to reporters, and somehow schlepped out again in an answer that soured within hours.

Q. Similar to that but in layman's terms, can you explain what the difference is between the PGA TOUR which is continuing with events and, for example, the NBA, and I think I'm right in saying the MLS and other sporting bodies which have just shut down completely. Why do you feel golf is different?

JAY MONAHAN: Well, I think if you look at our venues, obviously we're an outdoor sport, we're not in a stadium, and here this week at TPC Sawgrass our players are making their way over 400 acres. And so we feel like we have, because of the nature of that and the fact that you've got 144 players here and over the course of a round our players generally do socially distance themselves, we felt like by taking this step to address the problem with our fans, we're in a position where we can continue to operate the events as of right now. And you look at there are other circumstances that led to the decisions that those leagues made that are unique to those leagues that we're not currently faced with. And that's something that we thought about and talked about, but ultimately when you break it down and you think about what's going to happen here over the course of the next three days and then going forward, we're comfortable having our players continue to play at this time.

In the meantime, players coming off the course or scheduled to go out, questioned the wisdom of going forward as other sports leagues ended major events. CT Pan pulled out of the tournament in the most significant show of wisdom. From overseas, Lee Westwood was sounding alarms as his colleagues were busy contesting the first round.

Oh, and players were subjected to random drug testing, in quite possibly the ultimate display of tone deafness as noted in this piece by Ryan Lavner.

As the round neared completion (one group did not finish), the PGA Tour stood firm with a 6:45 pm. operations update reaffirming the midday plans: players and volunteers only, with media outside the ropes. Next week’s Valspar event was on schedule. This, even though the LPGA Tour had postponed its next three events and the NCAA basketball tournament cancelled.

But the PGA Tour was set to play round two and beyond. Until someone read the room. Finally.

Truly unbelievable. What changed from the 6:45 operations update until now? https://t.co/APwknZNBP7

— Jay Coffin ⚰️ (@JayCoffinGC) March 13, 2020

We will never know what light bulb went off or what information the Business Unit obtained. Maybe someone pointed out to the PGA Tour how they would be the only major sports league besides a spectator-free NASCAR pushing forward while the rest of sport shut down to help contain the potentially civilization-altering virus.

Pausing here to let you reflect: the PGA Tour was going to forge ahead with The Players while others retreated in hopes of promoting quarantining and making the pandemic less awful.

But at 9:54 pm players were texted. The Players was cancelled, as were the next three events in Tampa, Austin and San Antonio. They had “no choice,” one player told Rex Hoggard.

It took a “no choice” situation to finally shut things down. No choice, as in, we-waited-to-long-to-be-proactive and we will look foolish now playing golf while the world addresses a pandemic.

The inability to sooner recognize the absurdity of proceeding, should serve as a wakeup call when the golf can get back to addressing First World problems. In the coming weeks and months, with tournament golf halted and the future so uncertain, there will be no better time for the sport to assess who represents the game best and which organization is most intuitive. And a rough few days in Ponte Vedra exposed an unenlightened PGA Tour not quite in harmony with the world at large.