PGA Tour Outlines A Very Sensible Early Season Return Of Limited Fans*

Of course you know it’s *Scottsdale that wants 8000 a day and to continue its (indoor) corporate hospitality. A move which, combined with the uh, clientele, seems like a recipe for disaster. And there are the optics which are dicey in the best of times.

Their plans also seem bold after the Houston Open experiment was capped at a purported 2000 a day and did not exactly give the impression we’re quite ready as a society to gather in huge crowds. I mean, 2000 a day.

Otherwise, the plans for early season events are impressively conservative, restrained and in compliance with local officials, no doubt an arduous and painful process to work through.

Especially when there is the Waste Management Open still wanting to do its thing, albeit scaled down. Brian Wacker writes for GolfDgiest.com:

The tournament with the highest annual attendance on tour—in 2018 it had a record 719,179 fans for the week—will allow up to 8,000 fans per day next year, by far the most of any PGA Tour event to date. Scott Jenkins, who is chairing the tournament for the host organizers, The Thunderbirds, in 2021, told Golf Digest last month that the plan was to build a one-story structure to accommodate fans at the par-3 16th, which has in recent years had a three-story grandstand surrounding most of the hole.

We can only hope they build it in way that is well ventilated. spaced and limited, but it’s also a bit amazing they want to take the chance.