PGA Tour Commissioner: COVID-19 Vaccine A "Choice" With "Pros And Cons Associated With It"

Note to self: put a hold on those posts about how the PGA Tour could play a vital role in marketing the merits of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, or how they could first welcome back fans and health care workers who have been vaccinated as a way to boldly, proudly and wisely reintroduce eventual normalcy to PGA Tour events.

Only select media get the conference call invites these days—let’s call it a bespoke approach—so I’m not privy to the transcript or tone of PGA Tour Jay Monahan’s COVID-19 vaccine remarks and how he says this scientific marvel’s possible impact on the business of pro golf.

Bob Harig’s ESPN.com account of Monahan’s remarks did not exactly give the vaccine an enthusiastic endorsement even as health care workers and medical professionals ecstatically take the Pfizer product in hopes of reducing spread and saving lives.

His comments came just hours before Moderna’s vaccine received a 20-0 approval vote, seemingly more positive news given another influx of vaccine supply into the marketplace.

"I think vaccination is a choice, and I would apply the same logic and the same amount of care to that subject as we have to every other subject, and that is to try and do our best to educate our members on vaccination and the pros and cons associated with it,'' Monahan said during a conference call with reporters. "But ultimately it's an individual decision.''

I could think of 15 things an $8 million-a-year executive, who is eager to get his business back to normal, might have said instead. But hey, he speaks for his players and we have to assume this is the pulse of the PGA Tour.

And for those wondering, Harig most certainly was not cherry picking as the “choice” remarks were led with in several other stories by other writers. (Here, here, and here.)

Besides Thursday’s exciting and expected Moderna approval news, the Monahan remarks came the same day that vaccinations will be taken by Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and next week, President-elect Joe Biden.

Monahan was also quoted sounding skeptical. While he was not mirroring the sad-but-inevitable beginning of Fox News conspiratorial takes on the vaccines and anti-vaccine information laundering campaigns, he clearly has no intention of mandating vaccines or using the PGA Tour to advocate for them:

"As exciting as it is, I think there's still an awful lot that we need to learn and we need to know. But I would say at this point we're not going to be in a position where we're mandating vaccination, and that's the way we're looking at it at this point in time.

Again, it’s suprirsing to read that a collection of pro golfers are essentially casting doubt on the work of scientists, doctors, major pharmaceuticals and the FDA.

Or was he?

One story by Rex Hoggard struck a different chord, with Monahan quoted in a tone I would have expected of someone hoping to see PGA Tour golf return to a form of normalcy:

“It really is hard to predict at this point what that will be. We're very encouraged by the news around the vaccine and vaccine distribution and paying very close attention to what that can mean as we go into calendar year 2021,” Monahan said. “I think you'll just see a slow and steady increase in the number of fans that we have on-site, but again, we won't be the sole arbiter in that. Any steps that we take we'll be doing in concert with our partners in the local communities where we play.”

Obviously a vast majority of the world could care less what the PGA Tour decides to do with the vaccine matter given far more important matters in front of us. But given that they view the vaccine as a “choice” with cons, I do wonder if the Tour realizes many may simply “choose” not to support or attend events if the stance is one of vaccine skepticism?

There are many more layers to this story and it is certainly a complicated decision for many to take any kind of vaccine, but we also require them in plenty of circumstances. I can’t entirely gauge Monahan’s tone here either. But given the opportunity to show a leadership role for something so vital to public safety and being taken by some of the nation’s leaders, the initial notes of skepticism came off as peculiar when juxtaposed against the day’s largely positive vaccine news.