"The PGA Tour pro who saw COVID-19 coming"
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COVID-19 has been awful, unpredictable and it remains hard to fault most leaders for decisions they made with so many unknowns.
So it’s a bit much though not unexpected to see the PGA Tour trying to weave a fresh narrative related to last year’s Players Championship cancellation.
Two long features with identical details went live today (here and here) carving out the executive decision-making as historic, if slightly caught off-guard by last year’s cancellations in other arenas. Golf was the last major sport to shut down and did so reluctantly.
The Tour tried to forge ahead with a disastrous TV deal rollout and the Players even though warning signs of potential trouble were in place for weeks.
Lee Westwood, who stayed in England, could see the PGA Tour was moving slow to grasp reality. Lucas Glover lamented the lack of a proactive approach. And C.T. Pan was also not surprised by the direction of the virus and withdrew on Players eve (the only player not compensated for his time as a result).
GolfDigest.com’s Dave Shedloski caught up with Pan about his foresight, which looks downright prophetic compared to that of executives who still allowed a concert and first round to go on with fans, then told fans they could not come for round two before eventually cancelling the tournament.
Though it pained him to do so—truly, because the Players Championship is one of his favorite events—Pan withdrew that morning from the tour’s flagship tournament after it became obvious the strange new virus that he had heard about for months not only had gained a foothold in America but now was beginning to rage across the country. The coronavirus pandemic was taking hold.
“Yes, things happened fast between Arnold Palmer and Players, but to us, given what we had heard, we didn’t think things moved fast enough overall,” he said hesitantly, not wanting to offend or be critical of anyone. “Honestly, it’s hard to track the original time, but it seemed to have started back in November [2019] in China. It took only a few months to really spread with the European countries hit first. No one was really ready for it anywhere. The WHO [World Health Organization] was not telling us much. All I’m trying to say is that by last year at API it was already here.”
