Report: Open Championship Contestants Face DQ For Protocol Violations
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The Telegraph’s James Corrigan obtained player requirements for the upcoming Open Championship calling for restrictions on public dining and how many on a “team” can stay together. Most stunning: vaccination appears to mean nothing and this is all juxtaposed against the United Kingdom okaying 32,000 fans a day on site. Most of those fans will be arriving via train.
Pete Cowen, the current guru to Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, spoke to Corrigan about the issues. raised.
“There are going to be 32,000 fans allowed in every day and they’re saying we can’t stay in anything other than the dedicated hotels — most of which are already sold out — because we’d be mixing with the public,” Cowen said. “And we can’t stay together, like we have on the PGA Tour for the last year. We have all been vaccinated and will have been tested before we are allowed in. This ‘bubble’ we have created between ourselves has produced no problems at all.
“It makes no sense at all when there will be 60,000 at Wembley, 140,000 at Silverstone (race track) and all those at Wimbledon on the weekend before — sitting next to each other. I suppose I should be grateful I am going at all, as initially the wording of the regs made me believe instructors would be banned.”
In a follow up report, Golfweek’s Tim Schmitt and Steve DiMeglio report that unnamed PGA Tour players have considered passing and are miffed at the rules.
“If someone on your plane tests positive on way to the British and is sitting anywhere close to you, you’re out no questions asked, no matter if you’re vaccinated. It’s aggravating that they deem the tournament safe enough for 32,000 fans a day to attend, but won’t let a player’s wife, children travel and watch the tournament, nor will they even let players visit a restaurant without threat of disqualification.”
The player “teams” can stay together in a maximum of four at a private rental. Any violation of the protocols, including a simple visit from someone not in the player’s sphere, faces “withdrawal from the championship.”
“They care more about the revenue of the fans buying beers than they do about the actual people participating in the tournament,” said the player who spoke with Golfweek. “Any fan can go to a grocery store or a restaurant and we can’t. Does that make sense? And I’m vaccinated. How does that make sense?”
For Quadrilateral subscribers, I wrote about the inconsistency of the UK’s plan and apparent blind eye turned toward the many successful championships run to date. And none of those attempted to welcome as many fans back as the UK is, with trains and a Delta variant added to the mix.
