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DUBLIN, OHIO | The question of when spectators will be allowed to return to PGA Tour events remains open-ended.
The tour has decided there will be neither spectators nor pro-ams through the completion of the FedEx Cup season, which culminates Sept. 7 at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, the first event of the 2020-21 wrap-around season – the Safeway Open in mid-September – will be played in Napa, California, without fans or a pro-am.
It’s possible the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, scheduled Sept. 17-20, will allow fans on site though that decision is up to the USGA and state government officials.
“I know that the USGA continues to work with the state of New York and is making plans to return fans,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said last week at the Memorial Tournament. “If I had to guess, that would be the first week that we would do so.
“We’re spending a lot of time in each of the subsequent tournaments or each of the tournaments in the fall working on a number of different ways to stage the event, which includes full capacity, partial capacity, and obviously the way that we're operating now, which is no spectators. And that will be largely dependent on what we hear from the communities where we play.”
The goal, Monahan said, is to be able to allow spectators at some fall events. If possible, Monahan said the tour hopes to make decisions about spectator attendance in mid-August.
Monahan said the tour has administered more than 6,000 COVID-19 tests on players and caddies on both the PGA and Korn Ferry tours with 21 total positive tests, a percentage of approximately 0.003.
As other professional sports move toward a resumption of play, Monahan said he has had conversations with leaders about how the PGA Tour has managed its return to competition. Monahan said he has spoken with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, among others.
“I can speak to the lessons that we’ve learned,” Monahan said. “I’m trying to convey those to anybody who’s about to face them and anybody who’s about to return, whether it’s another professional sport league or a business itself.
“I think that we’re all different. Like the reality is what we’re doing here, some of it applies to what they’re doing but not all of it. They’re all going about it in a different way based on the advice that they’re getting.”
Ron Green Jr.