New York Post, Friday, March 13, 2020

nypost.com

LAST LOOK:RickieFowler

tees off along thewater on

No. 18 in front of a packed

hillside of fans. The PGA

Tour initially planned to

continue the tournament

— without fans — but

called it off around 9:45 on

Thursday night. EPA

P

ONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.

— The PGA Tour was play-

ing a dangerousgame.

Thankfully, after hoursof head

scratchingbased on a decision

that had potentialto blow up in its

face, the Tour cameto its senses.

BeginningWednesday night,

oneby one,every major sports

league and organization had been

canceling and suspending opera-

tions with the global threatof

coronavirus looming.

Firs t, the NBA suspended its

season until further notice on

Wednesday night. OnThursday,

the NHL and MLS did thesame.

Then the NCAATournamentwas

canceledcompletely. Andfinally,

Major League Baseball canceled

the rest of spring training and

postponed the startof the regular

season.

The PGA Tour, meanwhile,

carried on its merryway, playing

Thursday’s openinground of The

Players Championship, the orga-

nization’s flagshiptournament, in

frontof any fan who had a ticket

to get in at TPCSawgrass.

It was not agood look.

Nor was PGA Tour commis-

sionerJay Monahan, in a noon

pressconference Thursday,

announcing thatThe Players

would play on without spectators

and so,too, would the next three

tournaments — nextweek’s Val-

spar inTampa, theWGC Match

Play inAustin,Texas, and the

ValeroTexas Open inSan Anto-

nio.

Who knows what finallygot to

Monahanover dinner, but shortly

before10:30 p.m. Thursday, the

PGA Tour reversedfield and

announced that itwas canceling

the rest of The Players and the

threetournamentsfollowing it.

Now thegolf ball rests on the

first tee of Augusta National,

which was curiouslyradio silent

on Thursdaywhile therest of the

sportsworl d crumbled before our

disbelievingeyes.

Mastersweek begins April 8

and it’s anyone’s guess whether it

will go on — with or without its

“patrons’’ ... orgo on at all.

Asked after hisround Thursday

whether he’d given any thoughtto

The Masters,Rory McIlroy said,

“Yeah, I have a little bit. I don’t see

how they can let spectators in if

they doplay it at this point.’’

That was the originaltack tak-

en by Monahan in the afternoon.

And, given theblack-and-white

decisions the other leagues and

organizations made, that never

felt like enoughconsidering the

uneasy, if frightening, timeswe

live in at the moment.

Godforbid anyone involved

contracted the virusat Sawgrass

this week as aresult of the tour-

namentplaying on the next three

days.

What if oneof the players was

stricken as aresult of the tourna-

mentgoing on?That would bea

stain the powers of Ponte Vedra

would never be ableto erase.Nev-

er mind that,what about a poten-

tial lawsuit theTour mightface if

that happened?

I wantedThe Players Champi-

onshipto be played. I want The

Masters and allof the tourna-

mentsto be played. I’m agolf

junkie. I love playing thegame

recreationally andcovering it pro-

fessionally.

These are nervous timesfor

everyone.We’ve all become

germophobeseven ifwe never

thought about such things before.

Despite never having been ager-

mophobe, Ifoundmyself stop-

pingat two pharmacies onmy

way to the golf courseThurs-

day morningto buy disinfectant

wipes and handsanitizer onlyto

find the shelves empty.

Beforehe arrived for his 7:5 1

a.m.tee timefor the opening

round,Lucas Glover teed off on

the PGA Tour onTwitter.

The 40-year-old with three

career PGA Tour victories,

including the2009 U.S. Openat

Bethpage Black,tweeted: “Rest

of sports and media:why don’t

they drugtest the @PGATOUR,

Tour: okay, we better start doing

that too. Rest of sports and media:

thinkwe better stop and stay

awayfrom crowds. Tour: hold our

beers it’s @THEPLAYERSChamp

week!!!’’

Later in the morning, C.T. Pan

posted a statement onTwitter

about withdrawing fromThe

Players before his scheduled 2:0 2

p.m. tee time, citing the “riskof

exposureto the Coronavirus.’’

A bigpart of Monahan’s ini-

tial reasoningfor not canceling

the tournament altogetherwas

becausegolf is an outdoor sport.

“We’re comfortable having our

players continueto play at this

time,’’ he said.

Apparently, thatcomfort level

evaporated inside thePGA Tour

offices somewhere between lunch

and dinner time.

MaybeMonahan listenedto

the powerful comments LPGA

Tour commissioner Michael

Whan delivered to the Golf

Channel onThursday night

when speaking about cancel-

ing the next threeevents on the

women’s calendar, includinga

major championship.

Whansaid he thought maybe

the LPGAcould play the next

two events, butadded, “Can I live

with it if I’m wrong? If I’m wrong,

I regret that therest of my life. If

this is a decision that’s wrong the

otherway, [that]we should have

played, I feel terrible about it, but

I can live with that.This is a deci-

sion that I may not like but I don’t

think it’s one I’llregret.’’

By night’s endThursday, even

if it took him a littletoo longto

come to the rightconclusion,

Monahan left himself with no

regrets.

By MARK CANNIZZARO

PONTE VEDRA

BEACH, Fla. —Even with

the uneasy specter of

thecoronavirus spread-

ing globally andeven in

the wake of every major

sporting league and orga-

nization suspending oper-

ations,The Players Cham-

pionship hadplans to carry

on — withplayers but no

spectators after fans were

on handfor Thursday’s

first round — through its

scheduledfour rounds.

PGA Tour commissioner

Jay Monahan announced

on Thurs-

day that

The Play-

ers aswell

as the

next threetournaments

before the Masters (Val-

spar,WGC Match Play and

ValeroTexas Open)would

be played as schedule, but

without any spectators

allowed onto thegrounds.

That was to begin with

Friday’s secondroundof

The Players Championship

at TPCSawgrass.

Now that will not hap-

pen.

In a stunning rever-

sal of plan, thePGA Tour

announcedThursday night,

nearly 10 hours after it said

it would play on, that it is

canceling therest of The

Players this week aswell as

the next threetournaments.

Players were notified

via text at about 9:50p.m.

Thursday that thetour-

nament had been can-

celed becauseof the “rap-

idly changing situation”

regarding COVID-19. In a

follow-up text, theTour

said the next threeevents

were also canceled.

So, the

nexttour-

nament on

the sched-

ule isThe

Masters,which is sched-

uledto begin April9. No

one fromAugusta National

hascommented publicly

about the status of the

year’s first major champi-

onship.

“We have pledged from

the startto be responsible,

thoughtful and transparent

with our decision process,”

the Tour said in a state-

ment. “We dideverything

possibleto crea te a safe

environmentfor ourplay-

ers in orderto continue the

event through theweek-

end, andwe were endeav-

oringto give ourfans a

much-neededrespite from

the current climate. Butat

this point — and as the sit-

uationcontinuesto rapidly

change — the right thingto

do for ourplayers and our

fans isto pause.”

This was a significant

change inplan consid-

ering that,at 6:45p.m.,

the Tour hadreleaseda

detailed operationsplan

for the next threerounds,

including mediaavailabil-

ity, logistics duringplay,

player-support services,

broadcast notes andpark-

ing plans.

On Wednesday, the NBA

suspended its season. As

Thursday unfolded, the

NHL and MLSfollowed

suit. Then the NCAA

Tournament,which was

scheduledto begin next

week, canceled the entire

eventfor thefirst time

in its history. Andfinally,

Major League Baseball

canceled therest of spring

training and postponed the

startof the regular season.

This clearly hadto put

pressure on thePGA Tour,

which was the only major

sports organization carry-

ing on with its schedule.

“I think it’s naturalto feel

pressureto do what oth-

ers have done,’’ Monahan

said earlier in the day. “I

thinkyou have to lookat

what’s uniqueto your sport

relati ve to what others have

done, and I think our sport

is unique,particularly given

the venueswhere we host

our tournaments.’’

Monahan, in his after-

noon pressconference,

said he’d spoken with

PresidentTrump and Flor-

ida Gov. Ron DeSantis and

consulted them.

“Ourteam is in con-

stantcommunication with

local health authorities in

each market in which our

tournaments areplayed,

andwe are tracking and

monitoring the health

information providedby

the CDC and theWorld

Health Organization in

additionto the travel advi-

sories providedby the U.S.

State Department,’’Mona-

han said. “Both the White

House and the Governor’s

office have been and are

supportive of the precau-

tionary measureswe have

taken to this point.It goes

withoutsaying that this

is an incredibly fluid and

dynamic situation.

“At this point in time

PGA Tour events across

all tours will currently

proceed as scheduled but

will do so withoutfans,’’

Monahanwent on. “This

policy startsat The Play-

ers Championship [Friday]

andcontinues through

theValeroTexas Open.

It’s importantto note that

could change.’’

It changedratherrapidly.

“This is a pretty serious

thing thatwe needto do all

we can to make sure that

people don’t lose lives over

it thatwe can prevent,’’

Phil Mickelsonsaid.

“This makes profession-

al sports insignificant,’’

GraemeMcDowell said.

“There are bigger thingsat

stake here.’’

[email protected]

SWING SHIFT

PGA reverses course and wipes out

Players Championship, next 3 events

After Tour comes to senses and follows the crowd, focus turns to the Masters

Mark Cannizzaro

CORONAVIRUS

IN GOLF

THENAGAIN...PGA Tour commissioner Jay

Monahan held a press conference at noon Thursday,

stating theTour’s intentions to continue the Players

Championship, but without fans the rest of theway.

Thursday night, theTour called it off. EPA