Sport
the times | Saturday July 18 2020 2GS 15
If golf is a game of rhythm Rory McIl-
roy started his second round at the
Memorial Tournament like a disjointed
drum solo as he hit water, trees and
trouble. By the close he had salvaged
the sliver of a chance, while Tiger
Woods was left to beat himself up after
flirting with the cut at a tournament he
has won five times. They had it easy
compared with Bryson DeChambeau.
The talk of the restart took an epic
ten on the par-five 15th at Muirfield
Village. This involved finding the water,
clearing a fence, three drops and three
penalties. The shot-tracker looked like
a drunken Etch A Sketch. He left early.
At the happier end of the field Tony
Finau and Ryan Palmer set the pace at
as the world No 1 if he wins and McIlroy
is third or worse. That looks feasible.
The Spaniard’s short game served him
well and if he could have frozen things
after 11 holes, when he temporarily took
the outright lead, he would have
reached the top for the first time.
Woods was heading the other way.
He chipped into a bunker on the 1st, his
10th hole, and slumped to a double bo-
gey. On the next his tee shot veered
dangerously right. Then he was literally
the wrong side of the tracks on his 14th
when his tee shot went hopelessly off
beam. McIlroy produced his best shot
of the day on the same hole.
He pulled out his five wood and
delivered it to ten feet from all of 257
yards. It is the sort of moment that is
always in his locker. Unfortunately, for
too long yesterday, neither he nor
Woods could find their keys.Golf
Rick Broadbent
measures in place, from October 2020.
“The events have been carefully se-
lected to represent a range of sports and
indoor and outdoor spectator environ-
ments. There are also likely to be fur-
ther pilot events for other sports, in or-
der to build up to and prepare for the
full, socially distanced return of sport-
ing events from October 1, 2020.”
Nigel Huddleston, a minister for the
DfDCMS, said: “Although it will
remain some time before venues are
full to capacity, this is a major step in the
right direction for the resumption of
live spectator sport across the country.”
Surrey’s plan for the Oval will involveplayers and staff being at the Pavilion
End and spectators occupying the
Vauxhall End. The club are likely to
hold a ballot to allocate tickets for
members because of expected high
demand.
The RFU, which says it is facing a
£107 million fall in income, believes
with one-metre social distancing it can
accommodate 40,000 fans at the
82,000-seat Twickenham Stadium — 8
per cent of the governing body’s
revenue comes from hosting
international games there.
There are plans for a new tourna-
ment involving the Six Nations plus Fijiand Japan to replace the autumn inter-
nationals, and talks are continuing
about finishing last season’s Six
Nations.
José Mourinho, the Tottenham
Hotspur head coach, welcomed the
government’s announcement, saying:
“It’s great news, everybody that loves
football wants football for all. Us, living
from football, making our salaries from
football.
“Between the economic side and the
passion side, we’d be happy to see people
back in stadiums. If it’s impossible to
have the full stadiums, at least some
people would be a good start.”The three events that
will welcome fans back
MIKE HEWITT/GETTY IMAGES; JORDAN MANSFIELD/GETTY IMAGES FOR SURREY CCCSurrey v Middlesex
World Snooker
ChampionshipThe championship match
will be played at the OvalGlorious Goodwood
The Festival will host spectators on August 1The Crucible will host the
tournament from July 31McIlroy and Woods lose way as Rahm advances on No 1 spot
nine under par, one ahead of Jon Rahm,
with McIlroy’s up-and-down par round
leaving him seven adrift and not quite
sunk. Woods needed two late birdies
merely to finish at three over par after a
desultory round of 76. Somehow he
lives to fight on.
His day was in sharp contrast to that
of Danny Willett who leapt up the lead-
erboard with eight birdies. Even when
he found the water on the last, he still
holed a 30ft putt to escape with a bogey.
Two years ago the 2016 Masters cham-
pion had fallen beyond the world’s top- Now he is inside the top 40 and this
was proof of a talent that has been dor-
mant for too long. Another English-
man, Matt Fitzpatrick, also went round
in 66 to be six off the lead.
Willett knows lots about back trouble
and so will have sympathised with the
pain evident on Woods’ face yesterday.
Fans will return to sports events from
October 1 with a target of stadiums
being up to 50 per cent full if test events
that start next week in county cricket,
racing and snooker prove successful.
If social distancing is lifted in
November then sports venues will be
able to return to full capacity for the
first time since the coronavirus
pandemic forced a shutdown in March.
The announcement by the govern-
ment means that the first three weeks
of the next Premier League football
season, which is expected to start on
September 12, will have to be behind
closed doors.
The first pilot events will be a Surrey
v Middlesex cricket match on July 26
and 27 at the Oval, Glorious Goodwood
racing on August 1, and snooker’s World
Championship on July 31 at The
Crucible in Sheffield.
The announcement should provide
enough encouragement for the RFU to
press ahead with plans to be involved in
an eight-nation tournament in the
autumn. The FA will plan for fans to be
back for England’s friendly against
Wales on October 8 and has offered the
Community Shield, pencilled in for late
August, as a test event at Wembley.
The Racecourse Association said
that the Goodwood festival test
would allow up to 5,000 spectators
into the venue, while Surrey have
plans for up to 6,000 at the Oval,
which has a capacity of 25,000.
Boris Johnson
said: “From Octo-
ber, we intend to
bring back audiences
in stadia.”
The prime minister al-
so announced a review of
social distancing to take place in
November, which will be the
decisive factor in the return to
full venues.
The announcement will be
something of a blow for
Test events to
target October
return for fans
sports that had hoped that at least some
supporters would be allowed in earlier,
and county cricket chiefs will put for-
ward proposals to the government al-
lowing a reduced number of spectators
during September when the T20 Blast
competition is taking place — at least
for the championship final which is due
to be played between September 27 and
October 1.
All sports venues will have to
produce a crowd management plan,
and it is thought that the percentage of
the stadium that can be used will
depend on whether social distancing
measures remain at one metre.
Other requirements include:
6 Controlled entry and exit of specta-
tors (including staggered entry times),
and one-way systems inside a venue
6 A code of behaviour for fans not to
attend if they have been exposed to
someone with Covid-19, but facemasks
will not be required
6 Bookings controlled so that social
distancing is observed in seats, and a
pre-agreed “safe capacity” set with the
Sports Grounds Safety Authority
6 Fans encouraged to avoid public
transport where possible, but if not
then services increased. Parking spa-
ces, bicycle and walking routes promot-
ed where possible
6 Additional hygiene facilities, such as
hand-washing stations
6 Screens or barriers at catering
and retail outlets, and fans told to
maintain social distancing on con-
courses.
Clubs and venues will
have to come up with a
plan to decide who
should attend if the num-
ber of season-ticket
holders exceeds the
space available.
A statement from the
Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport
(DfDCMS) said: “The govern-
ment has announced that a
small number of sporting
events will be used to pilot the
safe return of spectators
through late July and early
August — with a view to re-
open competition venues for
sports fans, with social distancingf
CMartyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
Harry Kane will hope to
see England fans on
October 8 at Wembley
“I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like
and couldn’t quite turn back. It was a bit
of a struggle,” Woods said. “It
started in the warm-up and
wasn’t quite as good as I’d
like.”
Mitigation comes from this
being Woods’ first competi-
tive outing since February,
but it was grisly fare for even
the most mothballed. He
missed putts from three, four and
five feet and the numbers only
added up to a grimace and a
mood as blue as the shirt. “I don’t
have the same stamina as I used
to have, that’s for sure,” he said.
“You try to suck it up the best you
can and get through it. Ageing isnot fun. Early on in my career I thought
it was fantastic because I was getting
better and better. Now I’m just trying to
hold on.”
Meanwhile, McIlroy had said he was
unconcerned by the
threat posed to his
world No 1 status by
others in Ohio and he
seemed intent on proving
that. He was four off the lead
at the start and dropped three
shots on his first two holes. The
frustration was palpable. Before
the lockdown he was the model of
consistency with seven successive
top-five finishes. Now he could not
find a swing. He dug in, though, and
a brilliant eagle on his 14th appeared
to provide some momentum. Then
he fluffed a four-foot putt on the last.
Rahm, 25, will dethrone McIlroyWoods battled hard to make
the cut at Muirfield Village