PGA Tour to Resume with Charles Schwab Challenge After Coronavirus Hiatus
As part of preparations, Sanford Health lab technicians have set up travelling mobile testing units that deliver results in a matter of hours. Players will be tested prior to and immediately after their arrival in the tournament city, and once again to use certain areas of the golf course facility.
Fort Worth, Jun 10: Three months after being forced shut by the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGA Tour will hit the restart button when the world's top golfers tee off at the Charles Schwab Challenge on Thursday.
The Tour's 91-day hiatus since The Players Championship was cancelled -- the longest unscheduled break from competition since World War II -- will finally end when current FedExCup No. 1 Sungjae Im leads a stellar field, which includes the top-five players in the world and 16 of the top 20 at the Colonial Country Club.
"I think at this point you have a wide range of emotions. But the most important one, or the most prevalent one for me, is that I'm excited," PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said.
As part of preparations, Sanford Health lab technicians have set up travelling mobile testing units that deliver results in a matter of hours. Players will be tested prior to and immediately after their arrival in the tournament city, and once again to use certain areas of the golf course facility.
Monahan said they have "identified ways to keep players, caddies and all constituents separated from each other." "...we're not going to have spectators, we've got a pretty extensive sanitization protocol and we're going to keep that separation all the way through to the hotel and ultimately the charter flights that are going to move our players and caddies to and from events."
Talking about the mobile testing units, Monahan said: "To be able to have these mobile testing facilities and vans at our tournament this week at Colonial and every week going forward, to arrive and have that test turned around in two to four hours, and for us to be able to purchase all those supplies and provide all those resources, accomplishes both of those goals."
The Tour is confident that even if a player tests positive, proper measures are in place to maintain a safe atmosphere for others involved. "We feel like we've done everything we can to mitigate the possibility that a player, caddie or anybody in our small bubble test positive. But if they do, we'll come back to that original statement, which is we'll follow the guidelines of the experts," he said.
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