- The PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament, scheduled for July 16-19 in Dublin, Ohio, had hoped to pave the way for spectators to return to golf events during the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK • The PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament, scheduled for July 16-19 in Dublin, Ohio, had hoped to pave the way for spectators to return to golf events during the coronavirus pandemic.
Fans will be barred from attending games when Major League Soccer restarts at the Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida, today and they will also not be present when the National Basketball Association resumes on July 30 at the same venue.
The Tour had hoped to provide a blueprint for how fans could safely attend other major US sports competitions amid the crisis.
However, the circuit and tournament organisers on Monday announced they were scrapping plans to allow as many as 8,000 fans per day at Memorial, which had been earmarked as the first US-based sports event to welcome a crowd.
The rise in Covid-19 cases nationwide, including in Ohio, were the primary factors in the decision not to have a gallery.
“While we embraced the opportunity to be the first Tour event to welcome the return of on-site fans – and be a part of our nation’s collective re-emergence from the Covid-19 crisis – we recognise the current increase in positive Covid-19 cases across the country, and our ultimate responsibility,” Dan Sullivan, Memorial’s executive director, said in a statement.
Jay Monahan, the Tour commissioner, referred to “the broader challenges communities are facing” and said the focus was now on “the health and safety of all involved”..
Since the restart on June 11, following a three-month coronavirus-enforced break, the Tour has held four events behind closed doors.
In recent weeks, though, several Tour players and their caddies have tested positive for the virus, which has caused a handful of elite golfers to withdraw from tournaments.
The Memorial, hosted since the mid-1970s by Jack Nicklaus, is one of the Tour’s blue-riband events and always boasts a strong field.
Muirfield Village is one of Tiger Woods’ favourite courses – he won there five times – and the 15-time Major champion, who has not played on the Tour since February, is expected to make his return at Memorial.
Event organisers had the approval of state and local officials for 9,000 people, or about 25 per cent of the ground’s overall capacity, according to Golf Magazine.
Grandstands and bleachers were not constructed, but fans, under specific social distancing guidelines, would have been allowed to watch the competition from various viewing sites on the grounds.
Fans were to be allowed in each day for the Memorial Tournamet, until the decision to play behind closed doors.
But, with the pandemic yet to be brought under control in the US since its outset in March – CNN yesterday reported infection rates had gone up in 32 states compared to last week – it appears unlikely there will be fans for the remainder of this golfing season.
More than 20 other Tour events are scheduled this year and none currently expects to host spectators on-site.
That includes the PGA Championship, the first Major of the year, which will be held in San Francisco from Aug 6-9.
Monahan would only say on Monday that the Tour would welcome fans “when the time is right”.
