Fort Worth Mayor Has No Reservations About Colonial Return; PGA Tour Reportedly Plans To Use Chartered Flights Between Events

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig interviewed Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price, who has been working closely with the PGA Tour on plans to present the rescheduled Charles Schwab Challenge June 11-14. The mayor says she has no reservations about moving forward with the event and addressed the primary hurdle presented by Commissioner Jay Monahan: testing.

Price said that as of now, widespread testing is not available in Fort Worth, which the PGA Tour has said on a few occasions would be one of their criteria for returning at any of the events it plans to stage. But Price said she expected that to change "in about 10 days.''

"It has just been for people who show virus symptoms, but we have moved beyond that,'' Price said. "Pretty soon anyone will be able to get them, and that is what we are striving for. We're a town of 900,000 people, so it's going to be difficult for any city to test every one of their residents. But the testing is going to be much more robust.''

Complicating matters in the area: neighboring Dallas County saw a record-tying number of cases in its Monday report and the area also expects to lose federally funded testing capable of handling 1000 people per day even as numbers are going up.

Also, the current CDC guidelines on testing priorities fails to list professional golf or even anyone asymptomatic.

One question often asked about PGA Tour’s June return: air travel. A Golfweek report from Todd Kelly quotes Kevin Streelman, who said the plan is to use a chartered event between tournaments. I’m not sure how that affects the elite players who use private jets but it would seem to improve the chances of players not spreading the COVID-19 virus to air travelers while moving from city to city.

“There will probably be four, five, six of us who will split a plane to get to Colonial,” Streelman said. “The Tour has chartered planes, like big ones, for all the players and caddies in between events, trying to keep our bubble nice and tight.”

Oh it was a tight bubble already. But is anyone really wanting to be in a tight bubble of any kind just yet? Particularly one encased in hard surfaces with a robust air flow system? We’ll find out soon.

Bittersweet Monday At Harding Park On What Would Have Been PGA Championship Week

Will Gray talks to Harding Park GM Tom Smith on what would have been PGA Championship Monday for the San Francisco muni turned TPC.

Play has been robust at the course but thoughts are turning to a possible hosting in August.

Like with many PGA Tour events slated for later this year, there are still two distinct possibilities in terms of tournament operations: one that calls for the event to be played in front of at least some fans, and one that would include no fans at all. While Smith still holds out hope for fans to be able to experience a “traditional PGA Championship” in what would be the first PGA played on the West Coast since 1998, he admitted that course officials will be reacting to – and not making – the decision to allow fans.

“I think that’s really the unknown at this point,” Smith said. “We’re working scenarios right now for when it’s safe, when it’s responsible to do so, and of course under the guidance of the public health officials here, we will resume the build with whatever we are presented in terms of fan scenarios for August. Right now everything is in a holding pattern.”

The with-fans possibility appears all but dead and there is, sadly, a third-and-increasingly likely scenario: no PGA at all. Bay Area counties, which were the earliest in the country to order stay-at-home measures, are still “nowhere near” meeting reopening criteria as of Monday.

With Major League Baseball rolling out a proposed schedule keeping teams closer to home and playing without fans, Governor Gavin Newsom reiterated that much will need to happen even for the California teams to play in their stadiums.

From Jeff Passan’s ESPN.com story:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a media conference Monday that he had spoken to the commissioner as well. "He said, 'We won't do anything that's not consistent with state guidelines,'" Newsom said. "We certainly look forward to Major League Baseball and all sports resuming, but again, the question is when. And that will be determined on the basis of public health and public safety and the spread of this virus."

In contrast to baseball, the PGA Championship would be attempting to bring players from all over the world 15 weeks from now.

Golf Values Reset: Rekindling The Early Days Of "Play It As It Lies"

With new rules and regulations during the COVID-19, golfers are flocking to courses and based on social media, enjoying their golf more than ever. Even with all sorts of safety precautions stripping away elements thought essential to enjoyment of the game, it turns out the mere privilege of being outside, getting exercise and hitting the ball has brought priorities into focus.

Play it as it lies has been under fire some time. Golfers get to touch their ball too much, particularly on the greens. (Though magically, for a short, dark period in the early 2000s would mysteriously leave it down to provide a backstop for competitors even when playing for millions of dollars. Go figure.)

There are also drops, excuses to touch the ball to gauge how it lies or if it’s scuffed too much. And then there is all of that dabbing, touching, extricating and other surgery allowed in the immediate surrounds of the ball. The effect puts a few dents in play it as it lies.

Worse, massive amounts of capital and man hours are expended annually to prevent golfers from having to find a lie that might set in motion a series of ” tragic” events like sixes and sevens. Land has been rearranged to flatten stances, bunker floors have been remodeled to allow for an ideal stance. Even in hazards, where technically no one should not be entitled to any coddling, golfers demand perfection and today’s talented superintendents deliver.

But with the COVID-19 precautions such as unraked bunkers and flagsticks in holes, golfers are reporting normal eastern sunrises and western sunsets despite these pandemic-related “concessions”. Many are enjoying the stripped-down game even more.

So while we’re hiding rakes and treating flagsticks like they are radioactive, why not pretend golf balls are potential virus carriers and return to the days of leaving them down unless absolutely necessary. The backstoppers should be thrilled. The realization that a bad lie now and then is a small price to pay for the privilege of playing in these times of quarantining. We might even be able to shed a few ounces of bloated entitlement bred by exposure to mostly pristine playing opportunities?

While doing some research I popped open Scotland’s Gift-Golf and C.B. Macdonald explained in Chapter I (Introduction to St Andrews) how the early golf he played there as a young visitor was centered around a “code of honor” where “the player must play the ball as it lay.” He ended the first chapter with this longing for American golf to capture the essence of the primal game that hooked him:

So strong was the influence of my associations with St. Andrews that for many years touching the ball in play without penalty was anathema to me, a kind of sacrilegious profanity. The impression of the true old game of golf is indescribable. It was like the dawn or the twilight of a brilliant day. It can only be felt. The charm, the fascination of it all, cannot be conveyed in words.

Would that I could hand on unimpaired the great game as it was my good fortune to know it. The iconoclast and the Bolshevik, knowing nothing of golfing law or golfing sin, may mar its spirit, but I have faith in its supremacy.

Based on the early reactions I’ve heard about unraked bunkers and slower, less refined maintenance, the spirit, the “charm” and “the fascination of it all” is being “felt” again. Maybe with less touching of the ball, more acceptance of playing it as you found it, and scorecards taking on a little less importance, perhaps we can see a return of the primal St Andrews sensations that so enamored Macdonald.

England Can Resume Golf With Household Members, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland Cannot

Elliott Heath reports on the UK Prime Minister’s lifting of some restrictions on recreation, with only England allowing golfers to return as long as they are playing with a household member. The plan begins Wednesday and apparently caught many by surprise.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quote in Heath’s Golf Monthly report is going to confuse golfers.

“From this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

“You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household.”

Governments continue to try ease restrictions and golf seems to be caught in the middle, as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will not be part of this “unlimited exercise” restriction lift due to continued lockdown orders.

The R&A’s statement and guidelines page, included this:

As a sport we must work together to resume play responsibly as and when the relevant Government determines it is safe to do so. We must ensure that the safety and well being of everyone involved from golfers, to club staff and greenkeepers is maintained at all times. Golf clubs and golfers have observed the lockdown very well and must keep it up and act responsibly as play resumes.

Report: PGA Tour "On Track" For June 11 Restart

GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard, citing a memo to players saying the PGA Tour is “on track” for a June 11-14 restart week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, says we can expect to learn details this week about how it will all work.

He reports that the “Health and Safety” plan will center around multiple tests and include things like no locker room, spacing-minded setup of operations and even making caddies optional. Though as he noted in the Golf Central report below, that plan still seems to be a bone of contention. Hoggard also cites one member of the players advisory council as saying he is "95% sure” the event will go forward.

PGA Tour Commissioner has said testing across the country needs to be “widespread” to not take away from the “critical need” currently still experienced.

As UFC dealt with positive tests this week, the LA Times’s Arash Markazi notes that dealing with the inevitable positive tests results opens up even more questions for sports leagues. In golf, the independent contractor status of players adds other wrinkles, particularly if the player is asymptomatic but is also precluded from playing in a battle to retain tour status.

Ultimately, those are minor concerns in the grand scheme of our current COVID-19 world.

Increasingly, I sense the greatest fear with the PGA Tour’s fan-free return is not with a virus spread or lack of safety planning, but instead, optics. Given models showing huge daily death tolls and continued strain on front line response efforts in a variety of locations, what will it looks like if players competing, perhaps whining about flagsticks or bunker lies, or blaming bad room service for their play?

How those optics are gauged is beyond my pay grade and may not be something that can be tracked. But given all other golf organizations either suspending or cancelling events well beyond mid-June, the risk to both the Tour and the sport’s reputation is great if the return is seen as too abrupt.

To put it another way, years of goodwill earned with billions raised for charity and professional golfers seen as a certain kind of model citizen, could be put at risk. And for what? To get the FedExCup chase restarted and preserve the wraparound schedule?

Today, May 10th, the desire to play in mid-June seems like a big gamble with a low long-term reward. A month from now? Maybe not. After more people see golf courses as very safe places to be or the markets hosting events are deemed relatively safe, the risk may seem less dangerous.

Anyway, the full Golf Central segment:

“Golf has never felt so much like a freedom.”

Thanks to reader John for this from Bill Pennington NY Times piece on what golf courses are experiencing now that play has been reopened in all fifty states.

This:

There are more than 16,000 golf courses in America and only a quarter are private clubs. With schools padlocked, fitness centers closed and many parks and playgrounds off limits, golf — with social distancing restrictions — has become a rare outdoor respite that combines exercise, companionship, competition and space.

“With so many things you can’t do right now and so few things you can do,” Withington said, “golf has never felt so much like a freedom.”

Moreover, golf course operators nationwide said they are seeing something new in their client behaviors and demographics: entire families, cooped up at home, are arriving at the first tee to play together; sales of discounted youth golf passes are exploding; and more golfers are walking the course because usually only family members can share a cart.

“I’m also seeing a lot of people who haven’t played golf in a while,” said Scott Krieger, the head pro and general manager at Broadmoor Golf Course in Portland, Ore. “And more fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and husbands and wives, too.”

Memorial Tournament Direct Shares What A Post-COVID-19 PGA Tour Spectator-Attended Event Will Look Like

If the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide takes place in July, 2020, it would be the second currently scheduled golf tournament in the COVID-19 era to welcome back include spectators (the John Deere Classic is scheduled to be the first).

Appearing on the Virtual Sports Report, the Memorial’s Dan Sullivan previewed things like no grandstands, volunteers in tournament-branded face coverings and more limited television coverage. Sean Zak at Golf.com documented all of the thoughts, but this is of particular note as we try to envision tournament operations of the future.

Among the biggest changes expected at the Memorial is tracking the whereabouts of fans. While there will be fewer spectators allowed on tournament grounds — ticket sales have purposefully been slowed to keep from over-populating — each spectator badge (and the badges of tournament staff/volunteers) will have within it an RFID tag. “At any time we can know, around the golf course, how many people are collecting in a certain area,” Sullivan said.

The full interview:

Pepperdine's Sahith Theegala Takes The Haskins, Furman's Natalie Srinivasan Wins The Annika As College Golf's Top Golfers

In a bittersweet year with NCAA golfers were stripped of the chance to complete their season, the sight of Player-of-the-year winners from Pepperdine and Furman at least injected 2020 a nice memory. Both schools have under 4000 undergraduates.

The Haskins to best male golfer went to Pepperdine’s Sahith Theegala, while Furman's Natalie Srinivasan took the Annika given to the top female golfer.

As a Pepperdine alum, I can’t speak to how incredible a moment this is for the school’s golf program and southern California junior golf to have produced golf’s equivalent of a Heisman winner. Also, a huge tip o’ the cap to Pepperdine Coach Michael Beard for not ignoring Theegala’s potential despite his less-than-orthodox swing.

Oh, and most impressive of all? Theegala wins the award as a senior after redshirting the year prior to heal an injured wrist. Not Hogan or Zaharias level comebacks, but mighty impressive nonetheless.

From Brentley Romine’s GolfChannel.com story:

Despite the competition year being shortened due to the pandemic, Theegala and Srinivasan, both seniors, built strong resumes and finished the year ranked atop the Golfstat rankings. Theegala won twice and posted four other top-6 finishes for the top-ranked Waves. Srinivasan captured three events and ended her season with a runner-up finish at the prestigious Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

Here is Theegala receiving the award on Golf Central:

Turner Sells Out Ad Space For The Match, And Then Some

As unemployment skyrockets and the world economy continues a virtual halt, it’s curious to see how much corporate support there is for The Match 2, both in sponsorship and in ad sales. While the below story notes the various sponsors and buyers were locked in a month ago, the support has remained in part because of the match shifting to a charity effort.

Adweek’s Kelsey Sutton reports on the overwhelming financial outlay that is going to the $10 million charitable payout when Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning tee up May 24th at The Medalist.

Turner Sports is hopeful The Match will attract lots of eyeballs, and so are its advertising partners. The broadcaster is using the partially remote production to feature some unique on-air sponsorship opportunities.

Cisco has signed on as a content integration partner, and Turner Sports will use the videoconferencing application Webex to bring remote guests to the screen during the telecast, said Will Funk, Turner Sports’ evp, sports partnerships and branded content. DraftKings, another content integration partner, will provide betting odds on challenges and stunts on different holes throughout the course, all of which feature a charitable payout.

Royal And Ancient Captain To Repeat Term, First Since

In another sign of the (first world) times, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews will have Clive Edginton continue as captain for another year. This makes him the first to do so since John Murray Belshes in 1835-36.

I know you all know about Murray Belshes, but first, for Immediate Publication.

THE ROYAL AND ANCIENT GOLF CLUB ANNOUNCES CLIVE EDGINTON WILL CONTINUE AS CAPTAIN FOR 2020/21

6 May 2020, St Andrews, Scotland: The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has announced that Clive Edginton will continue as Captain for 2020/21.  

Mr Edginton took office last September as Captain for 2019/20 but due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic the Past Captains of the Club have nominated Mr Edginton to continue as Captain for another year from September 2020.

This is only the second occasion since the Club was founded in 1754 that a Captain has served two successive terms. The first was Major John Murray Belshes, who held the position in 1835 and 1836.

Mr Edginton said, “It is an honour to be Captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club and I feel very privileged to be asked to continue in the role. This is a difficult time for all of us in the midst of this pandemic but I am happy that I can continue to serve the Club as we look positively to the future.” 

Born in Walton-on-Thames, Mr Edginton was educated at Malvern College and Oxford University, graduating in 1973 with a degree in law and a Blue for golf.  After a successful business career in the City of London, latterly as Chief Executive and then Chairman of Tindall Riley, a specialist insurance management company, he retired in 2014.  He has since been a non-executive director and is now a consultant to the Medical Defence Union.

Mr Edginton became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1997.  He served on the Rules of Golf Committee from 2000 to 2004 and was its Deputy Chairman from 2002 to 2004. He was Chairman of the Amateur Status Committee from 2007 to 2011 during which time The R&A and the USGA produced the first unified Amateur Status Code.  He was elected to the General Committee of the Club in 2014 and became Chairman of the General Committee and of the R&A’s principal companies from September 2015 until September 2018.

Mr Edginton’s home club is St George’s Hill in Weybridge, Surrey where he became a member at the age of eight.  He has served St George’s Hill as Committee Member, Captain, Director and Trustee.  He has been Club Champion on four occasions and is a nine-time winner of the club’s scratch Gold Medal.  At various times he has also been Captain of the South Eastern Junior Golfing Society, the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, the Moles Golfing Society and the Old Malvernian Golfing Society, for whom he played more than 100 matches in the Halford Hewitt.

Aged 68, Mr Edginton currently plays to a handicap of eight. He is married to Debbie, who is a member of both St George’s Hill and The St Rule Club.

Now about Belshes.

Check out Scott Macpherson’s item for Links on the royal (golf) title and its history. Captain B, an 1800’s man who looked like, well, every other 1800s elite type, put the stamp on a very important application back in those roaring 1830s.

With the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603, golf moved south; but when the House of Stuart fell 100 years later, so did golf’s royal link. It wasn’t restored until Lord Kinnaird, captain of the Perth Golfing Society from 1832 to 1834, addressed King William IV during a trip to London. Kinnaird asked His Majesty if he would become patron of the Society, and if the club might call itself The Royal Perth Golfing Society. When the King agreed to both requests, the royal rush was on.

Perth!

William IV granted the royal title to only one other golf club, but it was a big one—the Society of St. Andrews Golfers. Major John Murray Belshes put forward the application in 1834, and His Majesty was happy to have the club restyle itself The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. But it took some gentle persuasion before he would agree to become its patron, acquiescing once it was pointed out that one of his many titles was Duke of St. Andrews.

There you go, he’s the man who got Royal in the title of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Definitely worth a second year.

Wait, so who tacked on the “and Ancient?”

Hey, I have something to do tomorrow! Macpherson here I come!**

**He offers this:”

“They added the ‘ancient’ when devising the new club name was to do with the fact the club was 70 years older than the Royal Perth Golfing Society, who had a year earlier in 1833 been granted the royal title. The wanted to differentiate themselves and not just be a royal club, but make it very clear they were the senior club. John M Belches led the charge for the royal title for the St Andrews club by writing to the King etc, despite (as many of them were) also being a member of the, now Royal, Perth club. It was oneupsmanship on a grand scale. So the club went from the St Andrews Society to the R&A GC of St Andrews. There was no ‘The Royal Golf Club of St Andrews'.”

That's Our Vijay: Enters First Korn Ferry Event When Others Could Use The Starts

It’ll be tough enough just to get a Korn Ferry Tour event off the ground this June, even if it’s at TPC Sawgrass with close HQ supervision making things run more smoothly.

And then 57-year-old Vijay Singh entered and set off a Twitter ragefest. While I’ve been loudly on the record that he and other Champions who miss cuts are wasting spots, but that was in good times. Vijay, btw, has broken par twice in the last two years of PGA Tour play and has made one cut in nine appearancesw.

But during a pandemic when every start matters to a Korn Ferry player after sitting out for weeks? Even tone deaf by Vijay Singh. It’s as if he lost touch with reality after winning $70 million and probably that much more off course factoring in endorsements and lawsuit settlements

Christopher Powers with the Twitter rage started by Monday Q Info’s Ryan French spotting Singh on the entry list, and fueled by Brady Schnell, a 35-year-old KF Tour journeyman whose Tweets calling Singh “selfish” and “complete turd” have since disappeared.

The common take is that Singh, a three-time major champion who has made north of $70 million in his career on the PGA Tour, should not take a potential paycheck from a player who may need it more, especially given the world's current situation. On the other hand, the 57-year-old Singh is one of the most competitive players the game has ever seen. One could argue he's simply looking to get those competitive juices flowing once again. And since he's not eligible for the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour that same week, the inaugural Korn Ferry Challenge is his only alternative.

Or, staying at home one more week?

Coincidentally, The Guardian’s Ewan Murray this week tried to better understand Vijay and his unwillingness to relive the past. Or, talk to any writer.

(At Least) $10 Million To COVID-19 Relief: The Match Redux (Finally) Finalized For May 24th At Medalist

Mighty impressive dollar figures, causes and creative ways to keep our interest in what otherwise could be less interesting than it sounds. (By contrast, the PGA Tour/NBC/Taylor Made/UnitedHealth on May 17th is donating $3 million to COVID-19 charity from UnitedHealth and another $1 million from Farmers Insurance is going to a fund.)

Turner Sports to Exclusively Present “Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity” 

with Tiger Woods & Phil Mickelson Joined by Peyton Manning & Tom Brady 

in Blockbuster Live Golf Event Held Sunday, May 24, at 3 p.m. ET

$10 Million Charitable Donation Made to COVID-19 Relief;

Additional Fundraising to Include On-Course Challenges & Partnership with ALL IN Challenge

Showdown of Legendary Woods/Manning & Mickelson/Brady Pairings

Simulcast Across TNT, TBS, truTV & HLN

Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity to be Hosted at Prestigious Medalist Golf Club in Florida

Turner Sports will present Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity, a blockbuster live golf competition headlined by golf icons Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson returning for a rematch, this time joined by Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, two of the NFL’s greatest players of all time. The premier sports event – simulcast exclusively on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN – will be held Sunday, May 24, at 3 p.m. ET, with pre-match coverage available in the Bleacher Report app. Associated with the live telecast, WarnerMedia and the golfers will collectively make a charitable donation of $10 million to benefit COVID-19 relief. As part of the fundraising efforts, the competition will also include a partnership with the ALL IN Challenge, along with additional on-course competitive challenges for charity.

Fundraising associated with Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity will support national and local beneficiaries, aiming to help make an impact on many of the communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations will be made to organizations working across multiple areas of need including Direct Relief, which equips health workers on the front lines with life-changing medical supplies; the American Red Cross, which has adapted its everyday emergency relief efforts to work within this new environment, including providing virtual support and collecting convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment; Save Small Business, a grant-making initiative to help small business employers who are struggling due to the pandemic; and the ALL IN Challenge, an initiative that aims to eliminate food insecurity by providing food to those in need.

In partnership with the ALL IN Challenge, all four participants will have donated custom experiences that will raise millions towards the cause, with viewers having the ability to enter into a live raffle for ones featuring Woods and Mickelson during the telecast as well.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unimaginable tragedy and heartbreak,” said Jeff Zucker, Chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports. “We’re hopeful this event and platform will help raise meaningful funding for COVID-19 relief, while also providing a source of brief distraction and entertainment for all sports fans.

Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity, a sanctioned PGA TOUR event, will be held at the prestigious Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla. Opened in 1995, the renowned course acts as the home course to many PGA Tour players including Tiger Woods. In preparation for the event, tournament organizers are working with state and local government and public health officials on competition and production logistics to ensure the event follows safety and health protocols.

The competition will feature Woods and Manning vs. Mickelson and Brady, facing off in Team Match Play with a Four-Ball (Best Ball) format on the front nine and a Modified Alternate Shot format on the back nine, where each participant will tee off and then the team will play alternate shot from the selected drive. The unique combination of formats is aimed to provide an entertaining mix of strategy, team collaboration and consequence to nearly every shot. As part of the competitive play, there will also be a set of on-course challenges to raise additional charitable funds.

Live coverage airing on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN will feature unprecedented access with all players having open mics throughout the entire competition, including the capability to communicate directly with other golfers and the broadcast commentators. More information on the live production, including the commentator team, will be announced leading up to the event. In addition to live televised coverage, social and digital content prior to the event will be available through Bleacher Report and House of Highlights.

The media agreement with WarnerMedia and Turner Sports was completed in partnership between Excel Sports Management and Lagardère Sports. Excel and Lagardère Sports are also the tournament organizers.

Turner Sports is proud to be working with a number of marketing partners to host Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity, in service of maximizing COVID-19 relief. Capital One is returning as title sponsor and will collaborate closely with Turner Sports on a number of social, digital and broadcast integrations leading up to and during the live event.

“At Capital One, we’re committed to supporting our customers, communities and partners through this difficult time, and that is why we are proud to be the returning title sponsor of Capital One's The Match: Champions for Charity. This wonderful event will bring four of the world's best athletes together for a tremendous cause," said Marc Mentry, Chief Brand Officer, Capital One. “Capital One knows our customers are passionate about sports, which is why we are excited to support this event and to help bring awareness to these amazing charities."

Presenting partners include Audi of America, Michelob ULTRA and Progressive Insurance. Content integration partners include Cisco and DraftKings, with AT&T, HBO Max, Callaway, Wheels Up and E-Z-GO serving as associate sponsors.

Woods and Mickelson previously faced off in Capital One’s The Match in November 2018 at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. Tied following 18 holes, Mickelson won on the fourth playoff hole.

The format sounds like a fun way to take advantage of the admittedly odd foursome, inevitably forcing Tiger and Phil to play from some places they are not used to.

Here is the Ernie Johnson-hosted chat with the participants, Phil positioning his green jacket photo in less than subtle fashion, Tiger in the padded panic room again, Brady in the Four Seasons Vice Presidential suite and Peyton in front of a painting of Tapit.

Pro Golfers Giving Back: Symetra Tour Player Turned Nurse, Challenge Tour Golfer Turned Handsanitizer Maker

Two professional golfers who have hung up their golf bags for giving back are profiled and to be applauded.

Beth Ann Nichols has the story of Sarah Hoffman, a Symetra Tour player who recently returned to nursing during the pandemic.

“I just couldn’t keep sitting on the couch and not helping my friends who were on the front lines,” she said.

There’s nothing about the Hoffman file that’s standard. She didn’t grow up playing AJGA events. Didn’t compete in any tournaments outside of country club golf until the summer before college. In fact, Hoffman was set to play basketball in college until she took an abrupt turn to Grand Valley State.

Hoffman was also on The Clubhouse with Shane Bacon and it’s a great listen:

John Huggan tells us about Steve Tiley, a 37-year-old journeyman from England who recently won on the European Challenge Tour for the first time, has gone to work for his father’s business helping produce 5000 bottles of hand sanitizer a day.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic started, my Dad was disgusted with certain companies over-charging for things that were suddenly in demand,” says Steve who competed alongside the likes of PGA Tour players Matt Every, Ryan Moore, Spencer Levin, Webb Simpson and Dustin Johnson during his four years of college golf in Atlanta. “People were having to pay silly amounts for hand sanitizer. So he decided to do something about it. We’ve been selling it on at just about cost-price to the NHS Trust [who ordered about 35,000 bottles], care homes and key workers—anyone who needs it really. What we haven’t done is sell any to anyone who will sell it on for a profit.”

Justin Thomas, Lee Wybranski Team Up For No Kid Hungry

A nice collaboration here between Justin Thomas and artist Lee Wybranski to help raise funds for two Thomas causes: No Kid Hungry & Team Kentucky in their efforts in the battle against COVID-19 and its impact.

Details here on how to purchase the artwork for a great cause. The link also features a video message from Thomas.

What Will Happen To Topgolf After The Pandemic?

Since wisely closing down all of its locations in response to COVID-19, the industry’s one-time darling upstart, Topgolf, has only made news with layoffs and furloughs of facility managers, followed by a big miss in Birmingham where tax incentives were pulled back.

In response to the layoffs, the privately held company expected to someday go the IPO route, issued this statement.

COVID-19 has had a massive impact on our business and has forced us to re-evaluate the way we must operate moving forward. As a result, we unfortunately had to make the difficult decision to eliminate many roles within our organization both at our venues and corporate offices. For a culture such as ours at Topgolf, this has been a time of deep sadness. Looking forward, we have great conviction around emerging with strength and re-opening venues as soon as it is safe to do so.

Adding to their woes, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded some of Topgolf’s ratings. The last line here is not particularly upbeat.

The downgrade of Topgolf’s ratings reflects the impact of the coronavirus outbreak which has disrupted the ability to operate the company’s venues until the spread of the virus subsides. As a result, leverage levels will increase substantially and liquidity will deteriorate for as long as the locations remain closed, according to Moody’s. Even with the re-opening of the venues, operating performance may remain below normal levels due to lower consumer spending arising from weak economic conditions and ongoing social distancing behaviors. Moody’s projects Topgolf will need additional sources of liquidity to avoid a default.