Sanford Health Becomes "Official COVID-19 On-Site Testing Provider Of The PGA Tour"

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Look, these are not normal times but as uncomforable as it is to read a company agreeing to be the Official COVID-19 On-site Testing Provider Of The PGA Tour, I’m not sure this got enough play: the PGA Tour’s events will have on-site testing and results determined on site. This, instead of adding to local lab burdens, not only provides infinitely more consistency in the Tour’s ambitious screening protocals, but also reduces the uncertainty of what will happen with golf played in so many different cities.

It’s just a shame the screening with Sanford Health testing does not extend to a good number of others on-site at the first four Tour starts beginning next week. But, one step at a time.

For Immediate Release:

PGA TOUR collaborates with Sanford Health  to conduct COVID-19 testing at tournaments

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR announced today that it has engaged Sanford Health to conduct on-site COVID-19 testing of players, caddies and essential personnel at PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Korn Ferry Tour tournaments in the continental United States for the remainder of the season. 

Starting with next week’s resumption of the PGA TOUR schedule at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, testing will be conducted by lab technicians who will be traveling to tournaments in one of three mobile testing units that Sanford Health is deploying across the country. Each unit, which will be manned by a driver and three technicians, will arrive the Saturday prior to the tournament to begin processing RT PCR tests. The mobile unit will remain on site through Thursday before traveling to the next closest tournament site, regardless of Tour. 

“With health and safety being our No. 1 priority upon our return to competition, we are extremely pleased to partner with Sanford Health and to utilize their expertise in testing our players, caddies and personnel going forward,” said Andy Levinson, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President Tournament Administration. “Not only will Sanford Health’s mobile laboratories enable us to deliver test results in a matter of hours so that our athletes can properly prepare for competition, but they will also allow us to implement our testing program without utilizing critical resources from the communities in which we play, which was of upmost importance to us.”  

Each swab collection takes less than five minutes to administer, and test results are returned typically between two and four hours, with approximately 400 individuals expected to be tested on-site each week.

“Sanford Health is honored to help ensure a safe return to play for professional golf events in the United States by offering this testing,” said Micah Aberson, Executive Vice President of Sanford Health. “We are incredibly proud of our lab technicians who will represent us at these events as well as all of our health care workers who have gone above and beyond to protect and care for our patients.”

Sanford Health also becomes a marketing partner with the designation Official COVID-19 On-site Testing Provider of the PGA TOUR. It already has an established relationship with the TOUR as title sponsor of the Sanford International, a PGA TOUR Champions event in Sioux Falls scheduled for Sept. 11-13.

Jim Justice Gives Us A Better Sense Why He Was No Longer Fit To Host A PGA Tour Event

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A big personality, now the West Virginia governor and Greenbrier Resort owner, Jim Justice was believed to be low on the list of beloved PGA Tour tournament hosts.

Yet the “Military Salute at the Greenbrier” remained on schedules until the pandemic felled the fall event for good with little clue what the issue was, but plenty of red flags raised by the lukewarm severance quotes.

The resort’s hideous rebranding of the Old White TPC, appears to have been quietly dissolved as well.

While Justice has padded plenty of golf dignitary bank accounts (or not, possibly sometimes), I’m guessing comments like this will make it hard for him to keep doing business with any of them.

On his state as a possible Republican National Convention alternative should things change for 2020’s scheduled for Charlotte, North Carolina:

"PGA stars receive backlash, hate after 'Blackout Tuesday' posts"

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Zac Wassink of Yardbarker rounds up some of the comments players received for Blackout Tuesday posts supporting protests against police brutality.

Needless to say, it’s disheartening to see what kind of pushback players get from golf fans for supporting their fellow man.

European Tour Chief Pelley On McKellar Podcast: Ryder Cup Decision By Month's End, Hoping For More Co-Sanctioned Events

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European Tour Chief Keith Pelley was on the McKellar Golf podcast and discussed a range of issues, including the possibility of a stronger PGA Tour alliance, his few informal encounters with the Premier Golf League (which he continues to characterize as essentially a hostile competitive bid) and several questions about the Ryder Cup prospects.

About 21 minutes into he discusses the weekly calls with the other major organizations in golf, says there is “definitely a will to work together” with the PGA Tour, saying the “conversations have been stronger than they’ve ever been, where that will lead I’m not sure.”

He also made news in helping the golf world zero-in on when to expect a decision regarding the 2020 Ryder Cup, telling hosts Lawrence Donegan and John Huggan to expect a decision by the end of the month.

Steve Stricker appeared on Madison’s Golf Affect Radio Show and essentially confirmed that planning is still going forward but that a decision will come in the next two to three weeks. Tod Leonard at GolfDigest.com with the Stricker comments here.

And here is the McKellar podcast, or wherever you subscribe!

Troubled Times Prompt Golf Digest Pledge To Better Reflect The Game, Society

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Golf Digest Executive Editor Jerry Tarde penned an intriguing piece outlining the magazine’s intent to “accelerate golf’s journey of understanding” on a number of issues at the forefront. After a nice setup detailing the sport’s history with race and inequality issues, Tarde outlines the pledges:

—We at Golf Digest will commit to making the images and subjects of our golf content as well as our staff better reflect the diversity of the world around us. Both the game’s population and our own record here have been inadequate.

—We will continue to advocate for more access and affordability.

Continue, start, either would be great!

—We will increase our coverage of municipal golf—the lifeblood for attracting minority participation.

—We will support the golf industry’s collective efforts through The First Tee, in which 48 percent of participants represent minorities.

—We will promote sustainability in all its forms, because we know the ravages of climate change hit the poor and minorities the hardest.

—And we golfers promise to use our voice and influence to make gentle the life of this world.

Obviously this is a wonderful goal and a welcome pivot. Unfortunately, it’s way too late.

For decades Golf Digest has supported ideals contrary to the values pledged above. In repeatedly rewarding difficult, expensive, ridiculously-conditioned and ultra-private golf via the influential Golf Digest rankings and awards for a solid forty years, untold damage has been done to the sustainability prospects of the game.

Decades of editorial apathy and even hostility to the notion of equipment regulation or those taking stance with sustainability in mind has been partly driven by protecting commercial interests. The resulting expansion of golf’s scale, cost and environmental footprint has not made the game healthier.

The bad news for Golf Digest? Advocacy efforts highlighting the need to move in a different direction have been taken up by a variety of independent outlets that recognized long ago who had the game’s best interests at heart.

Muirfield Village To Host Deere Classic Replacement In Addition To The Memorial

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The Memorial Presented by Nationwide is curiously opting to water down one of the premier events in golf with a John Deere Classic-replacement tournament at Muirfield Village this July. But these are strange times and playing opportunities clearly take priority over optics, reason or the lack of entertainment value in watching the same course for two weeks (perhaps they will flip the nines to help differentiate the viewing experience?).

More vitally in a time of strife, suffering and pandemic, hopefully there will be a grand charitable component for local organizations that Nationwide already supports, particularly the Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

From Doug Ferguson’s AP exclusive:

In a memo sent Tuesday afternoon to players, the tour said the new event would be July 9-12 and held without spectators. The following week is the Memorial at Muirfield Village, with spectators still a possibility.

The name of the tournament was not mentioned, along with other details such as the size of the purse.

But it said the field for the first event would be 156 players, allowing the Memorial to return to its elite status as an invitational with a 120-man field.

The fill-in tournament sponsor will be Workday, which has had a topsy-turvy relationship in trying to start a Bay Area Tour stop and in serving as a temporary sponsor of the Desert Classic.

From The Forecaddie last year:

The Forecaddie hears the last-minute demise of the 2019 edition came after Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri piled on one too many last-minute requests and complained about how the event was rolled out. With the PGA Tour having another potential event and sponsor as an option and no time to find another sponsor for the Curry event, The Man Out Front hears host management company Octagon pulled the plug after not being able to meet Bhusri’s demands.

Agronomically, everything should be fine since Muirfield Village intends to rebuild their greens following the 2020 tournament(s).

Return To Golf: Tour Caddies Will Be Asked To Clean Bunker Rakes, Flagsticks After Replacing

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While getting the all-clear on COVID-19 is not required of PGA Tour players before traveling to Colonial, when they present, the conditions will be plenty sanitary.

Or, maybe the whining about unraked bunkers and having to putt with a flagstick in actually paid off?

Either way, the policy above, spelled out in the guide sent to players a week out from the PGA Tour’s return in Fort Worth appears unsustainable. Furthermore, from what we’ve learned of COVID-19, outdoor surfaces are less likely to be a problem.

While there will be some entertainment in watching what caddies devise for stockpiling and accessing disinfectant wipes, it would just be so much better for golf if flagsticks were left in the cup and rakes were stored in maintenance yards.

PGA Tour's Return To Golf Does Not Require A Home COVID-19 Test

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In reading how the USTA is going to great lengths to envision a way to play the 2020 U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, it was understandable to see that tennis’ best would be required to test negative for COVID-19 before getting on a plane.

So it was a bit surprising to see such a stipulation was not required in golf’s return given how players are coming from many regions and using different means of travel to Colonial June 8-14.

This is from Brian Wacker’s GolfDigest.com story on the “Player Participant Guide” sent to players in advance of next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge:

Most notable among the guidelines is that while COVID-19 testing is a condition of competition, the at-home test players and caddies take before traveling is not required but rather “strongly encouraged.” Also, should a player or caddie test positive while at a tournament, they’ll receive a stipend from the Tour to cover associated costs, but only if they have taken the at-home test and tested negative. Players are, however, required to fill out daily self-screening questionnaires starting seven days prior to departing for a tournament.

“The at-home test is intended to help players avoid the unlikely situation of testing positive and be required to quarantine away from home,” said Joel Schuchmann, PGA Tour VP of communiations, when reached by Golf Digest.

So the PGA Tour’s view is that the pre-tournament test is one to prevent an inconvenient stranding, but if safety of players and those around them was the ultimate priority, I would think an all-clear test before traveling was one of the most important steps.

This hole in the “bubble” is one of several—media and spouses/partners/companions who choose to travel and stay with players are not mentioned in any of the documents as part of the testing bubble. This, combined with not requiring an all-clear test after three months away from the Tour, explains why the word “screening” has been used to date.

Seeing the description in the player resource guide only makes it that much more confounding to start the bubble arrival knowing all have already been cleared to travel to Colonial:


If only it were that convenient for the rest of the world to get a test. I digress.

The other noticeable loophole involves players being able to stay in a rental home, RV or at the “bubble” hotel with a companion not allowed at the course, but also free to roam the host city or anywhere but the golf course.

Golf Figures Adding To The National Dialogue: LPGA, Varner, Rodgers, Pieters, Woods And Hack

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As athletes in other sports shared their support for anti-racism forces protesting within the United States, the golf world has been deliberate in chiming in. Something, Morning Read’s Alex Miceli points out, would be irresponsible at best.

That said, as many cities are under curfew orders and the sports grapples with how to respond, some in golf have chimed in. Notably, on the sports organization front, the LPGA was the first with this statement:

Among pro golf set, Harold Varner posted this:

Other pros to weigh in so far are Patrick Rodgers, Thomas Pieters and Tiger Woods:

And Golf Channel Morning Drive host Damon Hack posted this column on GolfChannel.com as he struggles with the times and the deja-vu all-over-again state of affairs.

Not again. 

What can I do?

What can the golf industry do?

The sports world?

My country?

Can I share my pain with you or does my pain not count, since I’m on TV and all?

You’ve made it. What do you have to be mad about? You should be grateful.

Thing is, I am grateful. But I’m also sad and tired and incredulous that I’m having the exact same conversations with my sons that my father had with me.

NY Post: "NYC golf courses devastated by continued coronavirus shutdown"

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While most Americans and the world are safely returning to golf—97% of U.S. courses according to National Golf Foundation surveys—the situation in New York is less rosy for golfers. In the New York city area, Mark Cannizzaro reports on the 13 courses in the five burroughs remaining closed.

“It’s devastating,’’ Rich McDonough, the director of golf at Marine Park in Brooklyn, told The Post on Friday. “You’re talking about multi-million-dollars-a-year businesses that have absolutely no ability to operate, and there’s no reason whatsoever why they’re not open.’’

Mike Giordano, who operates Marine Park as the concessionaire, said he “thought initially it was going to end in a couple weeks, then it became a month now we’re into our third month.’’
“This could be a death blow to us,’’ Giordano told The Post. “Nobody has unlimited funds. You exhaust your funds as the clock keeps ticking.’’

Giordano said he’s spending $100,000 per month to maintain the golf course with no revenue coming in and — most appallingly — no communication from City Hall.

Upstate, Sal Maiorana, James Johnson and Brodie Inguaggiato, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle look at how recreational pursuits were faring and focused on the troubles of golf courses dealing with mass food and beverage cancellations, and tee-time spacing.

Clearly, the food and beverage end of the golf business is suffering, but so, too, is the actual playing of the game.

Edmister said Blue Heron Hills had a flurry of early play in March thanks to unusually cooperative weather, and when the one-week, state-mandated shutdown of golf facilities was lifted in early April, the golfers were back out playing, but certainly not at the numbers you’d typically see.

The continued guidelines imposed by the state on social distancing, the prohibition of cart use, which has only recently been lifted — along with the fact that some people simply aren’t comfortable leaving their homes yet — have cut deeply into the bottom line. 

“The PGA of America is recommending 10- to 15-minute intervals for tee times,” Edmister said. “That hurts you at the end of the day when you might have 80 tee times and now you’re down to 40.”

In contrast, reader Gary sent me this note today, which mirrors what I’ve been seeing on social media and in conversations with golfers who have been out playing.

I live in Nassau County, Long Island and play at the public county course (Eisenhower Park. The county guidelines have tee times split 16 minutes apart. Golf is so much more enjoyable this way as the pace of play has been reduces by about 30-40 minutes. While I understand that the economics of this reduces revenue, the enjoyability factor is much greater.

Euro Tour Chief Pelley Shoots Down Bankruptcy Suggestions, Discussess Sponsor Conversations

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There were quite a few tidbits from Martin Dempster’s Scotsman story quoting European Tour Chief Keith Pelley that I didn’t see elsewhere and are worth noting.

He directly addressed any rumors of bankruptcy or insolvency, the government’s stance on potential 14-day quarantining come July, and conversations with sponsors.

In particular, related to the European Tour’s plan to distribute £500,000 between charities local to the tournament venues and those chose by leading players, he explained his pitch to sponsors.

“I had a conversation with one of our key partners about two or three weeks ago, and I said, ‘listen, this might not be the biggest event that you have ever done in terms of crowds and hospitality, but it will be the most important event, and it should be the most emotional event’. We are looking at golf as a platform; as a platform to give back, and we are privileged to be able to play. We think that golf is something that we have trumpeted to the government is a perfect sport to come back with.”

Four Golfers Make Forbes Top 100 Highest Paid Athletes

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While the coronavirus cut into earnings of several athletes, particularly in baseball, the annual Forbes list retained four golfers (down from five), with Tiger Woods leading the way in golf, landing 8th.

It’s the same four as four years ago, only in different positions this time: #8 Tiger Woods ($62.3 million combined endorsement and on-course earnings), #14 Rory McIlroy ($52 million), #25 Phil Mickelson ($40.8 million) and #52 Jordan Spieth ($27.6 million).

Korn Ferry WD: Vijay Reads The Room

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Since there are far more pressing issues in the world, a special thank you to Vijay Singh for withdrawing from the Korn Ferry Tour’s return event set for June 11th at TPC Sawgrass.

Though it could also be that market forces pushing the 57-year-old out of the field, as Joel Beall notes for GolfDigest.com.

Though Singh did pull out voluntarily, there was a chance, according to the KFT priority rankings, he wouldn’t have ultimately qualified for the event, which begins on June 11 at Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Singh is fourth on the PGA Tour’s all time money list with $81.3 million in winnings (FedExCup included).

Video: “If anyone was nervous, there’s no need to be now”

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A glorious day greeted Scotland’s golfers back to the links following the lifting of restrictions.

Not everyone’s first tee shot was as memorable, or well documented as this. (Thanks reader Brian for sending.)

Shark: PGA Tour Considering Money “Pot” To Compensate Elite Eight Players

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Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger has been talking to Greg Norman about a variety of subjects and in part 4, Norman says he’s hearing how the PGA Tour is trying to sweeten the pot to retain players who might be swayed by the Premier Golf League.

The original dreamer behind a world golf tour says he’s not been in touch with the league founders since February, but hears the PGA Tour is eyeing select European Tour events to expand the current World Golf Championships.

And, this what-could-go-wrong idea:

“What I’m hearing is that the PGA Tour, against all their bylaws and governances, is talking about putting aside a $40 million pot for eight players, with $8 million for the top player,” Norman said in a recent interview. “The PGA Tour is re-tweaking their model with the PGL out there. If you’re player nine, 10, 11 or 12, I think you’d be pretty pissed off.”

Norman said he didn’t know how the PGA Tour would rank the eight players. This pot would be beyond the FedEx Cup playoff money.

As with the PGL’s concept, this idea does face the troublesome issue of who is a top player, who is a draw and how is that determined. The modern game sees more turnover than ever—thanks to those Pilates classes and plant-based diets!—and trying to pin down who qualifies as elite talent, seems like no easy task.

While the Premier Golf League founders and funders have been quiet during the pandemic, it should be noted that Saudi Arabia, of the primary financial backers, has recently put another $40 billion into their sovereign wealth fund that is one of the PGL’s confirmed sources of funding. Vivian Nereim reports for Bloomberg.