Following its cancellation of five events last Friday -- including the 2020 Players Championship after Round 1 action concluded -- the PGA Tour has also canceled four additional events due to the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, the PGA of America has postponed the PGA Championship, previously scheduled to be held May 14-17 at Harding Park in San Francisco, to an undetermined date.
The four new events being canceled include the RBC Heritage, Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship and AT&T Byron Nelson, which means no golf will be played until late May at the earliest. Augusta National Golf Club also announced last week that the Masters has been postponed.
"Throughout our evaluation process, we have been committed to following the guidance of public health authorities and given the coronavirus shelter-in-place order in effect in San Francisco, postponement is the best decision for all involved," said PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh in a statement about the PGA Championship postponement. "This is a reflection of a thoughtful process. We are and have been working in concert with commissioner Jay Monahan and our partners and friends at the PGA Tour to find an alternative date that works for all. We are all very hopeful for a great outcome."
"We are fully supportive of the decisions made by our partners at both the PGA of America and the PGA Tour," CBS Sports said in a statement. "We will continue to work closely with both partners. Collectively our focus remains on prioritizing the health and well-being of everyone involved."
It's interesting that both the Masters and PGA Championship have been postponed and not canceled. It sets the stage for the potential of a fall where some (or all?) of the major championships are played. There's an existing report that the Ryder Cup will be bumped to 2021, which conveniently opens up a late September date for the PGA of America to push the PGA Championship (although the PGA of America mentioned later this summer).
The logistics of this will always be hard, but I remain buoyed by the fact that none of the big ones are outright erased from the calendar year. Golf has the nice flexibility that you can play in many climates around the year and some good built-in infrastructural advantages at some of its major venues.
So there remains hope -- not for regular PGA Tour events that have already been nixed -- but at least for the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship. The latter two have not yet been affected by the coronavirus, although given its mid-June date and location in New York at Winged Foot Golf Club, it would be shocking if the U.S. Open wasn't also at least postponed.
For now, though, we will not see professional golf until at least the end of May. That's a stunning reality, and the worst part is that I'd be far more surprised if that's when it came back than if the cancellations and postponements continued well into the summer.
| Dates | Event | Status |
|---|---|---|
March 12-15 | The Players Championship | Canceled |
March 19-22 | Valspar Championship | Canceled |
March 26-29 | WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play | Canceled |
Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship | Canceled | |
April 2-5 | Valero Texas Open | Canceled |
April 9-12 | The Masters | Postponed |
April 16-19 | RBC Heritage | Canceled |
April 23-26 | Zurich Classic of New Orleans | Canceled |
April 30-May 3 | Wells Fargo Championship | Canceled |
May 7-10 | AT&T Byron Nelson | Canceled |
May 14-17 | PGA Championship | Postponed |
