Jay Monahan Talks Financial Impact On Tournaments, Charity

Doug Ferguson talks to Jay Monahan about the PGA Tour’s return at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.

Now that golf is returning, Monahan couldn’t predict when spectators would return. He said the tour has worked with tournaments the last several years on building a reserve fund for a crisis such as this.

“If you’re not selling tickets, and there’s not hospitality, you don’t have the pro-am experience or the honorary observer program for the sponsor ... that’s a significant financial impact on those tournaments, and the impact on the way tournaments connect with their communities,” he said.

Tournaments and their title sponsors still have managed to raise money for their local charities. The Zurich Classic matched last year’s donation of $1.5 million to a children’s services foundation. The John Deere Classic expects $10 million in donations, even though it canceled its July event.

Who knew that the folks in khakis awkardly walking down the fairway helped make a significant financial impact!

Either way, given that the Tour’s non-profit tax status is dependent on tournaments operating as drivers of charitable giving and that purses have not (apparently) changed, we will learn soon what plans the Tour has to maintain giving or help to events.

Meanwhile, the tournament announced featured groups earlier than normal and they are mighty strong.

Not so good: bad signs on the COVID-19 front for the good people of Texas, with surging rates of hospitalizations.

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

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

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:

Gov. Justice (R-WV), while discussing the relocation of the RNC Convention, says the state would welcome “any president” except "maybe not Barack Obama." pic.twitter.com/JBM4JKh590

— The Recount (@therecount) June 3, 2020

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.

"Will the PGA Tour's fine line of testing protocols be enough when play returns?"

With exactly two weeks the PGA Tour restarts its season at Colonial, Rex Hoggard wonders if the organization’s threading of “an impressive needle” to balance testing issues is enough. Particularly as the grim total of 100,000 deaths in the U.S. was reached and COVID-19 testing in some markets remains an issue.

The Tour’s plan to bring all of the required diagnostic tools and testing supplies to each event alleviates what would be a bad look in communities where tests aren’t readily available, but it also talks to the limitations of the policy no matter how detailed or well-designed.

Within the Tour’s testing “bubble” are players, caddies and essential personnel, like rules officials, but the vast majority of volunteers, media or the staff at local hotels would not be tested. Instead, they would be screened with thermal readings and questionnaires.

The potential blind spot in the Tour’s testing protocols is a misgiving that at least one top player gave a voice this week.

“An asymptomatic person could operate within a tournament,” Adam Scott told the Australia Associated Press. “If they're not showing symptoms, and I somehow picked it up inside the course, and I'm disqualified, I'm now self-isolating [in that city] for two weeks. I'd be annoyed if that happened.”

I’m a bit surprised at this point that we’ve heard very little from the PGA Tour on two fronts.

First, why exactly volunteers and media are not being tested after Scott raised his concerns?

And second, what is the Tour doing to try and ease the blow of lost charitable dollars to upcoming events? Or, tell us how, as a non-profit organization enjoying significant tax breaks because of charitable giving, is doing with these returning events to promote testing, wellness, a carefully conceived return to normalcy and, or, what they are doing give back to the communities visited.

TaylorMade Driving Relief Roundup: Good Reviews But Then, What's There To Quibble About

Well, there were problems. A few doozies though all well-intentioned unless you’re tired of decisions based on chasing a broader audience, made by folks not comfortable enough to just trust the product: super golfers, great course and enough modern television tricks to put on a good show.

Anyway! Overall, in between too many bad production choices was an impressive telecast visually given only six cameras and a plane view—funds were raised for good causes, as Doug Ferguson notes in his AP story.

PGA Tour Charities allowed for online donations during the telecast, raising more than $1 million. The donations will continue until Tuesday. When the exhibition ended, more than $5.5 million had been pledged, starting with the $3 million guarantee from UnitedHeath Group.

Players carried their own bags.

The bag carrying was a great look and arguably the highlight for most golfers. Those caddies should not lose any sleep, as Alan Shipnuck and Dylan Dethier noted in the Golf.com roundtable, there appeared a few moments the players needed a caddy to lean on.

Shipnuck: I think it had more to do with rust, and some wind, but a lot of times they looked off by half-a-club. Makes me wonder if caddies could have had them more dialed in. And nobody made any putts besides Fowler. Again, Seminole’s greens are tough, but I think these guys missed the ritual of confirming their reads.

Dethier: I think a good caddie helps his player commit to shots. A couple of these guys looked like they could have used some help in that department.

Bob Harig at ESPN said there was plenty to wonder about, but mostly appreciated seeing live golf again.

But more than anything, golfers competing and getting a chance to watch them was the star attraction.

"It's a lot of fun to get out here, do something fun and do something for charity,'' Johnson said during the NBC broadcast. "Feels good to get to the golf course and have a little competition. I know we're all looking forward to playing some golf.''

Johnson rather sheepishly admitted earlier in the week that he had not played a round of golf since the Players Championship until May 10. And at times, his game looked a bit ragged, as did parts of the proceedings.

In a perfect world, perhaps there would be some nit-picking, but in the one we are a part of now, this event should be celebrated more than analyzed.

Sam Weinman makes the astute point that from a sports perspective, only one thing mattered: safety, and the relief fund effort passed that taste despite some dreadful physical distancing several times (Ford walking the players in from the parking lot, first Sands interview) and jokes that probably didn’t fit the times (McIlroy on FedExCup money won and Wolff making a testing crack before quickly realizing it wasn’t great).

Two handed out largely positive grades, with me wishing I had David Dusek at Golfweek as my professor, and Dylan Dethier at Golf.com handing out a few D’s and F’s underneath mostly good grades.

PGA Tour Rolls Out Testing Plans: Quick Results From Local Labs And No Disclosure Who Tests Positive

The PGA Tour officials charged with getting operations going are in a no-win situation as COVID-19 offers new surprises and different understandings each day. That said, the testing and protocol rollout for select media highlighted potential flaws, starting with the oddity of a player receiving a positive virus test while in contention.

From Luke Kerr-Dineen’s Golf.com on what happens with a positive:

If the test comes back positive, that player is immediately escorted off site, withdrawn from the event and given a last-place payout.

It doesn’t matter if that player is leading the event, is largely asymptomatic, is in last place or somewhere in between; you test positive, you’re out. It’s a smart but tough new rule, the kind required in the current landscape. A sign of the times would be a scenario where the leader of the event could be withdrawn from the contest for safety concerns, rewarded with a last-place check and a 10-day quarantine.

The Tour, for its part, said that it wouldn’t disclose the identity of any player who does test positive.

But as Pat Perez told Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post, it’s hard to see that scenario playing out. He made the remarks in his overall statement suggesting the return is happening too soon.

“Let’s say I leave Scottsdale [his home] and I don’t have that virus and I get to Dallas and I’ve got it?’’ he said. “The Tour’s going to have a real problem with me if that happens. Let’s say a guy gets tested on Tuesday and he tests positive when he comes back on Thursday. Is he [disqualified]?

“And, are you telling me that if Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy or another big name that drives our tour is leading entering Sunday, you’re going to DQ him if he tests positive? I dare you. There’ll be a [bleeping] riot.’’

GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall noted that “ambiguity remains” about many of the planned elements, including how many positive cases at an event would be cause for a stoppage.

What remains unclear is what number of positive tests constitute a critical mass for the Tour. A single test would not be enough to deter the tournament from continuing, said senior vice president of tournament administration Andy Levinson, and there’s not a specific number of positive tests the tour has in mind that would enact a cancellation.

Not ambiguous is the PGA Tour’s plan to use local labs in each city to check nasal swabs for the virus, highlighting how cumbersome it is right now to run a testing operation for 400 of the expected 1100 or so on site while moving from city to city.

The Tour’s Andy Levinson from the transcript of the press session:

Our testing group includes all of our players and caddies, and as I mentioned earlier, some other select personnel that have to be in close proximity with them. That number on average weekly will be around 400. As the mayor of Fort Worth was quoted earlier this week in saying they have facilitated conversations for us with UTSW, who have laboratories throughout the area, and we are confident that we'll be able to conduct our testing in a manner that is not taking away from the community. We will be providing our own supplies and sourcing all of that, as well.

For the results, we know we can get results back immediately on the questionnaire and thermal screenings. In most communities, PCR test results take anywhere from one to three days, but what we're really focusing on is identifying local laboratories who aren't overly burdened with community testing or may not currently be community testing at all at this time, and trying to decrease that turnaround time to a matter of hours instead of a matter of days, and as we've said, we wouldn't do this with local laboratories, if, again, we were taking resources away from the community.

I’m sure there are local labs not burdened somwhere in the United States, but given the third day in a row of over 1000 new cases in Texas driven mostly by outbreaks in jails, the first market may have some backlogs on the test-results front.

The week two tournament is in Hilton Head, where he closest lab is reportedly in Charlotte.

On the optics front, if PGA Tour players, caddies, officials and others get priority over locals, it could be disastrous. And even if labs are not strained, the visuals of players getting tested and moved to the front of the line is not great. Especially if it’s so they can play a practice round. That could easily make national or international news and backfire on the event sponsor.

Players (Mostly) Laud PGA Tour's Efforts To Return From Pandemic To "Help The World With Something To Watch"

Steve DiMeglio talks to several players who laud the PGA Tour’s efforts to return to action and the efforts to set an example for the United States to return to a form of normalcy.

From Kevin Kisner:

“So, we’re going to go about with the safest, healthiest way to get back to work and have a quality product for our fans, have a presentable product for TV and help the world with something to watch.”

Zach Johnson feels the COVID-19 virus isn’t going away, so move forward.

“This thing is not going away. You can’t mitigate the entire risk. At some point you have to open up this country. You have to start thinking about some semblance of normalcy. We are just golf. But the beauty of golf is we are outside, we can take social distancing to the extremes, and within our bubble we can create as much safety as we can. I don’t think it’s too soon.”

Add Harold Varner to the list saying we can’t live in fear.

“I have to live,” Varner said. “I have to get my life back to normal as much as possible. I’ll do whatever they say, I’ll follow all the rules. We can’t live in fear.

“We have to start to get back up from off the floor.”

Brian Harman also took the view the PGA Tour will help get the country moving again.

“It’s important that we make the effort to get started again,” Brian Harman said. “It’s important for the country that we all start easing back into work because at some point or another, we have to get over this thing, as awful as it’s been and is. In some way, shape or form, we have to get things moving again.”

And then there is Nate Lashley, playing in the Scottsdale Open, with this reported by Alan Shipnuck:

Lashley was similarly relaxed about the virus, saying, “It’s not something I’m overly worried about right now. If you get it, you get it; you get through it and move on with your life. At this point, here in Arizona I don’t personally know anybody who has been affected by it, so for us to come out and be extremely precautious feels like it’s a little overblown.”

Those final remarks by Lashley, if heard on a national scale when the limelight is on the PGA Tour, could be devastating in the optics department.

One player who is planning to play at Colonial also thinks “it’s not time to go yet.” That’s Pat Perez, quoted by Mark Cannizzaro in this New York Post story today:

“It’ll be ready when its ready. You can’t rush this kind of thing. You can’t rush getting people back together in this sort of deal.’’

The PGA Tour’s new safety regulations include COVID-19 testing for all players and caddies before they arrive at the tournament and when they get there, along with thermal testing every day before entry to the golf course, social distancing and a number of other stringent guidelines that will make the tournaments feel very different than usual.

“If I can’t go back to work normal, then there’s no reason to do it,’’ Perez said. “Get it right, get everybody safe. People act like it’s been five years without sports. It’s only been about five or six weeks [actually nine].’’

PGA Tour Presents Players With Health & Safety Plans, Including A Recommendation To Use Avis Rental Cars

GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker reports on the 37-page “deck” provided to players and PGA Tour constituents outlining the “Return To Golf Events” starting June 11-14 at Colonial.

Chief among the plan’s tenets is that COVID-19 testing will be required of players as a condition of competition, similar to that of the organization’s drug policy. Testing protocols will include three methods—a questionnaire, thermal reading and nasal swab or saliva test. Players and caddies will have to be screened pre-travel, upon arrival with all three methods and daily with a questionnaire and thermal reading.

According to the document, the results from nasal swabs will take at least 24-48 hours. Players who are waiting for test results may practice or play on-site but will have no access to course facilities.

Parking lot shoe change for you.

Should someone test positive for COVID-19, they will be required to self isolate for a minimum of 10 days with no subsequent symptoms, or two negative test results at least 24 hours apart. The Tour and tournament would provide support throughout the isolation period and travel home by car would be allowed if deemed safe.

So just remember, rent with Avis and hopefully they’ll be flexible on the drop off location. Likely to be DFW but could be somewhere in Florida, too.

Speaking of Avis, the PGA Tour’s “official rental car” got a nice shoutout in the document’s transportation slide that, along with select other screen grabs, were shared with me:

As for testing, the document notes players, caddies and volunteers will get that picked up by the Tour. Media? No. And the television crew situation will be addressed by the networks, with information coming at a later date.

Here is the testing summed up by Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com:

Results for the PCR nasal swabs will take 24-48 hours and those waiting for results can still practice and play but will not have access to other onsite facilities.

“In implementing our testing plan, we will not do so in a manner that takes away from testing and medical resources in the communities in which we play or for affected groups in those communities,” the plan read.

Those who test positive will not be allowed to continue with the competition and, per federal and local health guidelines, they will be isolated for at least 10 days. A player who tests positive after making the cut at an event will receive last place earnings.

And one can presume, though one never knows when talking about something so precious, last place FedExCup points.

The document’s is, mercifully, reassuring when it comes to the Tour’s priorities.

I found this item on scoring and roping of interest, though it was the Masters scoreboard clipart that temporarily had me wondering if manual scoreboards were making some sort of retro-infused comeback.

Of course it’s not all about health and safety, commerce must go on and various acronyms are exploring all forms of exposure. Wait, maybe that’s not the best word these days.

Speaking of commerce, the ten-percenters and their stand-ins are not welcome on site, but the other folks who can work out a few kinks will be there.

Oddly, the on-site media will be allowed, but not tested, just temperature checked and asked questions. That could return misleading numbers since we all know how hot writers get when shuttles fail to run on time or the WiFi drops to double-digit download speeds.

On the full Orwellian front, “pool” reporters will be used to lob softer balls than normal. And if they bring a recording device capturing what someone actually says, life in prison awaits.

Oh, and approval of interviews of the independent contractors, is necessary:

All in all I’d say the plan appears well thought out and logical, with caddies getting to act like they normally do, the necessary folks allowed on site and safety well-considered. But it’s also amazing how many questions need resolution with just under four weeks to go and the folks working in enclosed spaces—media and TV—not inside of the regrettably termed “bubble”.

Player: Vijay Singh Has No Business Playing Korn Ferry Tour

With so much going on in the world far more grave than whether Vijay Singh takes up a spot in a Korn Ferry Tour event, plenty have wondered why the story got so much attention.

Before I direct you to Mike Van Sickle’s guest piece for MorningRead.com, I’ll say its pretty simply a case of entitlement.

When Harvard and the Lakers were found to have accepted PPP funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, they returned the funds because no sane individual could make a case for either entity being entitled to funds meant to keep workers on payrolls.

While Phil Mickelson and others backed the 57-year-old Singh’s right to take a spot away from a player trying to build or rebuild their career on a developmental tour, it is the golf equivalent of the Lakers taking money they do not need.

From Van Sickle’s guest piece, and I do feel a channeling of another writer named Van Sickle with the closing zinger here:

The player who gets bumped from the field may be stocking grocery-store shelves to pay his mounting bills, such as what KFT player Erik Barnes has been doing at a Publix in southwest Florida during the coronavirus-imposed golf shutdown, just so Singh can get some “reps” to get ready when senior golf resumes.

Obviously, the rules say Singh can play. A PGA Tour player can dip into the KFT if he isn’t eligible to play in a PGA Tour event during the same week. Singh, a World Golf Hall of Fame member with a lifetime exemption, is not in the field at the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge on June 11-14 in Fort Worth, Texas. So, he can play his local KFT event, which is practically in his backyard. He lives in the Ponte Vedra Beach area and is a divot-making machine at the TPC Sawgrass range. Singh is within his rights to play, under tour rules, even if it’s like Phil Hellmuth showing up for the weekly $10 buy-in poker night at your neighbor’s house to “get some reps.”

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.

PGA Tour Restart In Texas Needs Plenty Of COVID-19 Questions Answered

Five weeks from attempting to restart the 2019-20 PGA Tour season in Fort Worth, Texas, the state still requires a 14-day quarantine for travelers from California; Connecticut; New York; New Jersey; Washington; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan, and Miami, Florida. International travel quarantining is unclear.

Logic would say the PGA Tour needs to have things buttoned up soon given that players coming from so many locations have just three weeks to get tested and then in place in Texas.

Adding to the situation in the Lone Star State, as Governor Greg Abbott reopens his state, he’s been heard on tape this week admitting that it’s “almost ipso facto” that reopening the state for business “will lead to an increase” in COVID-19 spread.

Welcome to the great state of Texas boys!

Until questions are answered by the Tour about how everything will work, they are rolling out a player each week to select, special media.

So this week’s player who answered his phone at just the wrong time was Brendon Todd. He presented his sense of how player testing will work (pre-tournament, start of the week on arrival and once more during the tournament) and that sounds solid, assuming testing is more prevalent by then.

Beyond that, I would have thought things would be more defined for players by now, at least off of his remarks. With three weeks to go until many in the field will need to know the plan on hotels, flights, clubhouse, locker room and other indoor elements (where the virus is more likely to spread). But at least Todd endorsed the idea of changing shoes in the parking lot, one of the stranger elitist peccadilloes facing an imminent and timely demise.

From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com report on the call.

Todd, who said he spoke with Pazder, acknowledged there are risks, such as air travel and hotels, although he was told by tour officials they are working on one to two hotels where all of the tour players, caddies and officials would stay.

It is unclear at this point if clubhouses or locker rooms will be open. Todd said the latter would not be a problem.

"You're talking to a guy who played 20 Monday qualifiers two years ago and probably 10 last year,'' he said. "I'm all too used to changing my shoes in the parking lot. Even when you play the Desert Classic in Palm Springs we have different courses, you're in a parking lot. As funny as that may sound, it's not that big of a deal.''

"Will the PGA Tour reshape professional golf?"

Signs of European Tour financial worries have surfaced in different places, from a new willingness to consider a fan-free Ryder Cup in 2020, to Telegraph’s James Corrigan discussing on the McKellar podcast.

Global Golf Post’s Ron Green explores what this means and says industry insiders are suggesting a PGA Tour/European Tour partnership.

Multiple leaders within the game believe some form of consolidation between the PGA Tour and the European Tour is coming. The European Tour needs it. The PGA Tour can benefit from it.

It’s important for the PGA Tour, according to multiple sources, that the European Tour emerges intact from its current uncertainty. Different, but still here. At professional golf tours around the world, a forced reimagining is underway.

Of immediate importance to the PGA Tour is getting through what will be at least a three-month suspension of tournament competition. Each week the tour sits idle, it costs the organization millions of dollars.

“If the spend isn’t there from the fans, whether through tickets or television, the pot dries up,” a person familiar with the tour’s operation said.

Green outlines some world tour scenarios in such a collaborative setting that sound very familiar to the Premier Golf League concept. Imagine that!