PGA Tour Announces Mid-June Return in Texas

In the reconfigured PGA Tour schedule announced Thursday, the Fort Worth tournament would be followed by the RBC Heritage, beginning June 18 at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C. A tournament outside Hartford, Conn., the Travelers Championship, would be up next, June 25-28.

Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut endorsed having the PGA Tour event in his state.

“I don’t think that’s too soon,” Lamont said of the Travelers Championship. He added that the tournament promised to be something that “showcases the best of Connecticut in a safe way.”

John J. McCann, the mayor of Hilton Head Island, called the PGA Tour’s return “incredible news.”

“It’s a huge win for golf and our community,” McCann wrote in an email.

From July to December, PGA Tour events would take place in 15 states and seven countries. Tour officials made no predictions about when spectator tickets would again be sold for tournaments. But the first four scheduled events, if held as planned, would be attended by hundreds of players, caddies, rules officials, event workers, a large broadcast crew and other members of the news media.

Brooks Koepka, the world’s third-ranked golfer, was skeptical about the timing for professional golf’s return.

“I hope we start in June, I just think it’s a little unrealistic,” Koepka said Wednesday in a question-and-answer session conducted on Instagram by his swing coach, Claude Harmon III. “You think about all these guys that are going to be in airports flying everywhere. There are so many guys. Everything has to be cleaned. Is it really possible?”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/sports/golf/coronavirus-pga-tour-return.html