Mcilroy and Rahm lead strong field at Colonial
World number one Rory Mcilroy and Jon Rahm of Spain will highlight a strong field in Fort Worth, Texas next week as the PGA Tour returns from a three-month break due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Americans Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas will also tee it up on Thursday at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club course.
The 148-player Fort Worth field also includes world No. 3 Brooks Koepka, defending champion Kevin Na and Phil Mickelson.
One major change is that organizers are not allowing any spectators at the event which runs through June 14. The PGA Tour cancelled 11 tournaments during its shutdown, and revised its remaining schedule. The first five events of the restart, including the Charles Schwab, will be played without spectators.
The first tournament to have fans will be The Memorial, July 16-19 in Dublin, Ohio.
After the Charles Schwab, the PGA Tour now will feature the RBC Heritage (June 18-21) in Hilton Head, South Carolina; the Travelers Championship ( June 25-28) in Cromwell, Connecticut; and the Rocket Mortgage Classic (July 2-5) in Detroit, Michigan.
The PGA Championship will be played Aug.6-9 in San Francisco and the US Open is rescheduled for Sept.17-20 in New York.
Meanwhile, the Asian Tour announced on Sunday plans to restart its coronavirus-ravaged season in September after a six-month suspension, but players may have to travel alone despite restrictions beginning to ease across the world’s most populous continent.
The tour, which has been suspended since American Trevor Simsby won the Malaysia Open on March 7, said it aims to tee off again at the Shinhan Donghae Open from Sept.10 to 13 in South Korea, the first of three events in consecutive weeks. The $1.181 million tournament at Bear’s Best Cheongna Golf Club, Incheon, will be played under COVID-19 travel and distancing protocols which could mean few spectators and players using local caddies.
“We are targeting between 10 to 12 events from September to December,” Asian Tour Commissioner and CEO Cho Minn Thant said, with the tour calendar almost certainly extending into the new year before transitioning into the 2021 season.
“Unlike domestic markets, we understand international travel will slowly restart in phases and the ultimate lifting of quarantine periods will determine the tour’s ability to resume full-scale operations,” Cho added.
“If we need to minimise the number of foreign
Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas will tee it up on Thursday at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club course. The 148-player Fort Worth field also includes world No.3 Brooks Koepka, defending champion Kevin Na and Phil Mickelson
travellers travelling into a host country, we may have to do without private caddies, entourages, and support staff,” admitted Cho.
“It is possible that only players and essential staff are permitted to travel.”
The last of golf’s three leading men’s circuits to announce a return to action, the Asian Tour is faced with a complex international schedule that necessitates players from more than 25 countries crossing borders for each tournament.
The US PGA Tour will make an eagerly anticipated return on Thursday, without spectators but with a star-studded field including the world’s top five players, at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
The European Tour has announced a sixevent “UK Swing” to begin next month with the British Masters.
“We are targeting a conservative restart in September because of the current predicament with restrictions on air travel and large gatherings,” Cho said.
The $950,000 Mercuries Taiwan Masters from Sept.17 to 20 and the $1.4 million Panasonic Open in Japan from Sept.24 to 27 will complete the opening mini-swing in three countries where lockdown and travel restrictions have already been eased.