The PGA organizers announced on Monday that the rest of the 2019-20 PGA tour will take place behind closed doors as coronavirus cases continue to soar in the United States.
All tournaments still on the agenda have decided not to welcome spectators due to fears related to the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States, which has no truce.
The five competitions which have already taken place since the resumption of the PGA in June have all taken place without fans.
“Our No. 1 priority remains the health and safety of everyone in the communities where we are invited,” Andy Pazder, the PGA Tour’s chief of tournaments, said in a statement.
Golf enthusiasts were supposed to find players this week on the courses during the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, but this project was abandoned in view of the increasing number of contamination cases. The United States has been recording more than 60,000 new infections every 24 hours for several days.
The decision, announced on Monday, means that the most important tournament of the season, the FedEx Cup Tour Championship, scheduled for September 4-7 in Atlanta, will be held behind closed doors.
“These decisions are never easy, and we would like to thank the City of Atlanta and PGA Tour headquarters for their extensive collaboration as we arrived at what was the best decision for all involved with the Tour Championship and the community.” Allison Fillmore, the executive director of the Tour Championship, said in a statement.
The other two stages of the FedEx Cup Playsoffs, the Northern Trust on August 20-23 in Boston, and the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, in Illinois, are also affected.
Fans will also be denied the 3M Open next week in Blaine, Minnesota and the FedEx St. Jude Invitational World Championship scheduled from August 30 to September 3.
The USPGA, the American circuit, had already announced that its flagship competition and one of the four major tournaments, the PGA Championship at Harding Park, San Francisco, scheduled for August 6 to 9, would also be played without a fan.
