A pandemic, a plan and a return to golf with no interruption
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan keeps the screenshot his daughters sent him as a tease one year ago. Now it's a reminder of how quickly celebration gave way to concern and uncertainty in a week like no other.
The photo is Monahan being interviewed by CNBC on Monday of The Players Championship to announce the tour's new multi-billion dollar media rights deal, while the ticker on the bottom of the TV shows stock prices in the biggest free fall since the 2008 recession.
The cause was Saudi Arabia slashing oil prices amid anxiety over the spread of the new coronavirus.
“Being in a business news environment, it was overwhelming the morning, and here we are announcing our longtime media partnerships," Monahan said. "So it was this juxtaposition of an incredibly exciting, momentous day for our players coupled with, ‘Wow, we have something on the precipice of affecting what we're going to be able to do.’”
It didn't take long to go over the edge.
By Wednesday of that week, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The next day, in rapid succession, the tour went from saying there would be no fans at TPC Sawgrass the rest of the week, to no fans at any PGA Tour event for the next month, and finally that there would be no tournaments at all.
No other sport has a longer season than golf.
“We play virtually every week. We don't shut down,” Monahan said. “I was telling everyone that we canceled The Players and hope to return soon. And I had no idea what that was. That amount of uncertainty about when we'll play again is not something I've ever experienced. Nor have our players."
The Players Championship marks the one-year anniversary of the shutdown, and Monahan is all about looking forward.
The tour is allowing...