The PGA Tour has advised as members it is considering a return to competition on May 21st at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Fort Worth, Texas.
In a leaked memo on Thursday to all players, the Tour said it has been looking at options ‘preserve the maximum number of events we can while giving us more time as the crisis evolves’ and that it has not ruled out a restart from the Coronavirus in Texas.
And one of those options included the possibility of playing tournaments without galleries
The May 21-24 Charles Schwab Challenge has been singled out as it is very next event on the Tour’s 2019/20 wrapaound schedule not to have been either postponed or cancelled.
Already, the Tour has been forced into postponing or cancelling nine regular season events commencing from last month’s Players Championship.
Though the Florida-based body stated also that ‘we will continue to lean on guidance from health and government officials when coming to its decision about when to resume play’.
Once a final decision on a re-start date is made, the Tour stated also it will give its players the courtesy of a few week’s notice before any such move.
“At a minimum, it is our hope to give the membership at least three to four weeks’ notice before restarting the season,” the memo said according to Golf Digest.
“We understand many of you may be impacted by travel restrictions and/or the inability to practice in your area, thus we want to be able to give you as much time as possible to allow you to come back fully prepared.”
On Friday afternoon, the Tour also held a conference call with members of its player board, and next Tuesday members of the Player Advisory Council will join a conference call to discuss the schedule and the impact on player eligibility.
That includes such matters as playing a minimum of 15 events to maintain membership and field sizes.
