Fort Worth’s PGA Tour event at Colonial cautiously proceeding and open
The Masters is postponed, the Valero in San Antonio in canceled, and now the World Golf Championship in Austin is delayed, too.
That leaves Fort Worth’s PGA Tour date still on the schedule, and open.
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club is at the moment moving forward for its event scheduled for May 21-24 in Fort Worth.
There is a chance Fort Worth and Colonial could be the PGA Tour’s first event back since it suspended its season before the second round of the TPC Players on March 13.
“We are 10 weeks out and I don’t want to say we are business as usual because we’re not,” Colonial’s Charles Schwab tournament director Michael Tothe said Monday. “We are running through various scenarios, and monitoring what the City of Fort Worth and the PGA Tour do.”
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said Monday that “Colonial is still on at this point.”
At this point the clause “at this point” is applicable to every sentence uttered in every conversation in any language all over the world.
The Masters, scheduled for April 9-12, is postponed. It is doubtful it will try to reschedule its tournament for any time during the spring or summer.
On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that gatherings of groups larger than 50 people be canceled, or postponed. On Monday, President Trump told the nation that groups of 10 people or more should be avoided. And early Tuesday morning, most service-oriented businesses in Fort Worth — other than grocery stores — were ordered to reduce occupancy rates by half or 125 people, whichever is less.
Statements and policies like these are expected to affect golf’s next marquee event, the PGA Championship scheduled for May 14-17 in San Francisco. The announcement will likely also affect The AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas, scheduled for May 7-10.
The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that The Nelson is canceled, and now the PGA Championship is postponed.
If, and trusting this “if” is buyer beware, the CDC, public health officials and world leaders agree to loosen restrictions and life begins to return as normal in eight weeks, that would make the Charles Schwab Challenge open.
“I am as intrigued as you are,” Tothe said. “Just look at the last 48 hours. Really, until we know more about The Masters we’ll know more about our week.”
Of course, these days, expect that to change, too.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 11:20 AM.
