Charles Schwab Challenge is a success, but we need you (the fans) back in the stands
Should Rory McIlroy ever ask you about my name, you don’t know me.
And you don’t want know how I missed the winning shot in the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge.
The PGA Tour’s first event back since the world turned off due to the coronavirus was a success. It featured a field as good as any in the history of Colonial, and suspenseful finale that required a playoff hole.
Ultimately, however, it will be remembered not for its winner, Daniel Berger, or even field that featured Rory, Rahm, Koepka and Phil, but the spectacle of a PGA Tour event with no fans that created an intimacy unseen in major sporting events.
Speaking on behalf of everyone who was at Colonial this week for the Chuck Schwab Challenge, we are all glad we did this. Now let’s not repeat this for another 100 years. Maybe 200.
We need you here, and took you for granted in ways that extend well beyond your credit card and three-digit security pin.
Players make the game, but you make the event. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that without you, we’re toast.
Sports-for-TV sucks.
Nonetheless, everyone here at Colonial deemed “essential” (pause for laughter here) experienced something we had never before, and will never again.
For example, on Saturday afternoon after watching Jordan Spieth blast a tee shot my phone went off. In these circumstances, where a cicada sounded louder than a Post Malone show, that’s not good.
On Sunday, I was the one person to follow Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy. The top-ranked player in the world had a gallery of one.
Standing behind the ropes 100 yards off the tee box at No. 12, I could see DeChambeau waving his left arm. I looked behind me, and could only see a marshal roughly 75 yards down the fairway.
Then Rory waved his arm, and it dawned on me they wanted me out of the way. I moved away about 10 yards, and suddenly the crisis was over.
There was no one else in their line of sight. Had you been there watching, partying and drinking with your friends, Rory and DeChambeau are not waving their arms.
As DeChambeau and McIlroy prepared to putt on the 12 green, I walked towards a tree, at least 40 yards away when I heard a whistle. And then another whistle.
Rory was whistling at me. I was walking in his “path.”
If you are there, what’s in Rory’s way are fans, a party tent, and likely a small gathering of attractive females whistling at him.
Without you there, however, I could hear DeChambeau talk to himself as he made a charge to the top of the leaderboard and throw out an “Unbelievable” when he missed a short putt at 17.
Most of us here had some odd experience similar to these.
As he walked off the green to the No. 18 tee box, he said, “[Expletive deleted!] [Expletive deleted!] [Expletive deleted!]“
While DeChambeau was unable to push his score down to minus-15, all of the great names here at Colonial could not either.
The final four holes saw the type of suspense CBS Sports’ executives, PGA Tour officials, and Colonial board members prayed for when they agreed to re-start this sport two months ago.
The suspense just did not include any of the great names that were here. Instead of Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas, or Rory, it was Xander Schauffele, Daniel Berger and Collin Morikawa.
Of the four days without fans, the lack of a gallery on the final back nine was no longer bizarre. It was too bad.
When Berger and Morikawa tied after 72 holes for a playoff and teed up at 17, us essentials followed their shots all the way to the green.
After Morikawa chipped and left a short putt, I knew we would go to No. 18 for another playoff. So I ran to the nearby bathroom to do what I had desperately needed to do for the last 90 minutes.
As I walked out, without so much as hearing a clap, there was Daniel Berger doing his interview with CBS on the 17th green.
Morikawa had lipped out a three-foot putt, and Berger had the plaid jacket.
Without you there, I had no cheer to tell me what had happened.
The 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial was a memorable success, but everyone involved in sports needs you back.
Especially Rory.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
