AT&T Byron Nelson didn’t want it this way, but it beats the alternative
On the same day the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open announced its cancellation for the second consecutive year, the AT&T Byron Nelson stated it’s coming back and will be open for fans.
The long standing PGA Tour event that started in Dallas and is now in McKinney will be open to what tournament officials plan to be as many as 10,000 fans per day.
The tournament is scheduled for May 13-16, and this will be its first appearance at the TPC Craig Ranch after it had two years at the Trinity Forrest in south Dallas. Last year’s event was canceled because of COVID-19.
This is not exactly what event organizers wanted when it made the decision to relocate the tournament to TPC Craig Ranch. But it’s better than no tournament at all, and 10,000 fans is better than no fans.
“We wish we had full capacity and we could really the knock the doors off but we do think we have a really good starting point here,” the 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson tournament chairman Jeff Walter said Tuesday in a phone interview.
“Everyone is excited to be back to something that resembles normal. It’s not normal, but it resembles normal.”
Like the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, the general public will find tickets for The Nelson scarce. The first priority will be to accommodate tournament sponsors, partners and any previous commitments made to long standing ticket holders.
The Nelson has also allocated complimentary tickets for members of the military and healthcare workers. That will leave an unknown portion of tickets available for general sale.
“We don’t know how many tickets we will have for the general public yet,” Walter said. “We would like to think we will have some available, but at this point we are not sure.”
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is currently aiming for at least 5,000 spectators per day at its event, May 27-30.
Like The Nelson, most of the tickets at the Charles Schwab Challenge will first go to corporate sponsors, partners, etc.
The people at The Nelson would like to think that by May guidelines will have changed again, and they could allow more than 10,000 people per day.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 4:17 PM.
