By Liam Morgan |
Players and caddies will have to undergo three screening methods for COVID-19 to be able to compete at PGA Tour events under a series of measures which will be implemented when the season resumes next month.
PGA Tour senior vice-president of tournament administration Andy Levinson said they will be expected to comply with medical questionnaires, thermal readings and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasal swabs.
Levinson said participation in the testing scheme “is a condition of competition”.
A pre-travel testing programme will also be used to detect whether they had previously had coronavirus before they travel to a PGA Tour event.
Masks and sanitiser will be provided by the PGA Tour at tournament sites, while access to competitions will be restricted and monitored.
The measures are outlined in a document sent to players this week prior to the planned resumption of the PGA Tour.
The first event to be held since the suspension of the Tour is set to be the Charles Schwab Challenge, scheduled to take place at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in Texas from June 11 to 14.
“For the player and caddie group, we are going to be providing that group with a pre‑travel testing programme, and the purpose of this is really for those individuals to understand whether or not they have the virus before they travel to a tournament market,” Levinson said.
“And then upon arrival, everyone will report to a testing area, likely at a designated hotel, where they will undergo all three screening methods – the questionnaire, thermal reading, and a PCR test.
“Everybody who comes on‑site at our events will have to go through a questionnaire and thermal screening before entering the property, and participation is a condition of competition.
“In the event we have a positive test, we will comply with all local health authorities as well as CDC guidelines, and that would include isolating that individual and may require a period of isolation or an extended time.”
Levinson said the PGA Tour was working with local laboratories in an attempt to reduce the length of time between the tests and the results from days to a “matter of hours”.
Tyler Dennis, senior vice-president and chief of operations at the PGA Tour, insisted the organisation would not take away vital COVID-19 resources from the community.
“We’re actually studying this very carefully and everything we’ve designed is being done in a way that does not do that,” Dennis said.
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.