The Players Championship will be played as scheduled, PGA Tour says

The Players Championship will be played as scheduled, the PGA Tour said in a release early Thursday morning, amid growing concerns over the coronavirus and other sports organizations either deciding to postpone games or play without fans.

“The PGA TOUR is aware of rapidly changing developments regarding COVID-19,” the statement said. “With the information currently available, the Players Championship will continue as scheduled, although we will absolutely continue to review recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization and local health administrations. This is obviously a very fluid situation that requires constant review, communication and transparency, and we are dedicated to all three aspects.”

The Tour said it would provide an additional update at noon ET on Thursday, and that fans who no longer wish to attend the tournament can request a refund or exchange of tickets through pgatour.com/theplayers.

Earlier Wednesday, the NBA announced that it was suspending its season, and the NCAA announced that its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played later this month without fans, along with President Trump suspending travel from 26 European countries to the U.S. In addition, various golf tournaments throughout the world have either been canceled or postponed because of the outbreak.

On Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said it was “a very dynamic situation.”

“I think it goes without saying that the health, safety, well being of our players, our fans, our tournaments, everybody that’s involved in our ecosystem is of utmost importance,” Monahan said. “So for us, we are relying heavily, as other leagues and sports and entertainment venues are, relying heavily on the World Health Organization, the CDC, but primarily given the fact that we’re playing 175 tournaments over six tours, this really is about a market-to-market exercise and truly understanding what local public health officials, local government officials, what’s happening on the ground through our tournament directors in every single market where we play.

“Suffice it to say it’s a very dynamic situation, but I’m really proud of the amount of effort and thought that’s going into not only where we stand today but the commitment to continue to gain as much information as we can, and candidly the contingency plan for a lot of different scenarios, given that this is an unprecedented situation.”

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