Canadian golfers returning to the PGA Tour this week are equal parts excited for the opportunity to return to work and cognizant that nothing will be like it was.
But in an uncertain world, there is some solace knowing that with the PGA Tour’s return this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge the objective remains the same: try to play four rounds in as few shots as possible.
That between-the-ropes objective, the players say, is the only piece of normal that remains from a time prior to March 12, the last time a PGA Tour round was played.
"I’m excited to get back to play, but there are a lot of unknowns," says Adam Hadwin, the PGA Tour’s top-ranked Canadian.
"Our week is going to look extremely different than it has in the past. All of the routines that we’ve built into a normal event week are going to change and so it’s almost like being a rookie again."
Hadwin, Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes make up the Canadian contingent this week at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas (while David Hearn, Michael Gligic, Taylor Pendrith, Adam Svensson and Mike Weir are playing the Korn Ferry Tour, which also returns this week). The event, which begins Thursday, has a Canadian tournament director in Michael Tothe of Burlington, Ont., and ironically is taking place during what would have been the 2020 RBC Canadian Open.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over (according to Texas Department of State Health Services figures released Monday, the state set a record for the number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19), the Canadians say the PGA Tour has done a great job in preparing the players for their return. This includes sending at-home saliva test kits prior to the golfers leaving for Texas, doing more testing on site and developing a 40-page document outlining the procedures moving forward.
"I’m beyond excited to get competing again. It’s what I do for living. But there’s another side of it now with the virus," says Conners.
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While each of the three Canadian golfers teeing it up this week on the PGA Tour have taken differing approaches to their return-to-work strategies (Hadwin retreated to Wichita, Kansas to be near his wife’s family, as they have a young daughter, while Conners stayed in Florida and Hughes was at home in North Carolina), one thing they’ve all had to navigate is conversations with their caddies.
Although golf is an individual sport, there is a team element to one’s performance, they say, and it’s nearly impossible to not have close conversations. All they can do, Conners says, is be diligent on and off the course.
"If one of us contracts the virus it’s going to get passed to the other, that’s just the dynamic that players and caddies have. We’re going to try to be careful about it," says Conners.
Hughes, meanwhile, is coming into the week with the most momentum of any other Canadian. At his last tournament, the Honda Classic in March, Hughes finished runner-up. So if you can call a three-month-old second-place result (his best in more than a calendar year) "momentum" then he’ll take it.
Coming down the stretch Sunday at the Honda Classic, Hughes nailed a 45-foot putt and produced a Tiger-like fist pump. The crowd exploded. He’s still trying to wrap his head around how there won’t be moments like that for the next four tournaments, as there will be no fans allowed at PGA Tour events until July.
"Everyone watching, the build up, the quiet and the roar, that moment (at the Honda Classic) wouldn’t have been as memorable… it would have been so much different. Thinking about stuff like that is going to be very unusual but it’s the only way for us to play at this time," says Hughes. "A hole-in-one on Sunday… crickets? It’s going to be weird."
But even while it’s weird, it’s still… something.
The PGA Tour will become one of the first major sports leagues to return after an extended break due to COVID-19 (the 91-day gap between PGA Tour rounds represents, according to PGA Tour Communications, the longest unscheduled break since World War II) and while the U.S. continues to navigate difficult waters of health and hostility, the act of playing and watching professional golf will be something normal in abnormal times.
Hughes, who took to Twitter to release a statement on the killing of George Floyd, says with golfers back on their big stage he’s hopeful the Tour and its players can shine additional light on that situation and keep important conversations going.
Golf has provided some important fundraising for COVID-19 efforts over the last few weeks. The Match: Champions For Charity (Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning defeated Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady 1-up) raised US$20 million while an event sponsored by TaylorMade (featuring Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Matthew Wolff and Rickie Fowler) raised more than $5.5 million.
While there is no denying the positive financial impact those events had, they were glorified hit-and-giggles. It’s time, again, for the real thing.
"It’s going to be like amateur golf again. Instead of driving up and handing keys to a valet we’re going to drive in, park, take our own bag out of the trunk, put our shoes on in the parking lot and go straight to the range," says Hadwin. "It’s going to be different, but it has to be. We’re not going back to normal any time soon."
