After three months of disappearance of the PGA Tour due to national lockdown of the economy because of the terrible COVID-19 viral disease, U.S. pro golf is back, at least partially. The first tournament is being played this week in Fort Worth, Texas. It is the old Colonial National Invitation Tournament (the oldest tournament on the PGA Tour, since 1947), played at Colonial Country Club and renamed the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Xander Schauffele has a one stroke lead after 54 holes with 13-under par total with one round to play, tomorrow. I said “partially” since no fans are allowed on the course due to the very contagious virus. This is the way pro sports in the U.S. is going to be for a while. Will it be this way until they create a vaccine and get most people inoculated with it? Who knows! That could take us through much of next year.
Some of the best names in the sport are still there in the hunt, including nearby Dallas’ own Jordan Spieth (-12) and Gary Woodland (-12) who are tied for second place, and Rory McIlroy (-10), Justin Rose (-10), and Patrick Reed (-10), all of whom are tied for ninth place. All of these players except Xander are recent major championship winners.
So, the field is bunched at the top, leaving several of the best players in pro golf with a reasonable chance to win tomorrow. In fact, four of the top five players in the world are in this field. It doesn’t get much better than that on the PGA Tour. Welcome back guys. It’s just that you’ll have to kind of make believe that there is some excitement somewhere about what you’re doing out there, with no fans to cheer you on.
(P.S.: Look for my new book to be published by CreateSpace at amazon.com next week entitled Moses Predicted COVID-19.)
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