The Wyndham Championship played at Sedgefield Country Club announced Monday, July 13 that the PGA tournament would be played without spectators on the course.
At least it’s not a cancellation.
But back on March 12, when the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament was cancelled in mid tournament, most people assumed that by August, when it was time for the Wyndham Championship, the world would be back to some kind of normalcy. However, that isn’t the case.
The first announcement was that the Wyndham Championship would be pushed back a week to August 13 through August 16 and the plan was to have spectators. The PGA Tour started back up in June with five planned fan-free events, the last of which was to have been last week’s Workday Charity Open, and corporate sponsors and limited spectators were supposed to begin the move toward opening the events back up to spectators at this week’s Memorial Tournament.
However, the PGA announced that the Memorial would be played without spectators.
The Wyndham Championship was prepared to host its corporate sponsors and a limited number of spectators, but the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for the Wyndham to be played without spectators or even corporate partners on the course.
Tournament Director Mark Brazil in a press release said, “I’m sorry we have to go this route, but I think this plan is the right call. We are very excited to be able to have the tournament and showcase the Wyndham Championship and the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina to the rest of the world, but these are truly unprecedented times. This decision is appropriate for the health and safety of the players, caddies, volunteers and fans. I am incredibly proud of our tournament staff and volunteers and appreciate he way Wyndham Rewards, the PGA TOUR and state of North Carolina worked with us, but with constantly evolving COVIC-19 numbers, playing without spectators is the responsible thing to do.”
Despite the fact that there will be no galleries, the Wyndham Championship results will decide the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, the $10 million bonus program, which rewards the top-10 finishers in the final regular season FedExCup point standings. The Wyndham Championship will also set the field for the FedExCup Playoffs, which begin the following week.
Watching golf is like watching their grass grow. Oops, I forgot where I live.