It was the end of round one at TPC Sawgrass. Hideki Matsuyama was the early leader, with Christiaan Bezuidenhout in the hunt. Then, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan walked into a room full of reporters to say the 2020 PLAYERS Championship has been cancelled, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
Thursday, 12 March 2020. I was watching parts of the opening round of the PLAYERS Championship. The whole buildup to what should’ve been one of the big golfing weeks of the year was overshadowed by doubt. Uncertainty was everywhere and it was evident that something big was coming.
The CBS commentators didn’t quite know how to do their job at an event that featured no spectators for the first time ever. The opening round concluded and in the late hours of that Thursday evening, South African time, the game faced its biggest threat yet.
The famous TPC Sawgrass in Florida became a haunting scene of what would become the ‘new normal’ for golf.
Commissioner Jay Monahan speaks to the media about the @PGATOUR decision to cancel upcoming events.https://t.co/TXPioSaZaR
— THE PLAYERS (@THEPLAYERSChamp) March 13, 2020
I woke up that Friday morning ready to do some rewinding of what happened throughout the opening round; how good Bezuidenhout had played. But, instead, it became a time to prepare for what lay ahead.
A round report was not worthy of what was happening. Matsuyama’s heroics, Bezuidenhout’s consistency, none of it mattered. The whole game transcended its focus to that media room where Monahan uttered the words we all feared.
READ: More gains for Bezuidenhout after Bay Hill showing
‘As the situation continued to escalate and there seemed to be more unknowns, it ultimately became a matter of when, and not if, we would need to call it a day.’
It became official. The strongest Tour in the world was surrendering to a virus. Golf was suspended.
There would be no PGA or European Tour action anymore on a weekly basis. As a golf publication we needed to make major adjustments. In the week before the PLAYERS Championship I remember writing articles each day stating, ‘This event was postponed, that event was cancelled.’
Golf can bring us together, even when we’re apart.
A message to our fans: pic.twitter.com/HUYGV42It1
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 20, 2020
The outbreak of Covid-19 changed a lot in the world of sport but it also massively changed our approach as a publication. We had to adapt and rely on content that wasn’t provided live to us anymore.
How long would this continue? When will the tours start again? At first, it was almost impossible to be optimistic, because this virus was bigger than golf and bigger than sport.
Priorities were set and human life became more important than ever.
But, it’s with great excitement and significance that we prepare for the PLAYERS Championship again this week. Four full rounds of cracking golf in front of passionate supporters at an iconic golfing venue. It’s often been described as the ‘Fifth Major’ and, given what we witnessed at the event that Thursday last year, this week will carry even more importance.
Five South Africans will be in the field, adding to the excitement that Johnson, DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson will bring. It’s worth appreciating how far the game has come in the past 12 months.
