Players and caddies hoping to travel from the UK for the restart of the PGA Tour season face 14 days in quarantine on both sides of the Atlantic, officials have confirmed. The restrictions will affect Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari plus a batch of top-level caddies.
The PGA Tour is pressing ahead with plans to return to competition on 11 June at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas. Detailed guidelines have now been issued, including rigorous Covid-19 testing procedures, contact tracing and physical distancing measures at tournaments. The first four stages of the Tour’s relaunch, at least, will take place minus spectators.
Players and caddies also face restrictions. Despite being issued with paperwork which, when verified, will permit entry to the US, government regulations mean visitors from countries including the UK must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. Boris Johnson has intimated he will implement an identical policy for those landing in the UK before long. Players and caddies face the stark choice of delaying their return to the PGA Tour or potentially spending extended periods in quarantine.
“That is currently in place and it is likely to continue,” Andy Pazder, the PGA Tour’s chief tournaments officer, said of the US isolation policy. “So it is imperative that those constituents that we have that need to come back in the United States do so at least two weeks prior to our return to competition.
“We are working with the federal government to facilitate the return of players and caddies who are currently residing outside of the United States and we’re optimistic that’s going to occur. We have a relatively small number of PGA Tour players, around 25 or so, that are currently outside of the United States.”
So, too, are those who caddie for Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and others. Speaking at the start of this week, Fleetwood suggested he regards the restrictions as too prohibitive. “I’m not going to travel to America and stay away for four months, that is simply not a consideration,” the world No 10 said. It is understood Molinari, who lives in London, will not travel for the June events either.
The PGA Tour estimates it will have to carry out coronavirus tests on an average of 400 people per week. “Due to medical confidentiality restrictions, we would not publicise a positive test result,” said Andy Levinson, the Tour’s senior vice-president of tournament administration. “When there is a positive test, there does have to be some contact tracing that takes place, which is one of the many reasons why social distancing is so important. We haven’t identified a specific number, but obviously if it was a large number then we would have to evaluate the situation.”