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The 2020 PGA Championship will tee off Aug. 6 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, but the event will happen without any fans in attendance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Ron Kroichick.
Local health officials signed off on the PGA of America’s plans to stage the tournament.
The PGA Tour suspended its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic following the first round of the Players Championship in March. Play resumed this weekend with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
The PGA Championship will be the first major of the season because of the lengthy hiatus. The Masters was pushed back to Nov. 12, while the U.S. Open was rescheduled for Sept. 17. The British Open was scrapped altogether.
Kroichick reported the PGA of America is likely to make an official statement Tuesday about this year’s installment.
States have relaxed stay-at-home guidelines and allowed businesses to reopen on a limited basis, which opened the door for the slow return of major American sports leagues.
The return of fans will likely require more time, however. The number of coronavirus cases is beginning to increase again as people re-enter the public sphere.
California is among the states feeling the effect. According to the Los Angeles Times, it averaged 3,061 new cases and almost 65 deaths daily over the last week.
A major sporting event with fans in less than two months simply wasn’t feasible given the current circumstances.
