The PGA Tour Model

Like so many, I have spent the last six months working from home.  Early on, I felt a huge void from the daily absence of sports.  Sports provides a great distraction from the day to day stresses that life brings.  And while we took for granted that sports were always a part of our lives, in the matter of a week, they were suddenly gone.  It was as though the lights went out and the world of athletic competition was gone.  

Over the last several weeks, sports have returned.  The NBA is finishing their 2019/2020 season inside a bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort.  NASCAR and IndyCar have returned to the tracks.  MLB is playing, well something of a schedule.  And tonight, the NFL returns with the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Houston Texans.  While fans are still noticeably absent from stadiums, the fact that professional (and collegiate) sports have returned is a welcomed site for fans all over the world.  

And leading the return to the field of play was the PGA Tour.  The Tour was the first major sports "league" to return when they came back in late June.  The PGA Tour has provided a blueprint, not just for other sports leagues, but for other sectors of the economy, on how to safely resume competition.  The Tour has utilized a robust testing protocol combined with an ability to contract trace where a player or caddy tests positive for Covid_19.  In the last seven (7) weeks, a handful of players and caddies have tested positive for the disease, returned home to quarantine, and have come back to competition.  And this is perhaps the most promising aspect of the Tour's return: acknowledging that positive tests are inevitable and creating a system to mitigate the spread to keep fellow competitors healthy. 

The PGA Tour's actions from time to time completely warrant the criticism it receives.  It's social media policies and lack of content sharing is beyond archaic.  Their refusal to broadcast live tournament coverage when tee times are moved up as a result of inclement weather remains head scratching.  But on this issue, the PGA Tour took the lead in shepherding a return of live sports in the era of Covid.  They deserve praise, and as we have seen, other leagues have followed suit.