The bubble is being established — a multi-layered entry point for PGA Tour players, caddies, and others to enter into the Charles Schwab Invitational in June and subsequent events.
The Tour has also created a new system, using a charter plane to shuttle players and caddies from one tournament to the next.
But what happens to those who miss the cut and are done playing on Friday?
Kevin Kisner, who’s a co-chair of the Player Advisory Council, said there are no specific rules, but he expects players will be strongly encouraged to stick around until the shuttle leaves.
“Everybody’s advised us to social distance and that’s the number one goal in all of this is follow the CDC guidelines, and we should all be able to social distance,” Kisner said on the Golf Channel to host Todd Lewis. “So if you miss a cut, I would expect that either you’re going home or you’re going to wait for that charter on Monday and stay in the same town.”
Kisner, who plans on attending the opening event in Fort Worth, Texas, from June 8-14, said he expects concessions to be made for those who miss the cut.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to have access to continue to practice at the host site through the weekend,” Kisner said. “Guys miss cuts all the time and now with the coronavirus, everybody wants to know make sure how we handle it but guys are used to being able to handle that. I think they’ll stick around and stay until Monday.”
Kisner admitted he was a little uncomfortable at first with the thought of coming back as early as the Tour proposed. He says officials have put the players at ease, however, and he’s now eager to return.
“We’re all excited to return to golf. We’re excited to hopefully be the leaders of sports and doing it the healthiest and safest way,” Kisner said. “I thought as early as we started talking — about June — I thought it was aggressive. As things have chilled out a little bit or flattened the curve, I think we have a pretty good timeframe on when we can return to work.
“The first take we did as player directors, with the new protocols, was a little bit tough to swallow at first, but as we work through it and we had a lot of experts in the field come in and help advise us, you know I felt more and more comfortable. And finally we got to a place that we could present it to the guys on the PGA tour that all unanimously voted yes to get back to work.”
