Without wishing to tempt fate, it looks like we may be fine-tuning those swings and getting back on the links soon in the UK. A UK Parliament's All-Party Group has suggested that golf should return quickly, and the R&A has prepared guidance for operating courses under COVID-19 restrictions.
The LPGA announced its revised calendar for 2020 on Wednesday with a planned return to play at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in Michigan on 15th July. There will also be more cash available due to increases in the purses for many of the events. Players will compete for an average of nearly $2.7 million per event.
Players such as Rory McIlroy may believe that a Ryder Cup without fans is not a Ryder Cup and so should be postponed but the truth is Europe cannot afford to postpone the event if the knock-on effect is the pushing back of the 2022 match.
Golfers will have an opportunity to tee it up with a top-ranked tour player, schedule their next golf lesson with a world-renowned instructor, get fit like a professional, or even experience Pebble Beach with a local resident, while ‘Chipping In’ to make a difference with the COVID-19 Relief Charity Golf Auction.
We reported last month that Lefty might be taking on Tiger in a rematch of ‘The Match’ which took place in November 2018 for an obscene prize pot. The good news is that the match is confirmed and as we hoped this time it is for charity.
American Golf has teamed up with Golf Alchemy and Cleveland Golf to give away an exclusive set of three NHS branded wedges to one lucky donator. The prize is truly unique, as the team at Golf Alchemy has branded each club with the NHS logo, and carefully added a message of thanks to all NHS workers from 3-year-old Henry Brown, whose mother Emma Marshall is a healthcare provider for the NHS in Watford.
The European Tour today confirmed the cancellation of the BMW International Open and the Open de France and the postponement of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, a Rolex Series event, due to the continuing threat posed by the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). At the same time, the PGA Tour announced its plans to resume the 2019-20 season with the Charles Schwab Challenge between 11th and 14th June.
We have had a great response to our survey of club members, but the results so far do not paint many golf clubs in a great light. Over half of the respondents told us that their club had not offered any form of reduction or deferral during the COVID-19 crisis.
As the golf world comes to terms with what a post COVID-19 golf industry might look like Clubface-golf.com has tried to put PGA professionals at the heart of what they think will be the emergence of an industry shaped by much higher levels of social media engagement at club level.
Since we ran an article on the attitude of golf clubs to subscriptions many people have been commenting. Therefore, we thought we'd do a very quick survey to get a feel for what clubs out there are doing. We would welcome a couple of minutes of your time to answer the simple survey.
Tommy Fleetwood's caddy Ian Finnis took to social media to raise some money for his fellow caddies who are struggling as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Offering 1,000 tickets at £10 each for a variety of prizes remarkably he sold out in just four hours. He is now running another draw with some impressive prizes.
Following the understandable cancellation of the Open, the proposed new dates for the remaining three majors are known. The PGA Championship will take place between the 6th and 9th of August at TPC Harding Park, the U.S. Open remains at Winged Foot and has been moved back to the 18th to 21st September and the Masters, usually the first major of the year will now come last between 12th and 15th of November.
