Friday saw plenty of positive COVID-19 test results announced across sports, and golf is no exception there. The PGA Tour announced Friday afternoon that golfer Nick Watney (seen above at the Honda Classic in February) withdrew from this week’s RBC Heritage tournament after one round. That withdrawal came after he tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus:
The official statement from the @PGATOUR after Nick Watney withdrew from the RBC Heritage Tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/Mkeyf2cL2f
— Ben Heisler (@bennyheis) June 19, 2020
It seems positive for the Tour that Watney wasn’t on their provided charter flight, as that presumably reduces the numbers of people he interacted with. But he still likely interacted with plenty of people at the course, and that’s why it’s notable that the official statement includes “working with those who may have had close contact with Nick.” While the aforementioned 369 negative tests there are nice, those are on arrival, and it’s certainly possible that some people caught the virus after arrival, from Watney or others. So we’ll see what this winds up leading to for the Tour. But this is certainly a notable data point, especially with Watney being the first PGA Tour member to test positive.
[Ben Heisler on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.