CEO 'fully prepared' for PGA Championship to be played without fans

PGA of America chief executive Seth Waugh said his organization is considering three options to ensure the PGA Championship is played in 2020, one of which is hosting the tournament without fans.

"Our plan is to do it as normally as possible, with fans, obviously, and have a fairly normal PGA Championship at Harding Park,” Waugh said on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio. “If the safest way, and/or the only way to do it is without fans, we’re fully prepared to do that."

Waugh added that golf is uniquely positioned to return first in a world starved for sports, as players are spread out over hundreds of acres and social distancing already occurs naturally.

“We think that, if we had to stage it with no fans, we can get somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000ish people on the property, and that if testing is available, you’d be able to do that in a safe and responsible way and get it done,” he said.

However, if San Francisco or the state of California enforces rules that won't allow TPC Harding Park to host the tournament, Waugh said relocating to a different venue will be considered.

“We don’t certainly have a plan C right now, but we’d be prepared to think about (a venue change) if that became a possibility. We’re going to do everything we can to play the PGA Championship this year,” he said.

The PGA Championship is currently slated to begin Aug. 6, and it's the first major tournament on the Tour's revised schedule.