Rory McIlroy Takes Stance On Coronavirus At TPC Sawgrass

Rory McIlroy labored to an opening round of level-par at THE PLAYERS Championship, but he was pulling no punches about the Coronavirus and its impact on the PGA Tour.

McIlroy will head into Friday’s second round nine shots back of the tournament pace-setter Hideki Matsuyama, but the main topic of conversation all day at TPC Sawgrass was not the golf, but the announcement that the event has not been cancelled and will instead continue with gates closed to spectators Friday through Sunday.

When the 30-year-old Northern Irishman was asked what should happen if a player or caddie were diagnosed with the virus he was forthright.

“We need to shut it down then,” he said. “More than anything else, everyone needs to get tested.

“I saw that obviously there’s commercial labs now are testing at some capacity, I guess, but I think for us to keep playing on Tour, all the players and people that are involved need to get tested and make sure that no one’s got it.

“Obviously everyone knows you can have it and not have symptoms and pass it on to someone that’s more susceptible to getting very ill from it.

“I watched (PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s) press conference today. He made some very, very good points, and look, it will be a little strange to play here over the next few days with no fans, but that’s what we have to do to try to, I guess, do our bit in terms of trying to stop the spread and trying to keep everyone healthy.

“It could become the new norm, who knows? It’s going to get worse before it gets better. You look at the trends and you look at everything that’s happening across the rest of the world, it is in its infancy here in the United States.

“I think it’s a hard one because you look at volunteers out here and a lot are in their 60s and 70’s and retired, and you don’t want someone that’s got the virus that passes it on to them and then they’re susceptible. My mother’s got respiratory issues and I certainly don’t want to get something and pass it on to her and all of a sudden there’s some sort of complication.

“The PGA Tour are liaising with the best health officials and CDC and WHO, whoever it is that they’re dealing with, and if they think that it’s safe for play to go ahead but with no spectators, then I guess who am I to say any different?

“So it’s scary time, and I think that the Tour have made a step in the right direction and I think we just have to play it by ear and take it day by day, and if someone said to me yesterday, today’s over-reaction could look like tomorrow’s under-reaction. So just got to take it day by day and see where this thing goes.”

As things stand the PGA Tour will continue to play in front of locked gates until the Valero Texas Open in early April, with the exception of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship which has been postponed. The European Tour has already cancelled five tournaments from its schedule, two this month, two in April and one in August.