Ohio Golf Journal July 2020

Se Ri Pak won this event five times. Laura Davies, Brandi Burton, Paula Creamer, Meg Mallon, So Yeon Ryu, Lydia Ko and I.K. Kim, major champions all, have also won the Marathon Classic. The Marathon Classic is one of the longest running tournaments on the LPGA Tour schedule and has generated over $10 million for area children’s charities. The LPGA Tour has been silent since February 16. After the Australian Women’s Open was won by Inbee Park, Tour Commissioner, Michael Whan, his staff, sponsors and television network executives have been working tirelessly to create a schedule that will allow the women to return to competition, plus meet all public health safety requirements. The Ohio Governor, Michael DeWine recently announced that fans will be allowed to return to golf courses beginning with the Memorial July 16- 19. This will be a test case for all sports. Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL and Soccer will be watching methods for testing fans for fever as well as how to handle the crowding that will happen around the course. In addition to the Memorial, Muirfield Village will also host the newly sanctioned Workday Charity Open to be held the week prior to the Memorial, July 9-12. This event fills a time slot left empty after the cancellation of the John Deere Classic. The Memorial fills the void left by the demise of The OPEN Championship. The Workday Charity Open will be played without fans, but the Memorial will be the first sporting event of any kind that will be played with fans in attendance since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. The organizers of the Memorial have gone to great lengths to assure the safety of players, volunteers and fans for the event. RFID chips are being inserted into tournament badges for officials to monitor groupings of fans around the course. If fans become tooconcentrated