By Fred Altvater
Ohio experienced one of the most intense seven weeks of professional golf in the summer of 2020. Beginning with the Workday Charity Open in early July, six professional golf tournaments were played in the state on five different golf courses.
With all sports shut down due to the COVID-19 beginning in March and the economic uproar caused by the pandemic, sports fans were ready for a diversion. Ohio golf courses and administrators were in the right place at the right time to deliver unprecedented professional golf coverage to fans across the world.
Ohio Took the Lead
Golf took the lead in the sports world and Ohio became ground zero for the restart. Since the game is played outdoors with minimal contact necessary between competitors and officials, the entire sports world wondered if golf could keep competitors, volunteers and staff safe.
Major League Baseball closed spring training and delayed the start of the regular season. The NBA was in the middle of their season, when players began to exhibit symptoms of the coronavirus and they were forced to shut down operations, as well.
Thus, began three months of uncertainty. When would golf, or any sports league resume operations and would fans be allowed to attend?
When the John Deere Classic and The OPEN both announced they would not be held in 2020, golf officials were able to slip in a substitute event, the Workday Charity Open into the Deere’s abandoned time slot and Muirfield Village became the host venue.
The Memorial, originally scheduled for its normal early June dates, switched to fill the dates vacated by The OPEN and was to become the first professional sport of any kind to allow fans to attend. That didn’t happen, however, as they were forced, at the last minute, to amend their original idea and go fan-less.
Collin Morikawa impressed fans with his aggressive play to win the Workday Charity Open. He proved once again, if you can win at Muirfield Village, you can win a major championship, when he hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy at the PGA Championship a scant three weeks later.
John Rahm won the Memorial with a solid performance on the slick and firm fairways and greens at Muirfield Village and moved to the number one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. He also added a second victory at the BMW Championship.
LPGA Holds Two Events in Toledo
The next week, July 31-August 2, the LPGA resumed their season with two events in Toledo. The Drive ON was hastily scheduled to replace the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. The membership of the Inverness Club welcomed the LPGA to this historic site of four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships. It also gave the ladies, plus golf fans, an early look at the host venue for the 2021 Solheim Cup.
The Marathon Classic, originally scheduled for July moved to August 6-9 and was held at its normal host course, Highland Meadows.
Both the Drive ON and the Marathon Classic were held without fans. Danielle Kang won both events and proved she had made good use of her self-quarantine time at home. She did get an assist from Lydia Ko, who uncharacteristically blew a large lead on the final day of the Marathon Classic, but it did provide for an interesting finish to the two weeks in Toledo.
Champions & Korn Ferry Tours
The PGA TOUR Champions resumed their 2020 season with the Ally Challenge in Flint, Michigan and then moved to famed Firestone Country Club in Akron for the Senior PLAYERS Championship. Jerry Kelly found fairways and made putts to earn his seventh Champions Tour title, but his first-ever major championship.
With the Korn Ferry Tour’s season winding down, the Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University hosted the second of that tour’s Final Series. Normally the three-tournament playoff decides who will earn 25 PGA TOUR cards for the upcoming season. This year, however, it is only offering exemptions into the 2021 PGA TOUR’s opposite field events for the top five, plus three exemptions into the U.S Open to be held at Winged Foot in September.
Curtis Luck outlasted the rest of the field in Columbus and hopefully that will give him a boost to realize the potential that was predicted when he was a top-ranked junior player.
Ohio was at the Center of the Golf World.
For seven weeks in July and August Ohio and some of best courses in the country took center stage hosting the best players in six professional events. CBS, who broadcast the first nine PGA TOUR events, after the restart, received record-breaking viewership, as sports fans everywhere were looking for a diversion from the pandemic.
Ohio proved once again that it has big time venues and some of the best golf administrators in the world to pull these events together, as well as, make them safe and enjoyable for golf fans everywhere.
