PGA Tour Reveals Revised Schedule for Masters and All Events Amid Coronavirus

The PGA Tour announced a revised schedule Thursday and a plan to return to playing in June amid its season's suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Stephen Hennessy of Golf Digest tweeted a rundown of the revised schedule:

After the Charles Schwab Challenge kicks things off on June 8, the first scheduled major tournament is the PGA Championship from August 3-9. Also, the U.S. Open is scheduled for September 14-20, the Ryder Cup for September 21-27 and the Masters for November 9-15.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan released the following statement regarding the changes:

"The health and safety of all associated with the PGA Tour and our global community continues to be our No. 1 priority, and our hope is to play a role—responsibly—in the world's return to enjoying the things we love. Today's announcement is another positive step for our fans and players as we look toward the future, but as we've stressed on several occasions, we will resume competition only when—working closely with our tournaments, partners and communities—it is considered safe to do so under the guidance of the leading public health authorities."

The PGA Tour did not specify whether it plans to play the tournaments with fans in attendance. Andy Pazder, the tour's executive vice president and chief of operations, said on a conference call:

"We have a level of confidence that is based upon what we see [with] changes and developments being made in the world of testing [and] available tests. So we're optimistic, but I'm not going to say on this call that I have 110 percent certainty. But we are very confident that we will be able to play that second week in June."

The news follows the previous cancellation of the final three rounds of The Players Championship, the Valspar Championship, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship, and the Valero Texas Open because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Masters, originally scheduled for April 9-12, was also postponed. 

"It's the right decision," Rory McIlroy said in March when the cancellations were announced, per Ben Everill of PGATour.com. "A hundred percent. If in a few weeks' time this dies down and everything is OK, it's still the right decision."

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus concurred.

"As it relates to sport, I applaud the decisions made and the actions taken by all the sporting organizations and ruling bodies, and we hope they produce the intended result, which is simply to keep people safe and not expose them to significant health risks," he said.

The PGA Tour wasn't alone in making the decision to suspend its season—the NBA, NHL and various sporting leagues around Europe, including the English Premier League, took similar steps. And the NCAA canceled the men's and women's college basketball tournaments.

It was a nearly unprecedented month of March and early April, with the coronavirus pandemic leading to few sports on the schedule. But with Thursday's announcement, there is some hope that the sports world can get back up and running in the near future. 

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Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.