Pro golfers now set to be released from their Lockdown chains
Amateur golfers were set free from the chains of the Covid-19 Lockdown seven weeks ago and now the professionals look set to return to work in three weeks’ time, in a bio-bubble.
The Sunshine Tour is set to resume on August 19 and tournaments will initially be restricted to just the Johannesburg area.
Hopefully that will set off a chain reaction and the Nedbank Golf Challenge, with some talk of it being cancelled, takes place in all its glory as scheduled in early December to crown a tumultuous year, followed by the South African Open in January.
“We’re hoping to get the professionals started again around August 19, we’ll make a final decision next week once all the medical regulations have been gazetted,” Selwyn Nathan, the commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, told Saturday Citizen on Friday. “The IGT Tour and the Big Easy Tour are also hoping to get underway by the end of the month. At the moment the Sunshine Tour can only be played in Johannesburg.”
Killarney Country Club will be the first to make the daring plunge into professional golf in the time of Covid-19 and the Sunshine Tour are hoping to stage five events over seven weeks. There will be a two-week break after the first three tournaments to allow for anyone who falls sick to quarantine and at least be able to play in the last two events.
The tournaments will be held Wednesday to Friday to allow the golf clubs to be open for the amateurs over the weekend, allowing them to make valuable revenue.
Golfers from all over the country will be allowed to take part, but they will have to be responsible for logging their own health checks for 14 days before a tournament and will also be responsible for their caddies and all risk mitigation arrangements for them.s Three sponsors have apparently already lined up for the first batch of tournaments and the mini-tour will be streamed live across both Sunshine Tour and DStv platforms.