Rory McIlroy rallied late to shoot a level par 72, Shane Lowry birdied the last for a 73 and Graeme McDowell somehow blocked out the “hysterics” to post a 68 only for the PGA Tour to later announced the cancellation of The Players Championship and all PGA Tour events – across all of our Tours –until the week of the Masters.

“We have pledged from the start to be responsible, thoughtful and transparent with our decision process,” the PGA Tour said in a statement some 14 hours after announcing that they would play without spectators from Friday through the Texas Valero Open.

“We did everything possible to create a safe environment for our players in order to continue the event throughout the weekend, and we were endeavouring to give our fans a much-needed respite from the current climate.  But at this point – and as the situation continues to rapidly change – the right thing to do for our players and our fans is to pause. We will be prepared to answer additional questions on Friday at 8 a.m.”

McIlroy was fighting a hook throughout the day but while he birdied his last three holes, his mind was on the coronavirus and not the fact that he was nine shots behind Hideki Matsuyama, who shot 63.

Drug tested for PEDs after his round, he announced that he’d be having himself tested for coronavirus on his return to West Palm Beach.

He can now bring those plans forward.

Scary

“It's going to get worse before it gets better,” McIlroy said, referring to the crisis in Europe and the closure of schools and universities in Ireland yesterday. “You look at the trends and you look at everything that's happening across the rest of the world, it's in its infancy here in the United States, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

“I think it's a hard one because you look at volunteers out here and a lot of volunteers 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, and for me, like I, 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.

“So it's scary time, and I think that the PGA 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 overreaction could look like tomorrow's under-reaction. So just got to take it day by day and see where this thing goes.”

Asked what should happen if a caddie or player contracts the virus, he said: “We need to shut it down then. Yeah, one, I mean, and that's the thing, more than anything else, we need to get, everyone needs to get tested.

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

He remains the big favourite for the Masters but there must now be grave doubts that the first men’s major of the season will take place at all as sports around the world announced mass cancellations and postponements.

“I don't see how they can let spectators in if they do play it at this point,” McIlroy said of Augusta National Golf Club, who are also planning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur the week before the Masters and the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship for Juniors on the eve of Masters week.

“It's unfortunate. I asked Bernd Wiesberger that this afternoon, where does he go from here?” McIlroy said of the travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump on visitors from the Shengen Area.

“Does he fly home, does he fly to Dubai, does he go through the U.K. to get back into here? I don't know how that all works. I think it's unfortunate and it's unfair, but again, this country has to take precautions and make sure that this virus isn't coming in from the outside.”

Hysterics

McDowell admitted there was an eerie atmosphere for the early starters before the PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan appeared in the media centre at midday and initially announced that they would play behind closed doors from today.

“I am not really sure a lot of heads were in it this morning; a lot of hysterics, a lot of chatter on the range and the locker room, so it was important to make some birdies,” McDowell said of the coronavirus talk. "Our arena is over hundreds of acres but being in close proximity, it's important the Commissioner made this decision to do something about it.”

As major leagues in the US suspended their seasons, the PGA Tour had been criticised for its inaction on COVID-19 with Taiwan’s CT Pan withdrawing just two hours before his morning tee-time at TPC Sawgrass, citing his concerns over the coronavirus threat.

Lucas Glover also posted a tweet critical of the PGA Tour’s slowness to act.

“What about all these people, standing next to each other, breathing on each other, handing us their hat to sign. I thought I’d wake up this morning to a different tune and that spurred that tongue-and-cheek tweet,” Glover said. “That’s my way of disagreeing with something is try to be funny about it.”

Augusta National will likely make an announcement soon. Players like Mallow’s Amateur champion James Sugrue are concerned about further travel restrictions being imposed, preventing him from even getting to the US.

LPGA, Sugrue and Mehaffey affected by Covid-19 crisis

Sugrue admitted he was unsure what he would do but was contemplating changing his flight and heading out earlier than planned. He’s scheduled to attend the Georgia Cup Invitational and Gala at The Golf Club of Georgia where he plays an 18-hole, head to head match against the US Amateur champion, Andy Ogletree, on March 29.

The European Tour has already postponed four events and cancelled another due to COVID-19 while the LPGA Tour announced last night that it was postponing its next three events.

They include the opening major, the ANA Inspiration at Rancho Mirage in California, where amateur Olivia Mehaffey was scheduled to tee it up rather than make a second appearance in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

With the NCAA cancelling its major basketball events, all Pac-12 events have also been cancelled, which brings Mehaffey’s ASU career to a premature end as she graduates in May.

“It breaks my heart to end my college career this way,” Mehaffey said on social media. “But I am forever grateful for the past four years at ASU.”

Dubai Duty Free Irish Open preparations “continuing”

Preparations for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet from May 28-31 continue for now with Tour officials visiting the Kilkenny venue yesterday for a scheduled meeting.

“Preparations for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open are continuing, enhanced by detailed risk assessment and planning because the well-being of players, spectators, staff and everyone involved with all our tournaments remains our absolute priority,” a spokesperson for the European Tour said. 

"To that end, we are continuing to work with the World Health Organisation, each National Government and their public health teams and our own medical experts, to ensure we have the latest health and safety and travel advice.”

Officials from the European Tour’s agronomy team were on site yesterday and gave the stunning parkland venue the thumbs up.

The Tour is not scheduled to begin erecting grandstands and marquees until April 13, giving them time to assess the coronavirus threat and make a decision.

As one of the European Tour’s flagship events, there is a strong appetite amongst the organisers to stage the tournament, even if that means moving it to later in the season.

As for amateur golf here, the GUI and ILGU issued golf clubs with detailed advice on how they can operate during the outbreak.

However, they have also cancelled or postponed several events scheduled around the period of restriction announced yesterday by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The ILGU's Irish Girls’ Open Stroke Play at Roganstown (April 3-5) has been cancelled and Woobrook's Ladies Scratch Cup (March 15) and the club’s staging of the Irish Colleges Match Play (March 26-27) have been postponed.

While the West of Ireland Championship is set to go ahead at Co Sligo from April 8-14, all GUI Inter-Club matches scheduled on or before March 29, the Ulster Regional Series (March 22) and the Boys match against Wales at Cardigan (March 20-21) are among the events that have been postponed.