Watney positive for COVID-19; McIlroy says "it's a shame, but the show goes on"
Nick Watney’s first round partners, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor, walk on the ninth hole during the second round of the RBC Heritage on June 19, 2020 at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
The PGA Tour faces serious scrutiny of the robustness of its COVID-19 protocols after Nick Watney became the first PGA Tour player to test positive for the coronavirus at the RBC Heritage on Friday.
The former world No 9 withdrew prior to the second round but not before visiting the driving range and chatting on the putting green with Rory McIlroy — “at a distance,” the world No 1 said.
According to the PGA Tour, Watney travelled privately to Hilton Head Island for the tournament and was not on the PGA TOUR- provided charter flight from Texas, where he missed the cut in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.
PGA TOUR statement on Nick Watney WD
He tested negative upon arrival at Harbour Town Golf Links earlier this week and shot 74 in the first round alongside Vaughn Taylor and last week’s Korn Ferry Tour winner, Luke List.
He felt unwell on Friday and according to the PGA Tour, “prior to arriving at the tournament, he indicated he had symptoms consistent with the illness and after consulting with a physician, was administered a test and found to be positive.”
Questions will now be asked about Watney’s movements as he awaited the results of his Friday test.
Why he was allowed to get close to other players in the vicinity of the clubhouse as well as the range and the putting green when he had revealed he felt COVID-19 symptoms?
Watney, who lives in Las Vegas, will now be forced to self-isolate for 10 days. He can then return to action provided he has no subsequent symptoms or has two negative test results 24 hours apart or more.
The Watney news overshadowed the second round which saw Webb Simpson shoot a six-under 65 to lead by a shot on 12-under par from the in-form Bryson DeChambeau (64) and Corey Conners (63) on a day of low scoring.
Scores
“It’s a shame, but the show goes on. We’ve got 36 holes to play at this tournament.”
McIlroy played well and shot a bogey-free, six-under 65 to make the four-under-par cut with a shot to spare but Shane Lowry shot 67 and Graeme McDowell a 66 and missed out by three strokes on one-under, paying the price for opening rounds of 74 and 75 respectively.
McIlroy was pleased to find more fairways and convert the chances he created with some great iron play -- "You know, birdied the three par 5s, birdied the 9th, picked off a couple more. So just a solid day. When I got myself out of position, I got myself back into position and relied on my short game to bail me out a few times on the back nine when I needed it."
It was his views of Watney that garnered more attention, especially their meeting on the putting green.
"Yeah, he texted me actually because we had a chat on the putting green before I went out to play," McIlroy said. "But we were at a distance.
"He was just saying, look, I hope I didn't get too close to you. He feels badly that he was here today at the golf course. I said, look, it's fine. You never know. So I said to him, if I was in your position, I probably would have been here too. Look, at this point, you just have to concentrate on getting better and getting healthy.
"But, yeah, look, it sucks for him especially. You know, if you contract it, that's fine, but then it's the fact that who have you come into contact with, and who you might have exposed and stuff. Look, we're still in the middle of a pandemic. Until this thing's over, we all just have to stay vigilant and keep your distance and wear our masks if we're going out in public and keep washing our hands."
Jordan Spieth after his round (66-70 for T28) that was a matter of when, not if, someone contracted the coronavirus.
"The whole plan put in place was, not if, but when somebody tests positive, what's the protocol, and what are the next steps?" said Spieth, who is a member of the PGA Tour's Policy Board.
"So I feel confident, just in being on those phone calls, in what the PGA TOUR's going to do going forward here, and hopefully contact tracing doesn't lead to anybody else testing positive within the bubble."
McIlroy agreed with Spieth's view that a positive test was inevitable.
"Yeah, for sure, if you look at the statistics. I read a thing today that -- look, by the end of the year, there's going to be 200,000 deaths in the U.S. alone from COVID-19. So to think that us on the PGA TOUR, none of us were going to get it was very -- I don't think anyone thought that. I think the consensus was someone is going to get it at some point, and Nick's the one that's got it, and he's self-isolating and doing what he has to do.
"Yeah, it's a shame, but the show goes on. We've got 36 holes to play at this tournament." Asked if he still had confidence in the PGA Tour's COVID-19 programme, he said: "Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, when I do the things I'm supposed to do and I'm at the tournament site, I feel very safe, yeah."
The difficulty for the PGA Tour is getting players to adhere to its guidance on social distancing and other safety measures. In that sense, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
