Rory McIlroy kissed his title hopes goodbye and Shane Lowry slipped to the back of the field as the PGA Tour announced changes to its COVID-19 protocols during the third day of the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

McIlroy’s erratic return to golf continued when he bogeyed two of his last four holes and carded a 69 that left him tied for 18th, eight shots behind leader Brendon Todd, who shot 61 to lead by a shot on 18-under from Dustin Johnson, who also shot nine-under yesterday.

It was an even more disappointing day for Open champion Lowry, who had 33 putts, two birdies, two bogeys and two double-bogey sixes in a four-over 74 to slip to tied 66th on one-under in the 68-man field at TPC River Highlands in Hartford.

Scores

Lowry has tested negative for COVID-19 twice this week but is prohibited from accessing the clubhouse or player dining after a nine-hole practice round with Graeme McDowell and brothers Brooks and Chase Koepka resulted in McDowell and the Koepka’s withdrawing as a precaution after caddies Ken Comboy and Rickie Elliott tested positive for COVID-19.

Elliott subsequently tested negative for the virus and is just one of several so-called false positives recorded inside the PGA Tour’s “bubble.”

Webb Simpson, who withdrew after his daughter tested positive earlier this week, is now entered for next week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit after she (and the rest of the family) subsequently tested negative.

Cameron Champ, who withdrew and went into self-isolation after testing positive before the first round, has since tested negative three times and been granted permission to return home.

Since the PGA Tour returned three weeks ago, eight players have withdrawn from tour events due to coronavirus-related concerns, seven of the WDs coming at the Travelers.

Of those withdrawals, two players tested positive this week—Champ before the tournament and Denny McCarthy after the first round.

Matt Wallace played in a single on Friday as his playing partners withdrew — McCarthy because of his positive and Bud Cauley as a precaution.

Yesterday, Australia’s Jason Day played alone as a precaution as he awaited results of a test, fearing he’d contracted the virus.

The result came back negative during his round but such a scenario is unlikely to arise again as the PGA Tour redoubles its efforts to make sure its multi-million dollar show remains on the road.

In an effort to seal its so-called “bubble”, the PGA Tour announced yesterday that players and caddies will only be allowed on tournament sites following negative “in-market” COVID-19 tests.

The announcement comes after players and caddies ultimately diagnosed with coronavirus visited both the RBC Heritage and Travelers Championship venues while awaiting their results.

“Over the past three weeks as part of its return to golf, the tour has been committed to learning from an operational standpoint and adjusting protocols in place in order to mitigate risk and promote the health and safety of all involved, including players, caddies, staff and volunteers,” read a statement.

“Effective immediately with the Rocket Mortgage Classic, players and caddies, along with all other individuals ‘inside the bubble,’ will not be allowed on property until first being cleared with a negative in-market test.”

Due to lags in turnaround times, this change will not be implemented for the Korn Ferry Tour.

Earlier in the week, tour commissioner Jay Monahan held an impromptu press conference at TPC River Highlands, announcing that further changes would be implemented to its plan while reminding his constituents what was at stake.

“All of us have an extraordinary responsibility to follow those protocols. For any individual that does not, there will be serious repercussions, and I’m not going to get into the specifics of it,” Monahan said. “But everybody knows and needs to know that our future, our ability to sustain this business and to impact the communities where we play and to create so many jobs is contingent on our ability to follow those protocols.”
 
Changes to date have included additional testing for those travelling on the tour’s charter flights between events and the return next week of the tour’s fitness truck to encourage use of on-site facilities.

As for the golf, Todd is seeking his third win of the season and a move to the top of the FedEx Cup standings after his career-low 61.

It was also a career-low for Johnson, who is seeking his 21st PGA Tour win.

McIlroy believes he is too far back and has too many players ahead of him to have any chance of winning after a round featuring five birdies and four bogeys.

“Every time I took a step forward I took a step back a couple of holes later,” he said. “Yeah, sort of stood still compared to everyone else that was going low out there. Disappointing day."

On his hit and miss form since golf’s return — he was T32 in the Charles Schwab Challenge and T41 at the RBC Heritage — he put it all down to the three-month break.

“Yeah, it's a little erratic. The good stuff is in there, but obviously there's a bit of bad, too,” he said. “Sort of just putting it down to having those few months off and not really sort of finding my rhythm yet. Hopefully, post a low one tomorrow and have a week off before going up to Columbus for a couple of weeks.

“If you go out there and play well, you can shoot something like Brendon or DJ shot today. It would be a nice way to finish the week, shoot a low one and have a week off to maybe work on a couple of things and get back at it.”

After back to back birdies at the 13th and 14th, McIlroy was within four shots of the lead heading down the stretch but found water attempting to drive the 15th and then dropped another shot at the last.

Admitting he was now “too far back”, he added: “I guess, if I had have been able to sneak a couple more over the last few holes, get to 14 and then all of a sudden you feel like you're right in it, but I went the other way those last few holes, and that's what took me out of it.”

Lowry’s hopes of scaling the leaderboard ended early. Starting on the back nine, he had to hole a nine footer for par at the 10th, then bogeyed the 11th and double-bogeyed the 12th after driving out of bounds.

He got two shots back with birdies as the reachable, par-five 13th and the driveable 15th but took six at the 18th and made no putts of consquence on the homeward journey, dropping another shot after finding a fairway bunker at the third.