PGA Tour winner CT Pan is withdrawing from the 2020 Players Championship on Thursday, taking precautions against the coronavirus after the PGA Tour decided to allow fans to attend the first round at TPC Sawgrass.
Pan tweeted that he has left the Ponte Vedra Beach area where the tournament is played.
We already left hours ago. Not going to play😣
— C.T. Pan (@ctpangolf) March 12, 2020
Pan has a 2:02 p.m. Eastern tee time on The Players Stadium Course, and he is replaced by Brendan Steele.
Pan was talking with fellow PGA Tour player Zac Blair in a thread with Pan's wife, Michelle, about the potential threat to players to contract coronavirus.
The risk is at the players and family dining not on the course ! Players travel week after week, taking flights, staying at the hotel and eating together every week !
— Michelle Lin (@YclinMichelle) March 12, 2020
On Thursday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced fans would be banned from PGA Tour events -- under all tours -- starting Friday at TPC Sawgrass and going through the next three tournaments, ending at the Valero Texas Open. The Masters is the week after the Valero Texas Open, and any decisions about conducting the tournament is left to Augusta National Golf Club, which runs the event.
The Tour has also postponed the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship, which was to be played in two weeks opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
