Only the top 125 players on the FedEx Cup points list after this week’s Wyndham Championship will qualify for the Playoff tournaments, which begin next week at the Northern Trust event.
In the aftermath of Watney being present at the golf course while he waited for his ultimately positive test, the PGA Tour changed its policy as of Saturday at the Travelers Championship.
It is not a query that begets a singular, clear-cut answer. However, after speaking with tour and tournament officials, players, caddies and an epidemiologist, the response also is not as ambiguous as it may seem.
You know the cliché: It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Sergio Garcia believes this age-old adage applies to the current plight of Nick Watney, who on Friday became the first PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19.
The first positive coronavirus diagnosis on the PGA Tour has brought with it a host of complicated questions, including what precisely led a player who tested negative earlier in the week to request a subsequent test Friday morning.
The Tour didn’t release the names of specific people tested, but his Friday playing partners, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor (along with their caddies), were almost certainly among the 11.
Nick Watney is the first player on the PGA Tour to test positive for COVID-19. He has withdrawn from the RBC Heritage and begun self-isolation, the Tour said in a statement overnight.