Report: PGA Tour could need 1 MILLION COVID-19 tests

It has emerged that the PGA Tour could require up to one million COVID-19 testing kits in order to salvage its 2020 season.

Last week, Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the world’s most lucrative golf circuit, outlined its intention to re-emerge from its coronavirus-enforced hiatus in mid June. 

That is contingent upon access to widespread testing for the disease being made available but, with president Donald Trump known to be keen to use sports as a mechanism for restoring ‘normality’, its not unreasonable to imagine that could happen.

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According to The Guardian’s golf correspondent Ewan Murray, as many as one million kits could be required by the PGA Tour if it is to complete its truncated season. 

“The rigorous testing procedures will involve players, caddies and officials being sent testing kits – already on mass order – to their homes, with a further and immediate check required if anyone has travelled to a tournament by air,” writes Murray. “Daily tests will subsequently be undertaken by each individual in tournament week, with anyone returning a positive result asked to self-quarantine for 14 days.”

The tour is scheduled to return to action on June 11 with the opening round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Texas.

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Along with the next three tournaments, it is expected to be played behind closed doors. However, The Guardian’s report estimates that there will still be as many as 800 people on-site at each event.

To put the PGA Tour’s reported testing requirements into context, the USA has conducted just under four million tests nationwide to date.