PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. _ The most frequent word used by PGA Tour players on Thursday was "strange."
Strange to hear the news that the coronavirus had prompted every other major professional and college sport in America to either cancel or postpone competition.
Strange to think of playing in the Tour's signature event with no fans at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass lining the fairways or sitting behind the banked water hazards, waiting for good shots, and bad.
Strange to be playing golf at all.
"Nobody is taking this lightly any more," said Lucas Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion.
The news was stunning but after a whirlwind chain of events on Wednesday night, hardly surprising.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced during a noon news conference on Thursday that over the next four weeks, beginning with the second round of The Players Championship on Friday, the Tour would conduct its competition with no fans present.
Only players, caddies, player support, their families, essential PGA Tour and TPC Sawgrass staff, volunteers and media will be present.
The fan lockout, with hopes of helping combat the spread of the coronavirus, applied to the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour.
In addition to The Players, the Valspar Championship next week in Palm Harbor, the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, and the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio will be affected. The Tour buys another week after that because the Masters is scheduled to be played at the Augusta National Golf Club April 9-11.
