COLUMBUS, Ohio _ Call it quarantine, PGA style.
The PGA Tour has adopted a policy in which asymptomatic golfers who've tested positive for COVID-19 can still play.
Yet it decided to change its threesomes for the first two rounds of the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village Golf Club so that three players with the coronavirus were grouped together.
On Wednesday night, Nick Watney, Dylan Frittelli and Denny McCarthy were placed in a threesome for the first two rounds. They teed off starting on the back nine at 9:13 a.m. Thursday, a tee time that hadn't been on the schedule.
All three finished above par in the first round. Frittelli and McCarthy shot 1-over 73s while Watney struggled to a 77 in a round that included three double bogeys.
All three golfers tested positive for COVID-19 following the tour's resumption last month.
"Firstly, I'm happy to be playing golf again," Frittelli said. "I wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get over everything and get back on the course, but I'm super happy to be playing again.
"It's been pretty boring the last five or six days just sitting around doing nothing. It was fun to get out there. Obviously, (I had) a few hoops to jump through (Wednesday). It was a little tricky situation. But that's fine. Life is full of surprises, so we'll move on from there and hopefully get everything cemented in the coming weeks."
The COVID-positive golfers were permitted to play because they passed the PGA Tour's protocol for returning from the coronavirus. The tour clarified its policy for players and caddies who tested positive for COVID-19 and were symptomatic in accordance with the CDC's "Return to Work" guidelines.
Golfers may compete if at least 72 hours have passed since their recovery (no fever without using fever-reducing medications and improvement in respiratory symptoms, and 10 days have passed since the symptoms began).
Watney, a 39-year-old Californian, withdrew from the RBC Heritage tournament on June 21 after testing positive following his first round.
McCarthy, a 27-year-old from Maryland, withdrew from the Travelers Championship. Frittelli, a 30-year-old South African, tested positive while waiting for a charter plane in Hartford, Conn., after missing the cut at Travelers.
Frittelli said his symptoms were minor.
"Sunday night I had started basically getting some nasal congestion just like you would from an allergy, just had some kind of constriction in the tubes up there," he said. "But then I had slight muscle ache for an hour that evening.
"I worked out Saturday morning, so those same muscle groups that I worked out were a little bit sore, and then I had two headaches in three days that lasted about maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Besides that, it was really nothing. I did feel a little lethargic and slow, but that's normally the case when I don't work out or I don't get outside or I'm not busy."
Frittelli did, however, mostly lose his sense of smell and taste, a common symptom of the coronavirus. He noticed that he didn't smell the menthol when he applied some Vicks VapoRub.
"I was like, that's weird," he said. "OK, this is the final pieces of the puzzle that confirms I had it."
He said his sense of smell and taste returned on Wednesday. But he still tested positive that day after a nasal test after also doing so on Monday with a saliva test.
Even though he's asymptomatic, Frittelli, as well as Watney and McCarthy, aren't not allowed in the main Muirfield Village building, including the clubhouse or gym.
"Basically anywhere under the clubhouse roof," Frittelli said.
He and his playing partners have been given a designated area in the former pro shop to eat and relax. Frittelli said he stretched and ate breakfast at his hotel.
"Then straight to the parking lot and felt like Walter Hagen," he said. "Just walked straight onto the driving range."
Watney originally was supposed to play with Seung-Yul Noh and Bo Van Pelt. Frittelli was grouped with Nick Taylor and Hideki Matsuyama. McCarthy was placed with Fabian Gomez and Scott Stallings. The other golfers played as twosomes.
A fourth PGA Tour player who has tested positive, Cameron Champ, played in last week's Rocket Mortgage Classic after testing negative twice at least one day apart. He played with Keegan Bradley and Nate Lashley on Thursday.
