No more Covid swabs for vaccinated players before an event involving the main American golf circuits (PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour).
Covid, the decision
This would be the decision that the PGA Tour, according to GolfDigest, would have communicated to the players through an e-mail.
The PGA Tour Health and Safety protocol therefore requires that the protagonists of the green continue to undergo swabs before each tournament until 14 days have passed since the recall of the vaccine (second dose) Moderna or Pfizer.
Same time period for Johnson & Johnson (single dose). Once that period of time has passed, players, caddies and insiders will no longer be required to undergo Covid tampons. The LPGA Golf Tour is back in the limelight with the Lotte Championship.
From 14 to 17 April in Kapolei, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, 144 competitors will be competing, among these nine among the best 10 in the world, with the only absence - among the big ones - of South Korean Jin Young Ko, number 1 of the world ranking.
Among the favorites to the title the South Korean Inbee Park and Sei Young Kim but also the Americans Nelly Korda and Danielle Kang, in addition to the Canadian Brooke Mackenzie Henderson, reigning champion. The 23-year-old from Smiths Falls won the tournament in 2018 and also in 2019, while in 2020 the competition was canceled for Covid.
On the way to the Kapolei GC there is also a chance for the American Lexi Thompson and the South Korean Hyo-Joo Kim. And again: for the Japanese Nasa Hataoka and for the Australian Minjee Lee. In the field there is also Giulia Molinaro, the only blue in the race, called to redeem the last eliminations to the cut.
The tournament will offer a prize pool of $ 2,000,000. It is not yet time to return to the field for Sandra Gal. She provided her fans with a health update in the form an Instagram video. The 35-year-old German native announced that she will be extending her medical leave of absence in the hopes of getting her energy levels and nervous system back in shape.
Gal has suffered from the lingering effects of Lyme disease, which first manifested in 2018. Gal took her first medical leave in August of 2019 in an attempt to regain her strength and stamina. She played in five events in 2020, beginning at the Women’s Scottish Open in August and ending at the Pelican Women’s Championship presented by DEX Imaging in Tampa, Florida near her American home.
Through 2021, she played in three events and failed to make a cut. In the video, which she shot from beautiful Sequoia National Park in California, the winner of the 2011 Kia Classic and two-time member of the European Solheim Cup Team said as quoted by Sports Central: “After the few events that I played last year, the COVID year, and in the three events that I played this year, I felt that my energy levels still were not where they should be. And I continue to not sleep very well. There is a level of stress that is not healthy for me to compete with at the moment. So, I decided to take time away to heal and get my nervous system back to where it should be"
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