PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage could be played in June, Golf Digest reports
The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing could be played this year after all, according to a recent report, though you might not see it in person.
The PGA Tour event on Hilton Head Island was scheduled to be played this week at Harbour Town Golf Links before the professional golf circuit postponed play due to the coronavirus. The tour plans to resume its schedule in June without spectators for some of the first events back, Golf Digest reported.
Tour officials want to restart June 11-14 with the Charles Schwab Challenge, according to the report.
The RBC Heritage is likely to be played the following week, June 18-21, the golf publication reported. That week is open because of the U.S. Open being postponed until June.
Tournament officials declined to comment on the report Wednesday. John Farrell, director of golf at Harbour Town Golf Links, where the tournament is played each year, said Wednesday that nothing had been decided.
“We’ve heard just like you have that there’s a possibility of it coming,” Farrell said. “It’s such a fluid situation. We just don’t know, if at all, how it will be conducted. We’re in a wait-and-see position right now..”
The PGA Tour announced on March 17 that Heritage was canceled, along with numerous other events, in response to federal guidelines to avoid large gatherings. The cancellations are an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
RBC Heritage tournament director Steve Wilmot said at the time that rescheduling the event was “not an option.” Scheduling talks are “ongoing and fluid,” the Golf Digest report said, with Hilton Head expected to fill the June spot.
Reached Wednesday morning, Hilton Head Island Mayor John McCann said he had not heard of the potential plans to reschedule.
Harbour Town Golf Links is closed due to the pandemic. Two other Sea Pines courses, Heron Point and Atlantic Dunes, are alternating days they are open with precautions to promote social distancing and limit contact, Farrell said.
‘As soon as it’s safe’
In a Wednesday teleconference with reporters, PGA Tour golfer Charles Howell III did not confirm the new schedule for Tour events. He said he had not heard about the possibility of the Heritage in June beyond the Golf Digest report.
“I don’t get the sense there’s an urgency or panic to get back,” he said. “The sense I’m getting is we’d love to get back and play golf as soon as it’s safe to do so, and as soon as it’s safe to expose a lot of people to this.”
The pro golfer appeared to be cautious about returning to the PGA Tour event schedule.
“In a return to golf, it would be extremely important to follow guidelines of the CDC, state and local officials, and only proceed forward when they say it’s safe and appropriate to do so,” Howell said. “We’ve found ourselves in a battle here countrywide that we’re all fighting the same thing. There’s people out there sacrificing their life on a daily basis to do this.”
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 9:03 AM.
