PGA ‘working through challenges’ on Asian swing, commissioner says

A second PGA Tour event in Las Vegas this fall remains a possibility, but it’s nothing Commissioner Jay Monahan is ready to confirm.

But he also isn’t denying it.

The Associated Press first reported Tuesday that the PGA Tour’s Asian Swing, slated to begin in mid-October, would likely be canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That would leave three weeks on the golf schedule empty, and Monahan and his team would want to fill them.

One scenario would be adding a second event in Las Vegas in the week following the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open, scheduled for Oct. 8-11 at TPC Summerlin.

“We have three events in Asia that are on the calendar right now. We have three great partners in Asia right now,” Monahan said Wednesday. “We’re well aware of some of the challenges in every market that we’re playing, and we’re working through those challenges with our partners. At this point I don’t have anything to offer other than that.”

One of the three Asian events, the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, has unofficially been canceled already following China’s recent ban on all international sporting events other than Olympic qualifying.

That leaves tournaments in Japan and South Korea as the last two parts of the Asia Swing. There are plenty of questions whether players would want to travel halfway around the world for them given the current situation with the coronavirus.

“We’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty,” Monahan said. “If we get into a position where we don’t think it’s safe and sensible to stage a certain event, we don’t want to take a week off. We want to have alternatives in place. That would certainly apply to those three events.”

The 2020 schedule has been in flux ever since play was shut down in March for three months. A dozen events have been canceled, a dozen others got new dates and one new tournament was added last week to fill the only hole in the calendar since the restart in June.

That new event, the Workday Charity Open, was played in Columbus, Ohio, at Muirfield Village, site of this week’s Memorial Tournament. That back-to-back scenario in Ohio is the same one the Tour could implement in Las Vegas.

Monahan said if the Asia Swing is dropped for 2020, he will work to get those dates filled somehow.

“If we’re confronted with that situation, that’s the approach we’re going to have,” he said. “But as you work through these situations with partners, it’s fairly complicated, so we still have a ways to go to assess what all our options are going to be.”

Chip Shots

— Jim Delaney ran away from the field this week to win the 2020 Southern Nevada PGA Senior Chapter Championship at TPC Summerlin.

Delaney, the director of golf at Southern Highlands, shot rounds of 68-69 to finish at 7-under 137, good for a 10-stroke victory over Kim Dolan and Darren Stanek.

There were just three rounds under par in the event, and two of them belonged to Delaney.

— Forty-three players will tee it up Tuesday morning at Las Vegas National in a qualifier for the 77th Arizona Open Championship. The top 12 finishers in Las Vegas will qualify for the prestigious event, slated for Aug. 3-5 at Superstition Mountain Golf Club outside Phoenix.

Greg Robertson is a freelance reporter who covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at robertsongt@gmail.com