The PGA Tour Tested 11 Others After Nick Watney Tested Positive For Coronavirus, All 11 Tested Negative

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Golf Digest- Following Nick Watney's positive test for COVID-19 at the RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour said on Saturday that it tested 11 people who may have had close contact with Watney and that all results came back negative. The Tour didn't release the names of specific people tested, but his Friday playing partners, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor (along with their caddies), were almost certainly among the 11. In post-round comments, Brooks Koepka noted that he stood next to Watney in the player parking lot on Friday morning, while Rory McIlroy spoke with him from a distance on the putting green and Si Woo Kim walked past him on the driving range. It's not clear if those three players were tested. The Tour's response plan is based on "contact tracing," which is the process of finding and testing those who came within Watney's orbit before his positive test.

PHEW. That is a huge relief for golf fans everywhere. The 11 guys Nick Watney may have come into contact with all tested negative for coronavirus after Watney became the first PGA Tour player to test positive for coronavirus. So it would appear, as of right now, that the virus was contained to Watney and Watney alone. A player having coronavirus was more of a when than an if so it's good to see the Tour take it seriously and work to stop any sort of spread from happening.

I will say, the PGA Tour has to fix the part of the protocol where Watney took a COVID test after appearing to have symptoms and then was allowed to go out to the driving range to prepare for his round. That's crazy town and has to be tightened up moving forward. If a guy starts to have coronavirus-like symptoms AT ALL he's gotta stay away from EVERYBODY until the test results come back. He can't just wander out to the range to hit a few balls. Watney could've easily spread it to a bunch of other guys out on the driving range and before you know it golf is shutdown completely again. Nobody wants that. This is obviously an unprecedented situation and everyone is learning on the fly, including major sports leagues, but that seems like an easy fix to the Tour's coronavirus protocol. Best of luck to Nick Watney in his recovery.