According to Brian Wacker of Golfworld on Thursday, the 2020 John Deere Classic, which was set to be played from July 9 to 12, 2020 at the TPC Deere Run Golf Course in Silvis, Illinois has been cancelled because of coronavirus. There are currently 117,455 cases of coronavirus in the state of Illinois and 5,270 deaths.
Just how huge are Illinois’s coronavirus numbers? Illinois is currently ranked third in the United States among all states in coronavirus cases. They are only behind New York (377, 714 cases) and New Jersey (160, 319 cases). Illinois even has over 10,000 more cases than the state of California, even though California has well over three times the population of Illinois.
Quite frankly cancelling the John Deere Classic was without question the right thing to do. Due to the fact that coronavirus continues to hammer the United States of America, all PGA events should be cancelled until the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, Tennessee, which is set to start on July 30. However, the PGA Tour seems to have a different plan. They actually want to try and put another tournament into the John Deere time slot.
Currently, there are six events set to be played before the WGC. They are the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas, the RBC Heritage in South Carolina, the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Michigan, the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, and the 3M Open in Minnesota. All six states where professional golf is to be played have huge numbers of coronavirus cases. Texas has 62, 121 cases, and 1653 deaths. South Carolina has 11, 131 cases of coronavirus, and 483 deaths. Connecticut has 41,762 cases of coronavirus and 3868 deaths. Michigan has 56, 621 cases of coronavirus, and 5,406 deaths. Ohio 34, 625 cases of coronavirus, and 2137 deaths. Minnesota has 23, 531 cases of coronavirus, and 1,006 deaths.
What is even more stunning is that the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and the Meijer LPGA Classic in Michigan have been cancelled on the LPGA Tour. However, the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Michigan is still scheduled to go on as scheduled on the PGA Tour.
