PGA Tour changes its coronavirus eligibility policy

Cameron Champ (Google Images)

The PGA Tour has revised its policy regarding when players are eligible to return after testing positive for coronavirus according to Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press on Wednesday. Under the new guidelines, players no longer have to wait 10 days before returning to action. Players are now eligible to return if they are not showing any symptoms, and have two consecutive negative test results 24 hours apart.

The new rules will now allow Cameron Champ of Sacramento, California to compete at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, Michigan, starting Thursday. Champ, who is currently ranked 80th in the world, tested positive for coronavirus on June 23. That was nine days before the Rocket Mortgage Classic started on July 2.

Champ is 25 years old, and is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour. He previously won the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi on October 28, 2018, and then the Safeway Open in Scottsdale, Arizona, on September 29, 2019.

Meanwhile, two more golfers tested positive for coronavirus this past week. Harris English of Valdosta, Georgia, tested positive on Monday, and Chad Campbell of Andrews, Texas tested positive on Tuesday.

English, who is currently ranked 139th in the world, is 30 years of age. Like Champ, he has won twice before on the PGA Tour. Both of English’s wins came in 2013. His first win came on June 9, 2013, at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee, before the event was part of the World Golf Championship. English beat Phil Mickelson and Scott Stallings by two strokes. Then on November 17, 2013, English won the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico.

Campbell, who is 46 years old, has won four times on the PGA Tour. His titles came at the 2003 Tour Championship in Houston, Texas, the 2004 Bay Hill Invitational (now the Arnold Palmer Invitational) in Orlando, Florida, the 2006 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in La Quinta, California, and the 2007 Viking Classic (now the Sanderson Farms Championship) in Jackson, Mississippi.

Campbell is also known in the golf world for finishing second twice at a major. At the 2003 PGA Championship from the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, Campbell was two strokes back of winner Shaun Micheel of Orlando, Florida. Then at the 2009 Masters, Campbell was part of a playoff, but lost out to Angel Cabrera of Cordoba, Argentina.