The Memorial Tournament has decided to go without spectators next week at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
The tournament hosted by golf legend Jack Nicklaus was to be the first of the PGA Tour’s events in the reconfigured schedule to allow a minimum number of spectators. The plan was to allow up to 8,000 fans per day with social distancing measures in place, with no bleachers or grandstands.
But in an email to patrons, the tournament said “with the support of Nationwide and local government, officials cancel plans to be among first professional sports leagues with fan attendance; decision made out of an abundance of caution, as focus heightens on player experience and television presentation.”
The PGA Tour is playing another event, the Workday Charity Open this week at Muirfield Villeage, which Nicklaus designed in the early 1970s. The Memorial, a 120-player invitational, is to follow next week. Nicklaus founded the event in 1976.