The Match will show off what golf’s ‘new normal’ looks like

Playing professional golf during a pandemic won’t feel the same. Just ask Mike Ehrmann, who experienced it last week and will again this Sunday at The Match.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning are all used to playing in front of tens of thousands of loud, cheering fans. But on Sunday they’re about to experience something neither of them is familiar with: performing for millions watching at home, but barely anyone there in person.

It’s part of golf’s “new normal” as the PGA Tour attempts to restart its 2020 season next month at the Charles Schwab Challenge. The first test came last week, when Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Matthew Wolff took part in the TaylorMade Driver Relief skins game at Seminole Golf Club. This week promises to be even bigger, as four of the most iconic athletes of this generation team up to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts in The Match: Champions for Charity.

Mike Ehrmann was one of the few there at Seminole last week and will be at Medalist on Sunday as the exclusive photographer for Getty Images. He’s covered golf for more than 15 years, witnessing the huge galleries that followed Woods around when he won his fifth Green Jacket last April. He’s never experienced anything like the skins game, though.

“It was bizarre. It was definitely interesting,” he says. “Last Sunday, it was a different feeling. It just didn’t have the feeling of a normal tour event without anybody else out there…I think everyone is still trying to figure out how to deal with this moving forward. But it was a feeling that you weren’t used to. It kind of felt more like you and I were out there playing golf.”

The PGA Tour introduced a 37-page health and safety memo to players last week, outlining the measures they’re implementing in order to get back to play for the first time since March. Everybody will be tested when they arrive at a tour-designated hotel. Anyone who tests positive will have to quarantine for at least 10 days. Players and caddies are encouraged to have limited contact, including players pulling their own clubs from the bag. Families are strictly forbidden from attending the events. And the first four tournaments—at least—will be played without spectators.

The measures are harsh, and some players don’t believe it’s worth the effort. Englishman Lee Westwood has said he won’t play if he has to quarantine for two weeks every time he crosses the Atlantic. Adam Scott, on the other hand, doesn’t think the measures go far enough, telling Australian media on Thursday he won’t play until July.

For Ehrmann, the issue is personal. A diabetic, he had a friend die from COVID-19 two weeks ago who was the same age and had the same health condition. Ehrmann was tested for COVID-19 both last week and before The Match and forced to quarantine. Everyone at Seminole had to practice social distancing and wear a mask if they could.

The four players last week were taking it seriously, as well. “I think everybody gets it. Everybody last week, for sure, at the golf tournament was very cautious,” Ehrmann says. “Nobody touched, nobody really did anything, everybody stayed out of everybody’s way. I thought it went really well. It’s different, but we all got through it.”

The players competing in The Match will have to adjust to a changing environment when they tee off at Medalist on Sunday. Woods played a round at the Zozo Championship in Japan last year without any spectators, but for more than 20 years he’s been one of the most visible athletes on the planet. Whether he’s in contention or not at a tournament, the galleries all flock to him. How he adjusts to having no one there cheering, snapping photos, or reaching for a high-five remains an open question. Ehrmann believes it could actually benefit him.

“I think it would probably be a little bit refreshing. I mean, you have to think that every swing that guy’s made since he turned professional has been photographed. He’s never by himself out there,” he says. “It could free him up a little bit. It could be nice to have a little bit of space and not feel like you’re so much under a microscope all the time.”

Most players seem to be buying into adapting to this “new normal.” The field for the Charles Schwab Challenge already contains seven of the top-10 players in the world rankings, including McIlroy and Johnson, plus Mickelson (Woods has not yet committed). Some may complain about how strict the new measures are or choose not to play for health reasons, but the general consensus appears to be that the tour is moving in the right direction.

“I was talking to the guys about it last weekend, Dustin, Rory, Rick, and Matt, and they all feel like [the tour is] doing everything they can to put the right protocols in place to make this happen as safely as possible,” Ehrmann says. “I think [commissioner] Jay Monahan is taking this very seriously, and I think no matter what it is you do, there are going to be guys who have a different feeling on how it’s going to go.”

The Match airs Sunday on TNT at 3 p.m. EST. The Charles Schwab Challenge begins 18 days later. If all goes well, the PGA Tour will be back after play was suspended following the first round of the Players Championship, a time when both the sports world and the entire country came to a crashing halt.