Nick Watney becomes first PGA Tour pro to test positive for COVID-19

Nick Watney has withdrawn from the RBC Heritage after a positive test for COVID-19.

The PGA Tour’s COVID-19 bubble has officially burst.

Nick Watney became the first player on tour to test positive for COVID-19 prior to the start of the second round of the RBC Heritage on Friday. He withdrew from the tournament following a first-round 74 on Thursday.

Watney was not on the tour’s charter flight to Hilton Head Island this week, instead traveling privately. He tested negative on Monday but began experiencing symptoms on Friday and was administered another test, which came back positive.

The PGA Tour addressed the scenario of a player testing postivie during a tournament week in their 37-page protocol sent to players before play resumed last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Based on those guidelines, Watney will be forced to self-quarantine for at least 10 days and unable to compete in a tournament. The tournament, though, will go on as planned.

The protocol calls for players to be administered a COVID-19 test prior to boarding the charter flight or when they arrive at the tournament site. The tour administered 369 tests before the RBC Heritage, all of which came back negative. There were also no positive tests last week at Colonial.

The Tour is also implementing contact tracing to determine if anyone who was in close proximity with Watney this week has also contracted the virus. That includes his caddie, Tony Navarro, as well as his playing partners on Thursday, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor.

The PGA Tour released a statement on Friday acknowledging Watney’s positive test. “PGA Tour member Nick Watney has withdrawn from the RBC Heritage prior to the second round after testing positive for COVID-19. On Friday, prior to arriving at the tournament, he indicated he had symptoms consistent with the illness and after consulting with a physician, was administered a test and found to be positive,” the statement reads.

“Nick will have the PGA Tour’s full support throughout his self-isolation and recovery period under CDC guidelines…The PGA Tour will have no additional comment at this time and we ask media and fans to respect the privacy of Nick and his family.”

Watney, 39, has been a regular on the PGA Tour since 2005 and has five career titles, most recently at The Barclays in 2012. He missed the cut last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

His positive test will be sure to raise questions over whether the PGA Tour returned too quickly following a three-month layoff. They did everything they could to protect the players and essential staff, and it still didn’t work. Watney is just the first to contract the virus; there will likely be others, and the question will become how many positive tests the tour is willing to deal with.

The PGA Tour heads to Connecticut next week for the Travelers Championship.