BONUS: Players With COVID-19 Will Receive A Six-Figure Stipend

Ever since the PGA TOUR restarted its action a few weeks ago, the amount of players and caddies who have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased exponentially. But for those players and caddies, there is a bit of consolation that they can hold on to.

Obviously, no one wants to test positive for COVID-19 being that it is a deadly virus that can not only affect us but also our loved ones. In reference to the PGA TOUR, we already knew that anyone that tests positive for the virus is required to quarantine before rejoining any events but we did learn something new about the PGA’s plan this week. As Jay Monahan stated, there is compensation involved for players that test positive.

“We have developed a program, a stipend program, for players on our tours, if they were to test positive during the week or during competition, and to be able to be eligible for those protocols, we’ve just reconfirmed for our players, you must follow our protocols in order to qualify for the stipend,” Monahan said. And we now know that the stipend for players is $100,000 and for caddies, it is $10,000.

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It’s an interesting program that Monahan has implemented and honestly, it seems like a pretty fair compromise for the players. When you think about the Traveler’s Championship this week, players have a chance to play for over $7 million.

Losing out on that opportunity is a big loss for guys who make their living playing. The $100,000 that players who test positive are eligible for would be equivalent to about a 15th-20th place finish in a normal event, which seems pretty fair compensation.

One question that still needs to be answered is how much compensation if any, players receive if they are forced to withdraw because their caddie tests positive. That situation happened to Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell this week.

Technically, these guys could still play if they test negative themselves but are choosing not to because they won’t have their caddies. Since this is technically a choice, you have to wonder if these players receive that full stipend, a partial amount, or none at all.

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Overall, it’s good on the PGA TOUR to make this an option for players who don’t really have a choice in the matter. But with questions still remaining, be on the lookout for more information on how the PGA is going to handle financial compensation moving forward.

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