News
PGA Tour cancels Players Championship
From a statement released just after midnight to a tweet posted at 10 p.m., it’s been a wild day for the PGA Tour and its public messaging regarding the coronavirus.
After initially announcing plans to carry on with its flagship event, The Players Championship, in the aforementioned midnight message, to a mid-day declaration that the tournament would continue sans fans, the Tour has elected to cancel the event completely (and all events through the Valero Texas Open).
PGATour.com staff posted the following message at 10 p.m. ET, Thursday night.
“It is with regret that we are announcing the cancellation of THE PLAYERS Championship.”
“We have also decided to cancel all PGA TOUR events – across all of our Tours – in the coming weeks, through the Valero Texas Open.”
“We have pledged from the start to be responsible, thoughtful and transparent with our decision process. We did everything possible to create a safe environment for our players in order to continue the event throughout the weekend, and we were endeavoring to give our fans a much-needed respite from the current climate. But at this point – and as the situation continues to rapidly change – the right thing to do for our players and our fans is to pause.”
The Tour indicated Monahan will make additional comments Friday morning.
The Masters is scheduled to begin April 9.
**UPDATE**
At 8 a.m. ET on Friday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke to members of the media where he further explained the decision to cancel the tour through the Valero Texas Open.
Speaking on the decision to cancel the event, Monahan said that Disney’s move to shut down their theme parks and Universal Studios doing the same played a role, before adding
“To cancel it is a really hard decision. It’s gut-wrenching. When you’re affecting so many people’s lives – that weighs heavily on you. “
The tour chief stressed that there was no possibility of The 2020 Players being rescheduled for another date and that the PGA Tour will pay out 50 percent of The Players purse (7.5 million)—equally distributed among the field.
Monahan expressed that postponement, rather than the cancellation of the event, was considered but that they had no “purview as to what was going to develop” and that they thought “this was the right thing to do.”
The tour chief also added that they are operating as if they are playing the RBC Heritage, which takes place from April 16-19.
Watch Jay Monahan’s entire press conference from Friday morning here.
With the second major of 2026 now behind us, the PGA Tour arrives in Texas for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
GolfWRX Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, is on site at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, and he’s already captured several WITBs and a look at some new colorways of just-spotted L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i putters.
Check out links to all our photos below.
General Albums
- 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Monday #1
- 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Monday #2
- 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Monday #3
WITB Albums
- Brennan Little (Gary Woodland’s caddy) – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Adam Svensson – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Martin Laird – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Lee Hodges – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Aaron Wise – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Dylan Wu – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- AJ Ewart – WITB – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
Pullout Albums
- New Graphite Design Tour AD shafts – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- L.A.B. Golf VZN.1i putters (new colors) – 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
Aaron Rai upset the odds to win his first major championship on Sunday at Aronimink, firing a final round of 5-under par to see off his competitors and claim the winner’s check for $3,690,000.
Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley were the best of the chasing pack, with both men sharing runner-up spot which was good enough for each to receive a check for $1,804,000.
With a total prize purse of $20.5 million up for grabs, here’s a look at how much each player won at the 2026 PGA Championship.
Players who missed the PGA Championship cut each received $4,300 each.
1: Aaron Rai, $3,690,000
T2 : Jon Rahm, $1,804,000
T2 : Alex Smalley, $1,804,000
T4: Justin Thomas, $843,866
T4: Ludvig Aberg, $843,866
T4: Matti Schmid, $843,866
T7: Cameron Smith, $637,050
T7: Rory McIlroy, $637,050
T7: Xander Schauffele, $637,050
T10: Kurt Kitayama, $496,707
T10: Chris Gotterup, $496,707
T10: Justin Rose, $496,707
T10: Patrick Reed, $496,707
T14: Matt Fitzpatrick, $364,762
T14: Scottie Scheffler, $364,762
T14: Max Greyserman, $364,762
T14: Ben Griffin, $364,762
T18: Maverick McNealy, $229,128
T18: Jordan Spieth, $229,128
T18: Stephan Jaeger, $229,128
T18: Padraigh Harrington, $229,128
T18: David Puig, $229,128
T18: Harris English, $229,128
T18: Min Woo Lee, $229,128
T18: Joaquin Niemann, $229,128
T26: Nick Taylor, $125,523
T26: Alex Noren, $125,523
T26: Cameron Young, $125,523
T26: Andrew Novak, $125,523
T-26: Daniel Hiller, $125,523
T26: Tom Hoge, $125,523
T26: Sam Burns, $125,523
T26: Hideki Matsuyama, $125,523
T26: Bud Cauley, $125,523
T35: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, $78,805
T35: Patrick Cantlay, $78,805
T35: Ryo Hisatsune, $78,805
T35: Daniel Berger, $78,805
T35: Ryan Fox, $78,805
T35: Haotong Li, $78,805
T35: Aldrich Potgieter, $78,805
T35: Si Woo Kim, $78,805
T35: Martin Kaymer, $78,805
T44: Chris Kirk, $53,743
T44: Matt Wallace, $53,743
T44: Shane Lowry, $53,743
T44: Jhonattan Vegas, $53,743
T44: Denny McCarthy, $53,743
T44: Chandler Blachet, $53,743
T44: Taylor Pendrith, $53,743
T44: Dustin Johnson, $53,743
T44: Nicolai Hojgaard, $53,743
T44: Michael Kim, $53,743
T44: Kristoffer Reitan, $53,743
T55: Collin Morikawa, $34,186
T55: Corey Conners, $34,186
T55: Andrew Putnam, $34,186
T55: Brooks Koepka, $34,186
T55: Mikael Lindberg, $34,186
T60: Sami Valimaki, $29,218
T60: Sahith Theegala, $29,218
T60: Rico Hoey, $29,218
T60: Rickie Fowler, $29,218
T60: Brian Harman, $29,218
T65: Casey Jarvis, $26,900
T65: Jason Day, $26,900
T65: Rasmus Hojgaard, $26,900
T65: Keith Mitchell, $26,900
T65: Sam Stevens, $26,900
Justin Rose WITB 2026 (April): Full WITB breakdown with new McLaren irons
RBC Heritage Tour Report: More minis, course-specific setups, Spider & GTS launches
What’s the story behind Webb Simpson’s custom-stamped irons?
Cadillac Championship Tour Report: Spieth’s sizable changes, McLaren Golf launches, and more
Kristoffer Reitan’s winning WITB: 2026 Truist Championship
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2026 Cadillac Championship
Aaron Rai’s winning WITB: 2026 PGA Championship
Nelly Korda WITB 2026 (April)
Justin Rose on the switch to McLaren Golf, learnings from previous equipment moves
Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship
Patrick Reed WITB 2026 (May)
Driver: Titleist GT3 (9 degrees) Buy here. Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 130 M.S.I. 70 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi35 (15 degrees)...
Aaron Rai’s winning WITB: 2026 PGA Championship
Driver: TaylorMade M6 (9 degrees) Shaft: Aldilda Synergy Blue 70 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue...
Michael Block WITB 2026 (May)
Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black VeloCore+ 5 X 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D (15 degrees @14.25) Shaft: Mitsubishi...
Bryson DeChambeau WITB 2026 (May)
Driver: Krank Formula Fire Pro (6 degrees) Shaft: Project X Prototype 3-wood: Krank Formula Fire (10 degrees) Shaft: LA Golf BAD...
-
Whats in the Bag3 weeks agoKristoffer Reitan’s winning WITB: 2026 Truist Championship
-
Whats in the Bag2 weeks ago
Aaron Rai’s winning WITB: 2026 PGA Championship
-
Tour Photo Galleries3 weeks agoPhotos from the 2026 PGA Championship
-
Equipment3 weeks agoGolfWRX Launch Report: 2026 Titleist GTS drivers
-
Equipment2 weeks agoPGA Championship Tour Report: Fitzpatrick, Koepka among big-name putter switches for Aronimink
-
News2 weeks agoWITB Time Machine: Phil Mickelson’s winning WITB, 2021 PGA Championship
-
Equipment2 weeks agoWhich of Tiger’s major winning irons are your favorite? – GolfWRXers discuss
-
Equipment2 weeks agoLead Tape Report: Adjusting the swingweight of the Wanamaker Trophy
Nack Jicklaus
Mar 14, 2020 at 12:04 pm
First we had to wipe our butt’s with whatever we can scrounge up, now We can’t watch golf on tv???? Society is collapsing.
Johnny Penso
Mar 13, 2020 at 10:40 pm
Dumb decision. Unless people are going home and bolting the door, decisions like this will do nothing to help the situation. Players will still go to the range with their caddies, volunteers will still be living their lives as will all the staff that attend the event. Keeping the spectators away just because of the sheer volume was the right play. Cancelling the event is just stupid.
ViralGolf2020
Mar 13, 2020 at 9:47 pm
Isn’t it amazing how all the medical professionals in the world can be wrong – and a bunch of semi-illiterate a-holes on a golf site know better?
A. Commoner
Mar 15, 2020 at 10:25 am
Great comment. Suspect a huge number of people would agree with your point.
d
Mar 13, 2020 at 11:16 am
I just heard pga commish say why they canceled pga champ. espn interview. espn had to ask twice cause he didnt give a solid reason. basically said everyone else was cancelling everything so they did….there you go….
dat
Mar 13, 2020 at 9:10 am
Hold it without the crowds. Same goes for the majors. If they cancel the Masters I’m done.
Bubbert
Mar 13, 2020 at 10:17 am
Masters just got postponed (not cancelled).
Logic
Mar 13, 2020 at 8:47 am
There are only 1300 confirmed cases out of 327 million people. This is dumb. We had more cases of measles last year and we didn’t shut the world down.
Richthed
Mar 13, 2020 at 9:19 am
There’s a vaccine for that one, silly. This is different. Developed places don’t care about what they are protected from.
Thanks
Mar 13, 2020 at 9:25 am
The Flu vaccine gets the strain wrong all the time. This is gonna spread but we shouldn’t turn the country upside down for what amounts to the flu
Moosejaw McWilligher
Mar 13, 2020 at 11:47 am
Typical conservative nearsightedness and stupidity.
Have you ever heard of “Italy” or “China”? If we want THAT to happen in the USA, then, yes, we should be defiant inbred morons and ignore ALL of the data and advice from the experts…
T-hole, by the way, is NOT an expert in ANYTHING.
What a bunch of snowflakes – waa waa my little millionaire pitch and putt playtime isn’t on TV this week.
T-bone
Mar 13, 2020 at 8:41 pm
So how many deaths total?
Moosejaw McWilligher
Mar 13, 2020 at 10:05 pm
“Logic” –
there have been 1629 cases in the US, 41 have died *so far*. More of those 1629 may still die. That death rate is 2.5%. Extrapolating, if 100,000 people contract it, 2500 would die.
There have been reported cases in 47 states as of today. People cannot quarantine themselves until they know (or admit) they might be infected. Our so-called leader’s obfuscation of the problem caused serious delays in our response which will have an impact.
In China, 80,000 cases, over 3,000 dead. Closer to 5%.
Golf pros are on airplanes at least once a week, they have contact with hundreds of fans every day, and they come from every state and every country. They are both highly at-risk themselves (which may be unlikely to kill them) but are also perfect carriers, to their family, friends, each other, fans, caddies, tourney workers, etc.
People who don’t understand “prevention” probably have more kids than they intended, and probably still think tr*ckle-down economics works.
Gurn
Mar 13, 2020 at 7:03 am
They were already there!
Ban the fans.
No caddies.
And have the greatest 1 club tourney in the world !
Sad!
Jim
Mar 13, 2020 at 6:45 am
Snowflakes and lawyers…we can live without both … what a farce!
Warren Gray
Mar 13, 2020 at 5:47 am
P.C. and fear of Litigation gone out of control
Jbone
Mar 13, 2020 at 5:44 am
Media are blowing this wildly out of proportion for political reasons
Joe
Mar 13, 2020 at 6:46 am
be careful the snowflake Golfwrx moderators will find you and ban you for LIFE…no pro-American comments will be tolerated by the left-wing mods!
Drew
Mar 12, 2020 at 10:23 pm
Everyones already there. Why not just finish the event and then start the cancelations afterward? Maybe I’m just a bumming golf fan that was really looking forward to this weekend…
Scott Blandford
Mar 12, 2020 at 10:50 pm
I am in the U.K. and wish we had the same mind set as America. I went to college in America on a soccer scholarship and spent 5 years in the country. So I see it from both angles. Your government are taking this seriously, it’s sport. They are making the decisions. There will always be a later date to play this amazing event. I watch golf religiously every week so it will be a miss But this is serious. When there are deaths and it is so rampant, life comes before all!