Charles Schwab Challenge tees off this week with 12,000 fans expected per day, a huge difference from last year

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This article was published 26/05/2021 (1909 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What a difference a year makes at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

The event, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, was the first tournament played after the PGA Tour took a three-month break due to COVID-19 in 2020.

This year it will welcome approximately 12,000 fans per day, almost all of whom will be unmasked.

The PGA Tour released a policy last week that stated in part if anyone is fully vaccinated and on site they do not need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors. And, if someone is not fully vaccinated, they can choose to wear a mask indoors or outdoors. Tournament director Michael Tothe says it’s basically “an honour system.”

“We’re not going to police it. We can’t. But if someone wants to wear a mask, we’ll encourage them to do so,” says Tothe. “If they aren’t wearing masks, we are assuming they are fully vaccinated.”

Someone had to go first last year, and Tothe says the changes from last year’s event to now are as big as from 2019 to 2020.

But Tothe says they’re up for anything as the world inches closer to normalcy.

“(The tournament) was hard to pull off last year and it was equally difficult, but in different ways, this year,” he says. “But looking back, we executed flawlessly.”

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The 75th Charles Schwab Challenge gets started Thursday from Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star’s Sports section and the host of golf podcast Next Round’s On Me. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley