Golf's governing organizations dramatically remade the 2020 schedule Monday when the British Open was canceled and the other three majors were delayed. But the 3M Open in Blaine kept its late July slot.
An annual harbinger of spring, the Masters now will be played in November, two weeks before Thanksgiving. The PGA Championship moves from May back to its traditional month of August. The U.S. Open, normally held in mid-June, will be played in mid-September, a week before the Ryder Cup.
The LPGA last week announced a revised schedule that will move its first two majors to September and December, when the U.S. Women's Open will be played in Houston two weeks before Christmas.
All the reconfiguring done by the PGA Tour, the USGA, the PGA of America, Augusta National Golf Club, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the European tour and LPGA Tour is contingent upon the coronavirus pandemic abating. All PGA Tour events that had been set through early May are canceled.
"I just say what I tell my caddie all the time. It's all good in theory, but you still have to be able to execute," said PGA Tour player Troy Merritt, the former Spring Lake Park High School and Winona State golfer. "It's a pretty jam-packed schedule, but you knew it was going to be. We'll just have to see if it actually pans out that way.''
Merritt, who is hunkered at home in Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Courtney, and two young boys, said, "We could be out 'til January, you never know. People have to take this thing seriously, and take care of themselves and their fellow Americans, and just get through this thing."
Merritt played in the inaugural 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine over July 4th weekend last summer. This year's event is scheduled for July 23-26. Originally it was one week after the British Open and leading to golf at the Tokyo Olympics. Both have canceled.
The 2021 British Open still will be played at Royal St. George's in England, this summer's original site. The 150th Open scheduled for 2021 at St. Andrews — "The Home of Golf" — is now set for 2022.