EDDIE PEPPERELL

Tiger Woods walks on the 16th hold during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at TPC Harding Park Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)SAN FRANCISCO Harding Park is a public golf course with a history of elite champions. The San Francisco Open finally came to Harding Park in 1944. The rough is thick, even more because of the dampness from a marine layer expected to shroud Harding Park all week. All of them would fit the profile of great champions at Harding Park.

Tiger Woods toss a ball down on the 17th hold during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at TPC Harding Park Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)SAN FRANCISCO Tiger Woods appears to have something new in store for this PGA Championship: his putter. THE FIELDThis PGA Championship might have set a record for most players who decided not to play. He is the 11th player to withdraw from the PGA Championship since the field was first released six days ago. PACKING FOR A SUMMER MAJOR IN AMERICAThe PGA Championship in August for years meant heat and plenty of sweating.

The PGA Tour enters its eighth week of its return to golf with another modification to its guidelines for positive coronavirus tests and a gradual broadening of who gets to attend tournaments. Meanwhile, the tour said while there will be no pro-ams or paid spectators the rest of the season that ends Sept. 7 at the Tour Championship. LPGA RETURNSThe PGA Tour had its strongest fields of the year when it ended three months of being shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That isn't the case with the LPGA Tour, which is more about timing and location. Thomas is among those who have leaned on private housing in the two months that the PGA Tour has resumed its schedule.

England's Lee Westwood tees off the 5th during day one of the British Masters at Close House Golf Club, near Newcastle, England, Wednesday July 22, 2020. The European Tour resumes in earnest after its pandemic-induced shutdown with the British Masters starting Wednesday. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE NEWCASTLE-UPON-David Law of Scotland shot a 7-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Oliver Fisher, Garrick Porteous and Renato Paratore in the opening round of the British Masters at Close House Golf Course near Newcastle on Wednesday. I did not really know what to expect and its probably (about having) a mindset of acceptance, Law said. The New Zealander had not made a cut on the European Tour since 2013 as he struggled with a foot injury and loss of form.

After back-to-back, low-key events in Austria where testing procedures got their dress rehearsal, the European Tour resumes in earnest after its pandemic-induced shutdown with the British Masters starting Wednesday. Swing, a series of six events played in England and Wales over the next six weeks devised primarily for ease of travel for players amid the coronavirus pandemic. Starting this week at Close House Golf Course near Newcastle, the venues are all within a three-hour drive of one another, scrapping the need for air travel to which players have become accustomed on the increasingly global European Tour. Some of the players will be used to this new norm from having competed at the Austrian Open and the Euram Bank Open events counting toward the European Tour and the Challenge Tour over the last two weeks. Swing kicking off the full return of the European Tour, only one player in the worlds top 50 Lee Westwood, at No.

Mickelson is now exempt to return to Winged Foot for the U.S. Open in September. The COVID-19 pandemic that forced the U.S. Open to move from June also cost the championship its identity of being open to all. Open qualifying wasnt possible for two stages at nearly 120 courses across the country and into Canada, England and Japan. With his five majors and Hall of Fame career not to mention his legacy of silver medals in the U.S. Open Mickelson likely would have received at least one exemption. The rest of the field is similar to what the British Open has done with its International Finals Qualifying for the PGA Tour.