PGA TOUR Players, Caddies To Wear Bands To Help Detect Coronavirus
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2020-06-25
By SEAN ZAK, Golf.com
Amid a handful of recent positive tests for the coronavirus arriving on the PGA TOUR, all players and caddies will now wear WHOOP bands on their body to help detect the disease prior to showing obvious symptoms.
In the last week, the TOUR has seen two players (Nick Watney and Cameron Champ) and one caddie (Graeme McDowell’s looper, Ken Comboy) test positive for the COVID-19. Watney was first, and according to Rory McIlroy, Watney noticed something may have been awry via information from his WHOOP band. That is exactly the kind of information the PGA TOUR hopes to add to its system of a controlled, traveling bubble.
WHOOP is a health-monitoring band that many TOUR players already wear — generally on their wrist or upper arm — to manage sleep patterns, exercise, recovery, etc. Apparently Watney’s WHOOP system had shown abnormal breathing activity while he was sleeping. Later that day he received a positive test and was forced to withdraw from the event.