PGA Tour's Memorial to have fans, will use chips in ticket badges to monitor fan movement

The PGA Tour said only the first four events upon its return at Colonial next month will not have fans. That means the Memorial — now scheduled as the sixth event (July 16-19) — is planning to have spectators.

Just not as many.

Dan Sullivan, the tournament director, said there will not be grandstands — Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, didn’t need that many, anyway, because of the landscape — and beverages will be sold only in bottles.

Most interesting about his discussion last week with the Greater Columbus Sports Commission was the concept of chips inserted in badges to determine how fans are gathering.

“At any time we can know around the golf course how many people are collecting in a certain area,” he said. “We’re going to use that technology to make sure that we’re protecting everyone around us, protecting the folks that are inside those various venues and make sure that we’re monitoring effectively and producing a tournament that everyone can be comfortable with.”