Rahms test results were negative for four days, but his most recent test, performed on Saturday morning, came back positive at 4:20 p.m. A second test on the original sample provided by Rahm, who is asymptomatic, yielded a positive result at 6:05 p.m., just before he finished his third round.
Its a very unfortunate situation, obviously, Andy Levinson, the PGA Tours senior vice president of tournament administration, said. The protocol that we have had in place for the last 50 events is being followed to the letter, and unfortunately we are in a situation where we are this evening.
Levinson was asked if there was an option that would allow Rahm to play Sundays final round by himself if he stayed at least six feet from others in what is a large outdoor area. Levinson said the tours medical advisers did not recommend participation in a competition the day after a confirmed positive test.
Patrick Cantlay, who played with Rahm on Saturday and who became the new tournament leader along with Collin Morikawa, seemed stunned by the news at a Saturday evening news conference.
Im sure its not as much of a jolt for me as it is for him, Cantlay said. Its the worse situation that something like this could happen in, and unfortunately I guess we knew that this was a potential lurking out there even when we came back to golf. Its just extremely unfortunate.
Cantlay said that he had Covid earlier this year and that he had not been vaccinated. The tour shut down for three months after the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in March 2020.
Rahm, who has won five PGA Tour events, is required to isolate for 10 days unless he tests negative in two further virus screenings 24 hours apart. Levinson did not disclose whether Rahm had received the Covid-19 vaccine; after recent revisions, tour guidelines no longer require weekly testing for players who are fully vaccinated. Vaccinated players would also not be subject to the contact tracing that Rahm underwent this week. Levinson said that the tour had tracked vaccinations among players and that more than 50 percent of its more than 200 players had been fully vaccinated.
