(Reuters) – Denny McCarthy has become the third golfer on the PGA Tour to test positive for COVID-19 and the American has withdrawn from the ongoing Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut, Golf Channel reported on Friday.
Nick Watney was the first Tour player to test positive last week and Cameron Champ did so at a pre-tournament screening this week.
World number four Brooks Koepka and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell also withdrew from the tournament as a precaution after their caddies tested positive. The two golfers tested negative.
“I feel OK,” McCarthy told Golf Channel https://www.golfchannel.com/news/denny-mccarthy-withdraws-travelers-championship-after-testing-positive-covid-19. “I woke up in the middle of the night and my body was really achy and sore and figured something was wrong.”
McCarthy is set to self-isolate for 10 days as per Tour protocols.
The PGA Tour did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters via email to confirm.
On Thursday, world number one Rory McIlroy said calls to cancel the Travelers Championship due to the coronavirus were silly as only a “quarter of a percent” of nearly 3,000 tests had been positive.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
