Non-American PGA Tour players, caddies will soon need COVID-19 vaccine to enter the United States

RIVIERA MAYA, Mexico — Beginning Nov. 8, PGA Tour players and caddies who are not U.S. nationals will be required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to enter the United States.

The tour alerted its membership of the CDC's new policy in the informational "Green Sheet" it sends to players and caddies each week, a copy of which was viewed by Golf Digest. The updated regulations also require non-U.S. nationals to receive a negative COVID-19 test within three days of traveling to the U.S.

Unvaccinated Americans will still be able to enter the country but must provide a negative COVID-19 test within three days of travel.

Vaccinations became an issue at last week's Bermuda Championship, which was not able to fill its 132-man field in part because of the island nation's vaccine requirement. Had this week's World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba taken place one week later, every non-U.S. national player and caddie in the field would be required to be vaccinated in order to return to the United States and resume playing the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour stopped testing fully vaccinated players in April and ceased its on-site testing program entirely in July. According to Golf Channel, 83 percent of the PGA Tour's players, caddies and essential staff are fully vaccinated.