DALLAS (1080 KRLD)- The AT&T Byron Nelson is moving to a new location this May. The PGA event, scheduled for May 13-16, had been played at Trinity Forest Golf Club in southern Dallas the past three years.
This year, the tournament will take place at Craig Ranch in McKinney.
"It's a real sense of relief to be starting," says Byron Nelson Tournament Chair Jeff Walter. "For North Texas, it's kind of a spring right of passage. I think it's very exciting. It's been a long year."
Walter says the PGA notified them this week up to 10,000 people will be allowed to attend the tournament each day.
"We looked at contingencies from absolutely one end of the spectrum all the way to the other and ended up somewhere closer to the middle," he says. "We're excited about that, and we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure everybody's health and safety is first and foremost."
"I think we're all ready to just get back to some normalcy," says John Jenkins, the Dallas board chair of the Salesmanship Club. "This will feel normal again."
Fans will be required to wear masks. Concessions stands will not accept cash, and tickets will be distributed digitally.
This year, Jenkins says the tournament will benefit the Momentous Institute, a laboratory school in Dallas that accepts students from kindergarten to 5th grade. In addition to education, he says the institute provides counseling for families.
"During this pandemic and even during the freeze, we learned trauma comes in lots of different forms and fashions," he says. "Working with kids and families to really be able to work through that trauma on an emotion and mental health perspective, that need is greater than it ever has been."