President Donald Trump on Sunday said pro athletes will face strict coronavirus testing before sports are back.
"The athletes will be tested very carefully and the people that want to can be tested very carefully," he said during a phone interview with NBC's Mike Tirico.
The first four PGA Tour events, starting June 11 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, will be held without fans.
"After that, hopefully it'll be back," Trump said. "We really want to see it get back to normal, when you have all of those thousands, tens of thousands of people going to your majors and going to golf tournaments, we want them to have that same experience, so we don't want people having to wear masks. … because that's not getting back to normal."
Trump's interview happened during the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity skins game, the first televised event of PGA Tour golfers in roughly two months since the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also told Tirico the U.S. was ready to rebuild from the virus.
"You'll never make up for the lives that were lost, but we're going to rebuild. … and we're starting, really, right now at your event," Trump said. "It's the beginning of live events and you're going to have the Masters pretty soon. That'll be a little unusual. But it's great to be playing. I know so many of the Tour players and they're really fantastic."