Webb Simpson returns to action: PGA Tour ‘safest place’ in U.S. right now

Webb Simpson is back competing this week after a “fluke” accident led to one of his daughters testing positive for COVID-19.

Simpson pulled out of last week’s Travelers Championship after the positive test result, which Simpson explained came after his wife, Dowd, took their daughter to the doctor to get her tonsils checked out after she got some banana stuck in her throat.

“Sure enough, the first test was positive,” Simpson said, “but [she] got tested again by the more accurate tests, along with my other four kids and my wife, and everyone was negative.”

Simpson believes now that his daughter’s result was a “false positive,” citing doctors who told him that “some 10 percent” of the rapid tests like the one his daughter took product such false-positive results.

“We felt confident that she never had it,” he added.

Simpson added that no one in his immediate family has experienced any symptoms since the initial diagnosis and subsequent negative tests, which is why he felt comfortable returning to action at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

Through the first three weeks of the PGA Tour’s restart, 2,757 tests were administered to players, caddies and other essential personnel, with seven coming back positive. This week, Chad Campbell was forced to withdraw after testing positive.

Simpson called those numbers “amazing.”

“I applaud the PGA Tour and everything they’ve done and are doing to keep us safe,” Simpson said. “I mentioned to the commissioner last week that based on our numbers, our stats, I told him the safest place anyone can be in the United States right now is on the PGA Tour. … The lengths that the Tour is going to make sure every place we go is safe and secure, and our testing and all that, I feel very good about being out here.”