With daylight fading at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, the golfers went into what Manning compared to “a two-minute drill,” with Woods and Manning holding off Mickelson and Brady over the last four holes to win 1 up on Woods’ home course.

After struggling on the front nine to fall 3 down, Mickelson and Brady made it “tasty,” to use one of Mickelson’s favorite descriptors, on the back nine, starting on the 13th hole when Manning missed a putt in the rain. Mickelson and Brady were rolling, and the pressure was on. Players wore live mics and talked with one another as well as the Turner Sports crew, including Barkley, adding a fresh wrinkle to the sport.

Fading light was just one of the tricky conditions they dealt with; rain fell in buckets starting on the 12th hole, when Brady cracked, “When’s the heavy stuff going to come down?” a variation of the classic line from “Caddyshack.” At least at that point of the 18-hole competition he could laugh. For most of the front nine, Brady found nothing but frustration and, at times, ridicule from Barkley and others.

But on the back nine, where play changed from best ball to a modified alternate-shot format (all four players teed off on each hole before playing alternate shot after that), things changed and Mickelson and Brady got their footing. Mickelson hit one of the “high, nasty, sweet bombs” he loves. On 11, he crowed: “That is salty! This is where it changes, because that’s how I roll.” And when Brady made the putt: ” ‘Cause that’s how we roll!”

And so they did, despite coming up short in the end. The name of the game, in one of the first live sports events since the onset of the pandemic, was entertainment and fundraising, and The Match II delivered.

– – –

Highlights you may have missed

For the most part, this was the Peyton and Chuck show, with Manning and Barkley yapping away. Woods and Mickelson threw in the occasional dig, with Brady, well, struggling. (You know you’re in a bad spot when Barkley is ripping your golf game.)

– A Phil-ly special? As Mickelson and Brady narrowed the lead on the 11th hole, Nick Foles, now the Chicago Bears quarterback, tweeted:

“Peyton, two words, if Tom and Phil start coming back…’Philly Special.’ Go win it.”

– A late rally? It took Barkley and Brooks Koepka to fire up Brady, finally, with a birdie from the fairway on the seventh hole. Koepka had offered $100,000 if he made par on the front nine; Barkley had chirped and, when Brady’s ball went in, he chirped back, “Take a suck on that, Chuck.” And Koepka stepped up his game.

Not to be outdone, Woods nearly eagled the hole, but his long putt lipped out. “I willed that one out,” Brady cracked.

He was so excited he split his pants from “the torque” in his swing.

– Welcome to the NFC South, Brady. New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton seemed to like what he was seeing from Brady, whom he will face twice this season.

Teeing off just after that dig, Brady cracked, “It’s a miracle that I have a shot from the grass.” A sympathetic Barkley stepped up, telling him, “If you hit the green, I’m going to give you $25,000 out of my own pocket. Because you’re my man, $50,000!”

And when Brady failed?

“I should have said, if you can just keep it on the planet.”

– Woods skewers Brady. The players wore mics, which meant that the trash talk was out on the curb for all to hear. Woods deftly fileted Brady after a shot on the par-5 third hole, “That’ll be in the fairway – over on 7.”

Brady wasn’t having a good day, which J.J. Watt helpfully pointed out. “Tom has to be a couple seconds away from a club toss here…”

– Brain surgeon not needed. At one point, Mickelson explained something to Brady and compared it to a swing pass to a running back. That prompted Barkley to remark, “Phil . . . Everybody who has an annoying friend who’s really, really smart and you ask him something simple and he gives you the brain surgery answer.”

– A Belichick dig. In a pre-match interview off the tee box, Manning was asked whom he would pick to be Brady’s caddie (the players played sans caddie). “It’s hard to get to him,” Manning admitted. “Do you bring Eli [Manning, who beat Brady twice in Super Bowls]? Could do that. Do you bring Nick Foles [who also beat Brady in a Super Bowl]? Maybe.

“I was thinking maybe [Brady’s former coach Bill] Belichick. Bill Belichick caddying for me, just to see how that would have worked. It probably wouldn’t have been wouldn’t have been good for me, either, because Bill brings out bad things for me as well.”

ONE Championship (ONE)  announced that their existing commercial partnership with TUMI across ONE’s esports and martial arts properties will expand to include a special branded challenge during season one of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition that will deliver the perfect companion for esports athletes – the ultimate luxury gaming bag.

Together with ONE Esports, TUMI’s global design team will challenge the show’s contestants to help design, market, and launch the ultimate luxury gaming bag in an episode of the series. To bring the bag to life, contestants on The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition will work with TUMI to leverage the brand’s innovative functionality, superior performance, and premium design to create a product that is perfectly catered to the needs of gamers on the go.

TUMI and ONE Championship will also partner on additional marketing efforts to promote this new initiative, which will eventually be sold to the public.

Carlos Alimurung, CEO of ONE Esports, stated: “Given ONE’s global reach and our millennial audience who drive the gaming market, we are excited to support TUMI’s entrance into the gaming world. We are thrilled to use ‘The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition’ to facilitate cutting-edge innovation and work with TUMI to bring a compelling product to the market that will strongly resonate with esports athletes.”

Victor Sanz, TUMI Creative Director, stated: “We are excited to partner with ONE Championship on ‘The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition.’ We look forward to seeing the innovative designs and out-of-the-box marketing launch plans the contestants come up with to elevate the journeys of gamers around the world.”

Under license from MGM Television, ONE Championship’s unique take on the hit reality television franchise is scheduled for release and distribution in Q4 of 2020.

The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition will invite sixteen (16) contestants handpicked from around the world to compete in a high-stakes game of business and physical challenges. The winner will receive a US$250,000 job offer to work directly under Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong for a year as his protege in Singapore.

In addition, a total of 12 of the world’s top CEOs (1 CEO per episode) will be featured as guest judges alongside Sityodtong. The business competitions will focus on a variety of real-world problems and industries. Meanwhile, the physical challenges will be graced by the World Champions from ONE Championship, where contestants will aim to outshine them in feats of athletic ability and endurance.

‘The Apprentice’ is one of the world’s biggest non-scripted reality TV programs in history and judges the business skills of a group of contestants competing for a job offer from a high-profile CEO. It has aired in over 120 countries. The first season of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition will consist of 13 episodes.

Jose Mourinho speaks with David Beckham during a private behind-the-scenes guided tour of the First Team areas and shares first hand insight into a typical Spurs match day for the squad and non-playing staff. The pair take to Jose Mourinho’s dugout seat in the 62,303-capacity stadium, where they discuss the significance of a player’s state of mind and mental strength in being a determining factor to their success on the pitch.

In the episode, Jose Mourinho shows David Beckham the level of detail that has gone into designing the stadium to ensure the players are equipped with the best facilities, before stepping onto the pitch.

David Beckham said: “I am grateful to AIA for giving me the opportunity to learn about Spurs’ pioneering approach to player health and wellness and to get insight from a manager as experienced and successful as Jose was a real privilege. There is a lot of science and new thinking in the game since I was a player but it’s clear that simple things like a solid routine and great sleep are still really important. I am proud to partner with AIA and to see first-hand their commitment to supporting people to live healthier lives”

AIA is committed to providing information and insights that encourage and enable people to change their behaviour to achieve better physical and mental health. Even the smallest of lifestyle tweaks can boost wellbeing and foster improved health. A nutritionally-balanced diet, combined with regular exercise and sufficient sleep, benefits a person’s general wellbeing and the ability to better deal with the pressures that life can present.

The LPGA tannounced the GOLFZON LPGA Match Play Challenge, an intercontinental match-play competition in partnership with GOLFZON, a leading golf simulator company. On May 25 at 7 a.m. EDT, Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryu, based at ZOIMARU, in Daejon, Republic of Korea, will face off against Lydia Ko and Pernilla Lindberg, competing at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.

GOLFZON’s golf simulator system and online network technology will connect the venues in Korea and the United States in real time. It marks the LPGA’s first international golf-simulator tournament, featuring a foursome that holds a combined 12 major titles.

The 36-hole competition will open with an 18-hole foursomes match, followed by an 18-hole four-ball match. The competitors will take to the famed Black Course at Bethpage State Park virtually, with the winning team receiving a $10,000 donation to the COVID-19 charity of their choice.

“While most golf tours around the world are not being held due to COVID-19, I am happy that these LPGA Tour champions will be able to hold screen golf tournaments, with GOLFZON’s global technological prowess connecting them across 13 hours of time difference,” said Kang Soo Park, CEO of GOLFZON. “I hope this no-contact golf game will bring hope and comfort to golf fans around the world.”

“This concept of GOLFZON LPGA Match Play challenge is an exciting new development for the long-term relationship between the LPGA and GOLFZON,” said Sean Pyun, Chief Business Officer-Asia. “Through our partnership, we’ve witnessed firsthand the type of impact they have had in the Korean golf industry, from the standpoint of growing the game of golf in Korea. We are proud to present this event to the LPGA audience in partnership with GOLFZON.”

Inbee Park, the seven-time major champion who will compete, said: “Since the LPGA Tour stopped due to COVID-19, it’s amazing that real-time match play is possible with our fellow players in other parts of the world. I can’t wait to entertain golf fans all over the globe through this match.”

The event will be held without a gallery to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and with minimal access to the venues other than athletes and officials. The match will air live on GOLFZON’s official YouTube channel and Naver TV Live. It will also be aired on a to-be-determined date in June in the United States, as well as on JTBC GOLF and Screen GOLFZON channels in Korea.

About the LPGA

The LPGA is the world’s leading professional golf organization for women. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla., the association celebrates a diverse and storied membership with more than 2,300 Members representing more than 30 countries. With a vision to inspire, empower, educate and entertain by showcasing the very best of women’s golf, LPGA Tour Professionals compete across the globe, while the Symetra Tour, the official development and qualifying tour of the LPGA, consistently produces a pipeline of talent ready for the world stage. Additionally, LPGA Professionals directly impact the game through teaching, coaching and management.

The LPGA demonstrates its dedication to the development of the game through The LPGA Foundation. Since 1991, this charitable organization has been committed to empowering and supporting girls and women through developmental, humanitarian and golf community initiatives, including LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, the LPGA Women’s Network and the LPGA Amateur Golf Association.

The world may be forever altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but one thing hasn’t changed – Rory McIlroy still knows how to win on the golf course.

The two-time FedExCup champion edged Matthew Wolff in a sudden-death, closest-to-the-pin competition to earn six skins and edge Wolff and Rickie Fowler, 11-7, Sunday in the TaylorMade Driving Relief supported by UnitedHealth Group. More importantly, the charity match raised more than US$5.5 million in COVID-19 relief.

“I didn’t know whether to tell it to get up, get going, stay long or stay short,” said McIlroy, who played alongside Dustin Johnson. “Matt hit a decent shot in. It’s only 120 yards, but it’s a tough shot, so to see it land on the green and stay there (was nice). These Seminole greens, the ball can do funny things when you think it’s in a good spot.”

“I’m really happy,” he added. “It was an awesome day playing with D.J., Matt and Rickie, playing for a great cause. It’s been awesome, and it was nice to get back on the golf course and get back to some sort of normalcy.”

Playing in their first professional competition since THE PLAYERS Championship was cancelled in mid-March, McIlroy and Johnson displayed little rust early on in winning three of their first six holes. But after building the 5-1 advantage, Fowler and Wolff surged into a 7-5 lead with birdies on Nos. 9, 11 and 12.

“I care so much and I’m trying to raise so much money, so I was a little nervous starting off the day,” said Wolff, who also won both long drive competitions on Nos. 2 and 14. “But I settled down and I’m happy to raise a lot of money with the long drives.”

Golf’s return continues next Sunday at Medalist Golf Club in South Florida when Tiger Woods takes on Phil Mickelson in The Match: Champions for Charity, alongside National Football League quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. The event will also benefit COVID-19 relief efforts.

The PGA TOUR, meanwhile, returns in less than a month with the Charles Schwab Challenge, set for June 11-14 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

“It’s a lot of fun to get out here and do something for charity,” Johnson said. “It feels good to get back out on the golf course and have a little competition. I think that hopefully if everything goes well we can start the Tour here in three or four weeks. I know we’re all looking forward to getting back and playing some golf.”

And yet, on May 4, Super League Gaming received a $1,200,047 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) enacted by Congress. Another company, Allied Esports, also received an aggregate loan of $907,129 through two subsidiaries in May. Allied Esports owns and operates a numbers of venues focused on esports and poker – most notably the pyramidic HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, which used to host regular events that have since been canceled. The loans were first flagged by government watchdog group Accountable.US, which has been tracking which corporations have taken taxpayer money.

The loan applications, though not fraudulent or strictly illegal in any apparent way, run counter to the prevailing narrative around esports. Much of the public-facing commentary around the pandemic from esports companies has highlighted the sector’s resilience in the face of the public health crisis, and pointed to a surge in online engagement as a sign of the industry’s success. But regardless of the loans’ ultimate propriety, the story around them highlights flaws in the government’s administration of the PPP loan program – and raises questions about solvency and stability of the nascent esports sector.

An underlying issue bedeviling the disbursement of PPP loans has been the release of ambiguous and seemingly-contradictory rules from the Small Business Administration and the Treasury about what companies are eligible to receive the funds. Since the Cares Act was passed by Congress, the Treasury has issued over 40 pieces of additional guidance, resulting in an environment of uncertainty for borrowers and lenders.

On April 23, the Treasury published an additional instruction that read, in part: “It is unlikely that a public company with substantial market value and access to capital markets will be able to make the required certification in good faith.” Both Super League Gaming and Allied Esports are publicly traded. However, whether a company has “substantial market value” and “adequate sources of liquidity,” another qualification in the document, is open to interpretation. The instruction does not expressly forbid publicly traded companies from pursuing PPP loans.

An earlier piece of guidance from the Treasury states that “borrowers and lenders may rely on the laws, rules, and guidance available at the time of the relevant application.” Neither Super League nor Allied answered questions from The Post regarding when they submitted their loan applications, nor whether the release of the April 23 guidance regarding public companies impacted their decision to apply.

“There isn’t a bright line test that says, ‘OK, if you have X, Y and Z, you’re good,’ or ‘If you have X, Y and Z, you’re bad,'” said Andrew Lucano, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP. “There is not that kind of clarity out there.”

The Treasury has issued safe harbor deadlines – dates by which companies can return the loans, no questions asked. Thus far, the deadline has been repeatedly pushed back and now stands as May 18.

Adding to the confusion, on May 14 the Treasury released further instruction, clarifying that it would assume all applications for loans under $2 million were made in good faith, to dedicate enforcement resources primarily to loans above that mark. Both Super League Gaming and Allied Esports have received loans under this mark, which does not exempt them from government audit, but suggests a decreased likelihood that they will face institutional scrutiny.

The result of the back-and-forth on guidance has been a lack of clarity. The work of determining the propriety of the loans has fallen largely to companies themselves, as well as to media and the public.

“What has gone on here is that in these subsequent Treasury regulations, as they have been sequenced out, and as they have been effected by criticism – public criticism and media criticism – the rules of interpretation have tightened as to who is effectively worthy of receiving the money and who isn’t,” said Christopher Davis, partner at Kleinberg Kaplan. “That’s not purely a legal determination.”

At one point, for example, hedge funds could apply for PPP loans. After public outcry, hedge funds were expressly excluded from the program. The myriad changes, regardless of their intent or ultimate effect, have forced companies to second-guess their applications for and acceptance of these loans.

“I could put the money to the use Congress plainly intended. But am I going to get in trouble later?” said Davis, articulating the thought process of a hypothetical loan applicant. “I think the fly in this entire ointment, that ultimately may be a tremendous disservice to the goal that Congress had is, yes, it’s all being second guessed after the fact and the rules keep changing.”

In April, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made clear in an interview on the Fox Business Network that the loans were specific to coronavirus relief, and not meant to paper over longer-standing financial problems. “It’s very clear that anything that Congress does is not going to have a bailout of pre-coronavirus issues,” Mnuchin said.

In light of this, the propriety of Allied and Super League applying for and receiving the loans is a virtual Rorschach test, separating esports believers and skeptics. Both companies have operated with losses in the multiple millions , both during and before the pandemic. “We have experienced net losses and negative cash flows from operations since our inception,” reads a recent quarterly filing from Super League. That same filing shows revenue of $243,000 for the first three months of 2020 (a figure which is comparable to revenue for the same period in 2019), against operating expenses of $5,274,000.

The prevailing wisdom that esports will be a beneficiary of covid-19 assumes that engagement and even audience growth and retention translates cleanly into revenue. So far, it is not clear that is the case. Recent filings from both companies include language regarding “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” The text itself is standard legalese, a determination issued by independent private auditors who assess the company’s financial statements, as required by law. The meaning, however, conveys the independent auditor’s view that the company may not have the resources to remain viable.

Despite these underlying issues, the pandemic could stand to deal a genuine blow to the companies’ bottom lines. In the first three months of 2020, Allied Esports reported 38 percent of its revenue coming from in-person events.

“One question people would ask is ‘If I didn’t take this money, would I lay off workers?'” said Lucano. “If you’re answering that kind of a question with ‘Yes,’ you have a very good argument that you’ve made this certification in good faith.”

In 2019, both companies compensated executives with total sums that exceeded the amounts received through the PPP loans. Three top executives at Super League Gaming received a combined $1,455,000 in compensation in 2019. In that same year, four top executives at Allied Esports saw a total compensation of $3,793,766, including a bonus in excess of $1.7 million to a president and director at the company. Over the past few months, a number of executives at major public companies, including Boeing and Columbia Sportswear, have committed to forego or dramatically cut their salaries in response to the crisis. Both Allied Esports and Super League Gaming declined to comment on potential cost-saving measures, including cuts to executive compensation.

Neither Allied Esports nor Super League Gaming answered questions from The Post about whether they had laid off employees due to the pandemic. “Allied Esports’ top priorities are the well-being of its employees and operational perseverance until normalcy returns,” read a statement sent to The Post by a spokesperson. “All financial support received through these loans has been and will continue to be applied to those efforts.”

In its most recent quarterly SEC filing, Allied signaled its intent to seek loan forgiveness, meaning that it would likely use at least 75 percent of their loan to cover payroll costs and other expenses, including rent and utility costs – the qualification for loan forgiveness. In its own filing, Super League stated that its PPP loan would “help us to continue operations without salary reductions, layoffs or furloughs.”

“The wonderful thing about the PPP program . . . is if you fell within all the proper guidelines, the loan miraculously could be turned into, effectively, a government grant,” said Davis. “So if you were straight down the middle of the fairway, it wasn’t a loan at all, to a large extent. It became free money from the government that you never had to pay back. That’s a huge incentive. That doesn’t happen every day.”

For decades, women were barely represented in sports journalism. In the 1970s, as that and so much more began to change, Phyllis George’s moment arrived. A former Miss America, she became a fixture on “The NFL Today” on CBS, providing a strong yet folksy charm that fit the times as the NFL began to take over as the national pastime.

As ESPN’s Hannah Storm put it, “someone has to go first” and, in 1975, that was George, who joined Brent Musburger and Irv Cross (and, later, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder) on “The NFL Today.” She was a “true pioneer who approached her job with enthusiasm, empathy and humour,” Storm tweeted. “She was herself-charming and funny … helped her audiences connect with some of the great sports figures of the day.”

George, whose family said she died Thursday at age 70 in a Lexington, Kentucky, hospital of a blood disorder, made people comfortable with the idea of a woman’s voice on sports broadcasts, and hiring her “changed the face of sports television,” Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports, told the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump praised George on Sunday morning, calling her “a great person and a true pioneer for women in television.” Pilson said it was “her openness and enthusiasm that made her a valuable contributor.”

“She didn’t claim to know a tremendous amount about sports, but she knew about people, which is why her interviews resonated,” he added. “She could do the best interviews with athletes and family members. She was a warm person, and that came through on the set and in the interviews.”

From there, others could take her role and make it their own. It was enough to be in the broadcast seat; as Billie Jean King tweeted, “Visibility matters.” Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, called her “an icon in the sports broadcasting industry.”

CBS Sports was a fixture when she was hired, but, as Storm said, it was a different time.

“People were uncomfortable with the idea of seeing a woman on TV talking about sports in a prominent role,” Storm said, according to the AP. “But someone has to go first. I give her so much respect for truly her courage. She had to put herself out there. Phyllis George did something out of the norm. And I’m forever grateful for her leading the way.”

Even if she didn’t break down game tape, she did something more important for the profession and for what sports would become: She put a face on players and showed that entertainment was a big part of athleticism. She coaxed a revealing personal nugget from Roger Staubach, getting the Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer to say he enjoyed sex as much as rival Joe Namath, “only I do it with one girl.”

Musburger tweeted that George, a Denton, Texas, native who also was the first lady of Kentucky during a marriage that ended in 1998, “didn’t receive nearly enough credit for opening the sports broadcasting door for the dozens of talented women who took her lead and soared. Folks – men and women – were comfortable with Phyllis talking about their favorite sport. And in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, they loved her despite her Dallas Cowboys bias! RIP Phyllis. Irv Cross and I will miss you dearly.”

In 2017, ESPN’s Beth Mowins became the first woman to call a regular season NFL game in 30 years, and she told TheFootballGirl.com (via ESPN) that it mattered when she turned on a TV and “there was a woman talking about football. That’s what I was drawn to. I like sports and like to talk, so the two blended together perfectly.”

George spent three seasons on the show, then returned from 1980 to 1983. She also covered horse racing, hosted the entertainment show “People” and co-anchored “CBS Morning News.”

“Life is what you make it,” George said in 1985 (via CNN). “This is what I go around the country lecturing on. Because if it can happen to me, it can happen to you and you and you.”

For countless women in sports journalism today, it did.

“When you’re the first, you’re a pioneer,” George told USA Today in 1999. “I felt they didn’t know who Phyllis George was. They played me up as a former Miss America, a sex symbol. I can’t help how I look, but below the surface, I was a hard-working woman. If I hadn’t made that work, women eventually would have come into sportscasting, but it would have taken them longer.”

On Sunday, when NASCAR returns to competition without fans in the grandstands at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway, the best-case scenario is that it captivates a homebound audience that is starved for live sports programming after nearly three months of quarantine because of the novel coronavirus.

The worst-case scenario is that, in becoming the first major U.S. sport to restart, with a vaccine nowhere on the horizon, NASCAR finds that its safety precautions for participants fall short, triggering an outbreak among drivers and essential personnel that jeopardizes lives and sets back the timetable for all sports’ return.

After consulting the Centers for Disease Control and federal, state and local health officials, NASCAR is mandating numerous measures to avoid the latter, including barring fans for the foreseeable future. By all accounts, everyone involved in NASCAR’s return, from right-rear tire-changers to front-running stars, is on board with the restrictions.

NASCAR President Steve Phelps said that it wasn’t NASCAR’s primary goal to be the first major sport to return to competition as the country gradually reopens for business. But after consulting with experts, he concluded that stock-car racing could do so safely with proper safeguards.

“It was more about, ‘Do we have the plan in place that is going to keep our competitors and those associated with running the race safe?'” Phelps said in a telephone interview. “We would not put the safety of those that will be at the racetrack, in the footprint of Darlington, at risk.”

All eyes will be on the sport, including those of other pro leagues expected to have representatives on site to observe NASCAR’s safety protocols as they plot their own re-openings.

“We all understand the importance of what we’re doing,” said Greg Zipadelli, competition director at Stewart-Haas Racing, in an email exchange. “It’s about our health and the health of those around us. It’s also about doing this right, so that our industry can be a benchmark for how other sports can return to action.”

The incentive to resume competition varies by sport, as do the challenges of putting athletes back on the field of play.

Sports that derive the bulk of their revenue from broadcast deals, such as the NFL, have huge incentive to restart with or without fans.

There is less urgency to compete in empty venues for sports that rely more on gate-receipts and on-site sponsorships, such as tennis.

Ticket sales accounted for the bulk of NASCAR’s revenue in its boom years, 1995-2005, when souvenir-buying throngs of 180,000 packed speedways in Daytona, Fort Worth and even Bristol, Tenn.

The script flipped, however, as race-day attendance plunged. Today, NASCAR’s national broadcast deals drive the sport’s revenue, and all stakeholders benefit under a revenue-sharing plan that steers roughly 65 percent to race teams, 25 percent to track owners and 10 percent to NASCAR. That’s reason enough to fire up engines for Sunday’s Fox broadcast.

It’s also easier for NASCAR to be a coronavirus guinea pig than contact sports such as the NFL and NBA, in which sweat and spit fly. Among the broad-strokes precautions NASCAR is taking:

– Restricting the 40 Cup series teams to 16 people at the track, including the driver and crew chief – roughly one-third the typical contingent of a top-funded team.

– Checking participants’ temperatures entering the garage and requiring all to wear masks and gloves and maintain social distance, enforced by potential fines of $10,000 to $50,00 or possible ejection.

– Staging its next seven Cup races, through June 10, at tracks within driving distance of most teams’ Charlotte-area headquarters, to prevent participants from having to board flights. Moreover, because the standard race weekend is being compressed into a single day, forgoing the customary practice and qualifying sessions in the run-up, no one needs to stay in hotels.

As Phelps notes, social distancing and protective gear are fundamental to motorsports.

“We’ve got some advantages in that most of our competitors are already wearing protective clothing and gear – helmets, head socks, fire suits, gloves and the like,” Phelps said.

Golf shares the inherent benefit of a natural distancing among competitors, and that’s partly why the PGA is planning to resume June 11 in Fort Worth. PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is among the sports executives who has been in touch with NASCAR about its protocol for resuming competition.

NASCAR’s new world order actually started weeks ago, when North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on April 23 classified NASCAR teams as an essential business, which meant that mechanics could resume work in race shops provided they maintained social distancing.

To ensure proper spacing, some teams divided the employees who build racecars near year-round into day and night shifts. Other teams, such as Hendrick Motorsports, staggered shifts not by hours but by stretches of days to provide more continuity in the work flow.

But many team employees, including five-time Cup champion crew chief Chad Knaus, worked from home, via computer. In a Zoom call with reporters last week, Knaus said he saw his No. 24 pit crew Thursday for the first time since NASCAR ran its last race, March 8 in Phoenix, watching from inside his car as the team practiced the furious ballet of 20-second pit stops.

As for the No. 24 Camaro that William Byron will race Sunday, Knaus has yet to lay eyes on it – shocking for any crew chief and particularly one as detail-oriented as he.

“I haven’t seen the racecar at all,” Knaus said, smiling into the Zoom chat. “Nope, haven’t seen it or touched it. Nothing.”

As race teams readied cars for the season’s resumption, many drivers stoked their competitive fire by racing online.

The wisest among them also found ways to maintain cardiovascular fitness, given the sustained G forces and sweltering heat that await in four hours of white-knuckle racing at Darlington.

Sunday’s 400-miler will be the first of four NASCAR Cup races in 11 days – two at Darlington, followed by two at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That’s a frenzied clip, but it’s the best and safest way, in NASCAR’s view, to start making up some of the 10 races missed during the hiatus and delivering its promised 36-race schedule to fans, sponsors and broadcasters.

For the foreseeable future, NASCAR will race without spectators, and the media contingent has been slashed.

Fox Sports, which broadcasts the first half of the Cup season, is allowed only a bare-bones staff in Darlington: an on-site director, a fraction of the manned cameras they customarily deploy and only one pit reporter, former NASCAR driver Regan Smith, instead of the usual four.

Veteran Fox announcer Mike Joy will call the race, along with four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, remotely from the Fox studios in Charlotte, where they’ll sit, appropriately spaced, and follow the action via an 85-inch, panoramic screens that enable them to see the full 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval.

Just four reporters will be allowed in the press box overlooking the track, barred from face-to-face interaction with drivers and crews.

The roughly 640 participants (40 race teams’ 16-member contingents) are being required to record their interactions and whereabouts in case they develop coronavirus symptoms and contact-tracing is required.

But under NASCAR’s safety protocols, neither drivers nor crew members will be tested for the virus, as contact sports likely will require. In a teleconference with reporters this week, 2014 NASCAR Cup series champion Kevin Harvick said he believes testing NASCAR competitors isn’t necessary.

“I’m not gonna get punched in the face by anybody else or be put in a head lock or be directly in contact with any of my other competitors, so I think it’s a drastically different situation,” said Harvick, who in addition to driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang owns a sports management company that represents other pro athletes, including golfer Vaughn Taylor and UFC fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. “When you look at the guidelines of entry and exit and temperature checks during the week, and all the logs and things of where people are and who they have interaction with, I think we have done what we need to do from what fits our sport the best.”

That said, all Cup drivers will be required to stay in their infield motor homes until it’s time to climb in their racecars.

The best-funded teams, such as Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevy, also have arranged for an entire second-string of crew members and relief driver to be medically vetted by NASCAR and within easy range of Darlington in case a key participant gets sick.

And when Sunday’s checked flag flies, there won’t be any high-fives or group hugs in Victory Lane, per NASCAR’s safety rules. Like virtually everything in this time of pandemic, even celebrating will be solitary.

While the decision to restart the season at Darlington Raceway makes sense geographically and politically – the track is two hours from Charlotte, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is an avid NASCAR booster – it’s arguably the most technically difficult, demanding track on the circuit because of its egg-shaped layout and decades-old imperfections.

“Darlington is one of the toughest tracks on the schedule because of the edge you have to push the car to,” said Gordon, who won seven Darlington Cup races before retiring in 2016, in a telephone interview. “You’re inches away from the wall, the grip starts out high but falls off really, really fast because of the tire wear. There are some bumps that are pretty severe off of Turn 2. And both ends of the track are different.”

That challenge will be vastly compounded Sunday, when drivers strap in racecars they have never driven, denied even a single practice lap, after a 10-week hiatus from competition on what’s expected to be a sweltering afternoon.

Without benefit of practice, the engineers and mechanics can only guess at the ideal setup of springs and shocks. Mindful of the chaos that may ensue, NASCAR has scheduled a caution flag on Lap 30, so drivers can duck into the pits for adjustments.

Given the high stakes and myriad variables, Zipadelli, the Stewart-Haas competition director, hopes drivers will show restraint – at least at the outset.

“First of all, it’s Darlington,” Zipadelli noted. “There are more cars that have smacked their right sides at Darlington than anyplace else we race. It’s a treacherous, intense, high-speed place. I expect the majority of people will try not to step over that edge in that first run, and then make their adjustments accordingly.”

Four decades ago, on the eve of NASCAR’s first live, flag-to-flag TV broadcast, the 1979 Daytona 500, a blizzard hammered the East Coast, leaving millions of snowbound Americans eager for the diversion of stock-car racing and minting new fans in the process. Sunday’s race could have similar television-audience potential. With even higher stakes off the track, the rest of the U.S. sports world certainly will be paying attention.

“Obviously, our competitors and our crew guys and everybody who is at the racetrack needs to remind themselves when they leave their house [Sunday morning] that the world is watching – and our country, especially, is watching,” Harvick said. “We need to make sure that we make all the right moves.”

2K crushed a long drive today with the announcement that PGA TOUR® 2K21, its forthcoming, officially licensed golf simulation video game, is currently scheduled for worldwide release on Friday, August 21, 2020 for the PlayStation®4 system, the Xbox One family of devices, including the Xbox One X and Windows PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch™ system*and Stadia.

Featuring decorated PGA TOUR pro Justin Thomas as the cover athlete, PGA TOUR 2K21 heralds the return of the great golf video game that fans have been missing. Developed by HB Studios, the studio behind The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR 2K21 marks the evolution of The Golf Club franchise and will include 15 licensed PGA TOUR courses, each of which was scanned using cutting-edge technology to bring the fairways, greens, bunkers, trees, lakes and ponds to life. Players can also trick out their own greens and fairways with thousands of custom options in the Course Designer. Fans can reserve their tee time now by pre-ordering PGA TOUR 2K21 at participating retailers.

“Being chosen to be the first-ever cover athlete for the premiere PGA TOUR 2K game is a tremendous honor,” said Justin Thomas, 2017 FedExCup Champion, PGA Championship winner and former World #1 on the Official World Golf Ranking. “I’m excited to join the 2K family and challenge players everywhere on the digital links.”

Thomas will be joined by 11 additional PGA TOUR pros, each of whom will present a challenge to players in PGA TOUR Career Mode as they compete to become a FedExCup Champion. Players can also create and personalize their MyPLAYERs with equipment and apparel from licensed brands including adidas, Polo Ralph Lauren, Malbon Golf, Callaway Golf, Bridgestone Golf, TaylorMade Golf and more.

Capping off the simulation experience, PGA TOUR 2K21 will feature a broadcast-style presentation with state-of-the-art graphics, dynamic cutscenes and a seamless replay system, all anchored by the play-by-play commentary of renowned broadcaster Luke Elvy and analyst Rich Beem.

“As a global leader in the sports simulation genre, 2K is the perfect partner to kick off the new PGA TOUR 2K video game series and introduce the PGA TOUR experience to new players of all ages,” said Len Brown, PGA TOUR Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, Licensing. “We’re thrilled to see what the future of the franchise has in store, starting with PGA TOUR 2K21.”

“Golf is hotter than ever with celebrities, athletes and musicians playing the game and sharing their experiences on social media every day,” said Chris Snyder, Vice President of Marketing for 2K. “Our goal is to create the most authentic golf simulation experience ever, and HB Studios brings that authenticity in PGA TOUR 2K21, which is a true 2K game in every sense, incorporating realism, depth and fun that appeals to golf aficionados and casual fans alike.”

PGA TOUR 2K21 is designed for players of all skill levels. Rookies can take advantage of real-time tutorials, tips and shot suggestions, while veterans can master their games with Pro Vision, Distance Control, Putt Preview and other innovations. Social gaming is at the core of the experience, as players can hit the links with friends in local and online matches, including Alt-Shot, Stroke Play, Skins and 4-Player Scramble. In addition, Online Societies will encourage players to invite their squad to hit the clubhouse and run full seasons and tournaments with unique entry rules and requirements, as well as handicap and event settings.

Through a partnership between 2K and sports lifestyle brand adidas, players who pre-order PGA TOUR 2K21 will receive the 2K/adidas CODECHAOS MyPLAYER Pack featuring adidas CODECHAOS BOA® golf shoes and custom 2K/adidas gear, including a sport performance polo, Ultimate365 pants and tour hat, designed by adidas Golf exclusively for PGA TOUR 2K21. Players who purchase the PGA TOUR 2K21 Digital Deluxe Edition will receive the 2K/adidas CODECHAOS MyPLAYER Pack, as well as the “Golden Touch” pack featuring a gold putter and driver, and a 2300 VC pack, which can be used to unlock in-game cosmetic items**.

PGA TOUR 2K21 is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.  For more information on PGA TOUR 2K21 and 2K, visit PGATOUR2K21.com become a fan on Facebook, follow the game on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #PGATOUR2K21 or subscribe on YouTube.

* Available in digital format for Nintendo Switch™ system at launch.

**Cosmetic items can also be unlocked by achieving in-game objectives. No additional purchase necessary.

2K is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. The Company develops and publishes products through our labels Rockstar Games, 2K, and Private Division, as well as Social Point, a leading developer of mobile games. Our products are designed for console systems and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets, and are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms and cloud streaming services. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at http://www.take2games.com.