By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

There were three reasons why I was interested in watching the PGA tournament from Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth last weekend:

(1) I like watching golf on TV. On Saturdays, it helps put me to sleep for a nap after a day of yard work; on Sundays, it can actually be pretty riveting competition.

(2) I’ve played that course, so I have a little bit different perspective than the average course I’ll never get a chance to play.

(3) It was televised live action of a sport I actually know something about (which rules out soccer and and NASCAR.)

Let me say that #3 was by far the biggest reason. And even without fans on the course, I found it just as watchable as normal. Sure, it was a little different, but not that much. (Getting back to #2, they were playing similar conditions that I did with no one in the gallery to stop the ball from going into the deep rough.)

It was amusing to see them tip their cap or acknowledge the crowd after a putt … when there was no crowd to acknowledge. Reflex reaction, I guess.

But let’s be honest — there’s only so much Johnsonville Cornhole Championship that you can watch before you throw up in your mask. It was a real event with most of the best players in the world on a course that is pretty different than the usual bombs-away courses that the PGA Tour is normally held on. Jim Nantz was there, so it must be legit!

I also didn’t mind how they were breaking CDC guidelines almost every hole. A look at how that went, based on a release from the PGA last month:

Caddies are permitted, but are required to socially distance from players throughout the round (never happened) and their responsibilities would be limited. Players are expected to remove and replace golf clubs from their bag (you must be kidding), retrieve their ball from the hole and get anything else they need out of their own bag (if you say so).

Players and caddies may elect to wear a mask or other cloth face cover while on property (good luck with that).

On the course, all tees and greens will have hand sanitizer stations — with players and caddies strongly encouraged to sanitize hands after each hole (because they love to have slippery hands before teeing off.)

Players also weren’t supposed to toss their ball to the caddy on the green to be cleaned, but they only ended up doing that about every hole.

Guideline-breaking aside, it was still good to see actual, high-level competition on television for the first time in way too long.