The PGA Tour in Golf has got its third corona fall. Denny McCarthy tested positive for the virus on Friday.

- I felt pretty tired and scruffy after the round yesterday but didn't think much about it. But I woke up last night with more emotions and felt that something was wrong and the only right thing was to test myself before I went out to the track, he says to the PGA Tour's website.

Six players, including four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, relinquish this week's Cromwell, Connecticut competition - for fear of being infected or possibly spreading infection themselves. Two players, Nick Watney and Cameron Champ, have tested positive for covid-19. In addition, Koepka's caddy Ricky Elliott has been infected.

McIlroy wants to play on

"I'm not infected. I take this very seriously. I don't want to do anything that could jeopardize another player's health or ability to play, ”Koepka wrote on Twitter earlier this week.

The PGA has tightened the rules for the players, and threatens with action if they are broken. But votes have been raised to cancel all games, which World Rory McIlroy - who is ranked fourth in the competition - thinks is an exaggeration. He likes the tougher rules, but sees no reason to be quarantined again.

- You hear about one or two positive tests and people panic. I saw prompts that we should stop playing, and that's just ridiculous. The tour has done almost 3,000 tests and the number of positive answers is one-quarter percent, he says.

This week's competition is the third of five scheduled after the break. All are decided without audience. All players found to be infected are quarantined and must not stay in clubhouse or changing rooms before being tested negatively.

Norlander across the border

On the golf course itself, Henrik Norlander lowered a birdie on the 16th round of the second round and thus passed with a stroke the qualifying limit to play the closing holes. The only Swede in the job tent has a total of –4 after two 68 laps and parks in a 54th place.

It goes better for Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who in February took his and Norway's first victory on the PGA Tour. He certainly needed 69 strokes on Friday. But after starting the race with a 63-round, he is in tenth place, five strokes from the lead.

There, at the top of the results list, is veteran Phil Mickelson, who holds a lead of one in a total of –13.