I'll try and answer the original inquiry:
YES... Much more than most sports (sports which are not pursued much past youth), Golf is connected to its professional iteration.
I suspect a chief reason for that (if I'm correct) is because the average golfer can equal what he or she sees on TV or at an event. Not in anything approaching the expert level and consistency and emotional grind the pros perform with, but in the basic rudiments: "Tiger can make a 3 and so can me and my 11 HCP on such and such a hole. He holes out from bunkers all the time, but I also have done it a few times. He drained tough putts and so have I"
Again, I'm not equating myself to Tiger or a pro golfer in the least, I'm simply pointing out that in GOLF we're connected to a pro GOLFER's actual game more than we are to a crunching hit on a running back, a tip-toe catch on the sidelines, a 140 mph serve or a dinger off Mariano Rivera.
But because in golf we don't vie for the ball competitively (a big TEP observation) and thus don't have to worry too much about what the other guy can/can't do, Bubba and Rory's powdering 120 yards past me, doesn't take me out of still working the problems I have to still win the hole, or achieve an halving/winning score. So relating to the action on the screen in a personal ("I get it/I've been there/I know how good or bad that is") way is something that golf is made to endure. . . Even to our opinions about the architecture of courses that the greats and we play.
And prolly to Tom's original focus (the Tour's leadership in canceling, making many think golf itself ought be/is canceling) the absence of professional measure is something we're not used to since (imo) Mark McCormack catalyzed the diminution of sports (all sports) in service of commerce... is it any real surprise that in those 60 years: the Olympics became less reputable and filled with professionals, NCAA DI players will be getting pay soon, the Super Bowl ads are remembered as long or longer than the winner, we have painfully slow games sponsored pitch by pitch, down by down, shot by shot, court change by court change (the declaring of the umpires lineup is sponsored on Yankees radio), For Roger Maris 61st, there was a half-filled house and the local Bronx teen who got it for a few bats and a signed photo; for Sosa, McGwire and Bonds, there were fistfights, lawsuits and a naval battle for the HR lottery ticket.
Who cares what's REALLY happening in any game we play and watch? It only matters how economically sensational/viable such and such a thing is...locally, regionally, nationally, internationally.
And because every post these weeks must seemingly reference the virus, I will follow suit and say: Why not overreact in these initial weeks? And for a brief time, heed the cautions, stay out of the public sphere and let that extend to even things that are probably fine and (as pointed out) even healthful... I mean no one yet knows what we're dealign with here and even the innocent, cautious trip out to the links, puts you out there, in and with the people to some innocent extent... you've got to drive there, you might stop someplace, etc...we're all not yet conditioned to take every sneeze and small cough seriously etc. Compared to the peoples of earlier epi-and pandemics, we have greater lattitude in facility and intelligence to take some EXTRA measures so that it DOESNT go as far as it might.
What in god's name is wrong with just a few weeks of standing down, even if it is an abundance of over-caution? If such a spirit hurts "golf" or buries multiple projects... c'mon there's got to be a ready "free markets correct themselves" answer from the social darwinian capitalist camp... Adam Smith-JS Mills-Larry Kudlow, hands please!