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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Even with the uneasy specter of coronavirus spreading globally and even in the wake of every major sporting league and organization suspending operations, The Players Championship will carry on — with players but no spectators — through its scheduled four rounds.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced Thursday that The Players as well as the next three tournaments before the Masters (Valspar, WGC March Play and Valero Texas Open) will be played, but without any spectators allowed onto the grounds.

That begins with Friday’s second round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and will continue through the Valero Texas Open, the last Tour event before the Masters.

The organizers of The Masters, which is scheduled to begin the week of April 6, have not announced anything publicly about their plans.

With the opening round of The Players underway and with spectators on the golf course, Monahan called a noon press conference to announce these proceedings, saying he had spoken with President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier in the day.

“Our team is in constant communication with local health authorities in each market in which our tournaments are played, and we are tracking and monitoring the health information provided by the CDC and the World Health Organization in addition to the travel advisories provided by the U.S. State Department,’’ Monahan said. “Both the White House and the Governor’s office have been and are supportive of the precautionary measures we have taken to this point. It goes without saying that this is an incredibly fluid and dynamic situation.

“At this point in time PGA Tour events across all tours will currently proceed as scheduled but will do so without fans,’’ Monahan went on. “This policy starts at The Players Championship [Friday] and continues through the Valero Texas Open. It’s important to note that could change.’’

Asked why the Tour has opted to continue play rather than suspend the schedule as the NBA, NHL, MLS, MLB and the NCAA Tournament have done, Monahan said, “If you look at our venues, obviously we’re an outdoor sport, we’re not in a stadium, and here this week at TPC Sawgrass our players are making their way over 400 acres.

“And … because of the nature of that and the fact that you’ve got 144 players here and over the course of a round our players generally do socially distance themselves, we felt like by taking this step to address the problem with our fans, we’re in a position where we can continue to operate the events as of right now.

“I think it’s natural to feel pressure to do what others have done,’’ Monahan added. “I think you have to look at what’s unique to your sport relative to what others have done, and I think our sport is unique, particularly given the venues where we host our tournaments.’’

So, beginning Friday, golf is going to have a bizarre, different look with no spectators lining the fairways and greens.

“I’ve never played a Tour event like we are going to play [Friday] with no fans,’’ Phil Mickelson said. “It will be a very weird experience, and I feel bad for the people here that have supported this tournament for so many decades to not be able to come on out. But this is a pretty serious thing that we need to do all we can to make sure that people don’t lose lives over it that we can prevent.’’

Patrick Cantlay said, “I think it will be weird and it will be a little spooky out there playing, especially if you were to get paired with Phil or something and it’s totally empty.’’

Graeme McDowell, who shot 4-under, said it’s “going to be surreal’’ playing in front of no fans.

“This is the ultimate Stadium Course,’’ he said. “This golf course is designed to have 75, 100 thousand people on it — especially on holes like 17 and 18. I would love to be in that last group on Sunday, I would love to tell you exactly what it felt like trying to win this tournament with nobody watching.

“It’s going to be a bizarre feeling — especially in this event where crowd interaction is such a big key to this golf tournament. But what we’re doing here is insignificant in comparison to what’s happening in the world and it’s unprecedented. We just don’t really know how to react and didn’t really know what to expect.

“This makes professional sports insignificant. There are bigger things at stake here.’’