Moment of silence for George Floyd on PGA Tour

The PGA Tour has set aside the 8:46 a.m. tee time on Thursday at the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Korn Ferry Tour Challenge to honor the memory of George Floyd.

The tee time will go unused, with no players teeing off and a moment of silence being conducted for Floyd, who died on May 25 while in police custody, sparking worldwide protests.

The moment of silence will begin with three horn blasts coordinated through PGA Tour rules officials on the site of each event -- Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Players on the course and at the venues will be asked to pause and support the PGA Tour's commitment to addressing racial and social issues.

The tour said it is developing a long-term commitment to address those issues.

Harold Varner III, who is black, believes the PGA Tour, with the backing of commissioner Jay Monahan, will continue to raise awareness.

"I think this week won't be the last week, because it's getting to the point where everyone has a voice that if the PGA Tour was to forget it, they would get hounded every day," Varner said. "So it's just kind of like yes, they're pressured, but I also think that it's the right thing to do, and I think Jay knows that, so I'm super behind him on that, and we got to talking about some things where I come from, what I think about it. I'm just super fortunate to be able to say something and it matter but also be a part of the change. Everyone in this society right now is going to be a part of that."

Varner said a number of golfers -- "too many to count," he said -- have reached out to him since Floyd's death.

"One thing I try to tell them, some of the guys that texted, 'Dude, you're not racist. I think you're doing things to grow the game.' ... I have a hard time believing there's a ton of racists on the PGA Tour because I'm pretty good friends with a lot of people out there. If I was racist, I'd probably not hang out with a black person, and I hang out with a good number of people out here."

Like many, Varner took to social media after Floyd's death to describe his feelings.

"I've been helped by every type of race possible, and then it was all of a sudden Harold should say something because he's black," he said. "I don't like when people are like, just because you're black you know the answers to racism, so that letter was super good for me because it let me expose that. Even like you were telling white people they need to listen right now, black people need to listen right now, too, and we need to come together and figure out what it is. So no, I have not had much discrimination in my journey. I've just had so many different types of people help me."

Jon Rahm, the No. 2-ranked player in the world and a native of Spain, expressed support for social justice reform on Twitter last week. Rahm said he has not been racially profiled but has received "dirty looks" when speaking Spanish in public.

Rahm called the past few weeks the "biggest civil rights moment in history," and felt he needed to be a part of it.

"I can't fathom the reason why anybody would treat somebody differently just the way you look or they sound or what you believe in," Rahm said. "We're all the same. We're all human beings, and we should all be treated the same way. To me it's as simple as that. And when this whole thing broke out, I've tried to reach out to understand more profoundly what's going on because if I've somehow experienced a little bit of what racism can be like, I can't imagine what some people have experienced throughout their whole life, right. And at the same time, as an athlete, let's say in a mainly white sport, with somewhat of a platform on social media, I believed it was my duty to -- at least, not my duty but my belief to -- support this cause and try to reach as many people as possible.

"I understand you can't make everybody aware of everything, but if I can just have one more person understand the situation and support it, to me it's a win."

Varner said he did not experience discrimination growing up in golf because he had access to a local municipal course, but he understands it exists.

"It doesn't become a problem until it's not there," Varner said. "It's like anything in life. No one understands how much someone cares about something until it's taken away, and I think COVID has taught us a lot of that, so we're going to make it better in our community and hopefully grow that. There's some great programs out there that I've been able to talk to that just care about the access to golf. Man, it's an important sport. It teaches a lot of stuff, not only how to be better at golf but how to be a better human in this society."