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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves speaks to media about his shelter-in-place order for Lauderdale County during a press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

Crowd size at extracurricular school activities will be limited to two spectators per participant through the month of August for both public and private schools, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Friday.

Reeves stressed Friday during his afternoon news conference that he believes it is important to allow students to participate in extracurricular activities, but said adequate safety precautions must be in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sports and these other activities are instrumental in the lives of our young Mississippians,” he said in a statement. “They teach discipline and responsibility in a way that can’t be replicated. That said, we are living through a pandemic. One of my greatest concerns heading into this school season has been sports and those other events which cause the community to come out in crowds. Twenty-two players on a field is not going to overwhelm a local hospital. Two thousand people in a small school’s bleachers might.”

Reeves said the limitations will apply to all extracurriculars — not only sports — such as football and volleyball, but also band concerts and other events.

In recent weeks, the most interest has been directed at high school football. The public schools are not starting the season until Sept. 4, though, they are holding scrimmages in late August. Reeves said Friday he did not know if the same crowd limitations will be extended into September, though he said it is possible.

Reeves said he is still studying the issue of crowd size at college football games, which are not slated to start until later in September.

On Friday, Reeves also extended the current executive order until Aug. 31, requiring the wearing of masks statewide in public and the cessation of alcohol sales at bars and restaurants after 11 p.m.

The current order also limits social gatherings to 10 people indoors and 20 people outdoors.

“Our numbers are improving,” Reeves said Friday. He said the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases has declined from 1,358 three weeks ago to less than 800 per day for the most recent seven days.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said the number of hospitalizations on average also has decreased, though there are currently 11 hospitals in the state with no intensive care beds available. Though the state has reported lower numbers of daily cases this week, Mississippi’s positivity rate remains one of the highest in the nation.

Dobbs said there are 38 counties in the state with schools where teachers and students have tested positive for COVID-19. He said 109 teachers and 69 students have tested positive. Currently more than 600 students and teachers are in quarantine because of possible exposure to the coronavirus.

“Most students are not catching it at school,” Dobbs said. Instead it is likely the coronavirus is being transmitted to students and faculty in the community and then being brought into schools, he said.

Reeves said at some point, most likely, cases will be reported at schools in all 82 counties.

Earlier, Reeves delayed the start of school for seventh grade and up for schools in eight counties with a high number of cases. That delay will end Monday.

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The Mississippi Flag Commission met Friday planning to narrow choices for a new state flag to five, but instead ended up with nine after much debate and tweaking of designs.

Those nine designs are available for public viewing and input on the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website. The commission reviewed nearly 3,000 public submissions for a new state flag design.

Commissioners plan to vote via online meeting Tuesday morning to pick five designs, of which cloth prototypes will be made and flown at the Old Capitol on Aug. 25. Then, commissioners will by Sept. 2 choose one flag to put before voters on Nov. 3.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Mississippi Highway Patrol officers retire the state flag outside of the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

The Mississippi Legislature, after decades of debate, in June voted to remove the 1894 state flag with its divisive Confederate battle emblem. The legislation it passed created the commission to choose a new flag to put before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters can either approve or reject the new design. If they reject it, the commission will go back to the drawing board, and present another design to voters next year.

The legislation mandates the new flag include the words “In God We Trust,” and prohibits Confederate battle flag imagery.

Commissioners — who were appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker — on Friday debated intricacies of various designs and looked at multiple variations of numerous proposals.

Last month, the commission heard from a vexillologist, or flag expert, on principles of good flag design. But the commission has appeared to largely veer from his advice.

For instance, the expert recommended very simple design, that a child could draw from memory. Most of the choices by the commission so far are more complex, with intricate details of magnolia flowers and trees or the Mississippi River.

And the expert recommended avoiding vertical stripes, using only horizontal. Of the three remaining designs with stripes, all have vertical ones.

Commissioners also noted that numerous people have said magnolia blossoms or trees evoke the “Old South” the state is trying to shed with its flag change. An MDAH historian noted to commissioners that Mississippi’s first flag when it seceded from the Union had a magnolia tree.

But of the remaining designs, seven have magnolia blossoms or trees.

Commissioners on Friday also met with a lawyer, and approved a copyright and intellectual property agreement that finalists will have to sign before their designs could be chosen for the state flag.

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USGA/Steven Gibbons

Not long after sunrise Thursday, Wilson Furr plays his second shot at the first hole at the U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.

Jack Nicklaus, the most accomplished champion in golf history, said it best: “Golf is not, and never has been, a fair game.”

Early Thursday afternoon, on Oregon’s wind-swept Pacific coast and on one of the sport’s most beautiful – and most challenging – courses, Jackson’s 22-year-old Wilson Furr might have agreed. Read on. You can’t possibly blame him.

All Furr had done over four days was shoot 19-under par for 69 holes, shatter a course record, shoot the second lowest round in the 125-year history of the tournament, win the U.S. Amateur’s 36-hole qualifier gold medal by two shots, and then rout his opponent in the first round of match play. And then, despite shooting a four-under par 67 in his second match, he lost.

Vanderbilt’s Harrison Ott, a good friend of Furr’s, played flawless golf Wednesday morning, matching Furr’s 67 and then beating him on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. By Wednesday evening, Furr was catching a plane back to Jackson.

Rick Cleveland

Had the first four rounds of the U.S. Amateur been a four-round, medal play event – like most PGA Tour tournaments – Furr would have lapped the field. He would have won by multiple shots. That’s not the case and maybe it doesn’t seem fair – but, as Nicklaus said, golf’s never been fair.

That’s the thing about match play. The best golfer of the week can run into a red-hot golfer in one match – and that’s that. The luck of the draw is very real in match play format. Ott, who played so fabulously against Furr, was four-over par on his first five holes in a later match Wednesday.

“It’s hard,” Furr said by phone before catching his flight. “I played solid golf all week and today might have been my cleanest round of golf of all. I felt good. I felt in control. And yet I am getting on an airplane while other guys are still playing.”

Steve Gibbons/USGA

Wilson Furr is all smiles after shooting a 11-under 132 (70-62) to earn Medalist honors at the end of the second round of stroke play at the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.

This reporter reminded Furr that he had won the gold medal at the U.S. Amateur for the 36 holes of stroke play. And that he had shot 62 in the second round, eclipsing the course record at Bandon Trails by two shots. And that he had played perhaps the best golf of his life on the biggest stage of his life.

Replied Furr, “Yes, sir, but it’s just kind of hard to look at it that way right now. It’s just hard.”

Golf can be so fickle. After being two down early in the match with Ott, Furr battled back and took a one-up lead going to the 18^th hole. Much to his credit, Ott birdied the 18^th to force the playoff.

Both clobbered drives right down the middle on the par-four playoff hole. Furr, one of the longest drivers you will ever see, hit his drive eight yards past Ott, another long hitter. Ott hit his 143-yard approach about 30 feet from the hole. Furr had 135 yards to the pin against a slight breeze and up a steep hill that made his a blind shot. “Perfect pitching wedge for me,” he said.

Furr hit that wedge shot “right at it,” he said. “I really thought I was going to have two- or three-footer for birdie to win the match. I hit it that well.”

Not quite well enough as it turns out. Furr’s shot landed just short of the green, spun back and kept rolling down a steep incline to where he had 65 yards left to the pin. He actually faced a more difficult third shot than he had on his second. His third shot left him with a 30-foot putt that he missed. Ott two-putted for par and victory.

“Harrison told me he thought my second shot was perfect, too,” Furr said. “I don’t know how to explain it. I just don’t know.”

G-o-l-f, might be the best explanation. Stuff happens. Much of it isn’t fair. As the great Raymond Floyd once said, “They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken.”

At 22, Furr is well-versed on the highs and lows of the sport. As a young teen he won the prestigious Future Masters. At 16, he won Mississippi’s State Amateur championship by eight shots, shooting 16-under par for 72 holes. And then, at 18, playing as a freshman at Alabama, he started hitting the ball so far off line, he couldn’t even make the traveling team. “I was just awful,” he said.

In recent months, Furr has worked harder than ever on his game, especially on his wedge game and his putting. These past four days were proof that all that hard work has paid off – if not quite yet been rewarded the way he wants.

“I do feel like I’ve put some pieces together,” Furr said. “I’ve definitely made progress. I feel like these last four days will lead me somewhere.”

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Anna Wolfe / Mississippi Today

Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy

CLARKSDALE — City employees across all departments are seeing upticks in COVID-19 cases, leaving a shortage of employees to keep the town clean, according to Mayor Chuck Espy.

As a result, he took to social media Thursday to ask citizens to “do their part” by ceasing to litter, picking up trash and tidying up their neighborhoods for a minimum of 15 minutes a day.

“A lot of my team members are getting hit with the virus. I’m asking you to continue to wear your mask, practice social distancing and wash your hands,” Espy said on a Facebook live. “My request is I need your help and here’s how … Can you please get out and help cleanup in your neighborhood?”

In a phone call with Mississippi Today, Espy said he could not release the number of employees who tested positive for the virus. He did say there are currently 39 employees with COVID-19 related issues. This number accounts for individuals who may have tested positive or is awaiting test results, for instance. The city has approximately 138 employees. However, he did say, the city is becoming a “red zone,” and a “panic situation.” As of August 12, Coahoma County had a total of 798 confirmed cases and 13 deaths, according to data by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

This past week the state health department reported the lowest daily case totals of COVID-19 in about a month, but the state’s test positivity rate remains one of the highest in the nation, Mississippi Today reported. 

Last week, the state department of health issued an isolation order for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19. This order states those infected must isolate at home and remain at home for 14 days. Employers may approve the individual’s return to work 10 days after the day they experienced symptoms or were tested. If a person refuses to abide by the law, they may be forced to pay a fine of $500 or jail time for six months.

Aside from the state regulations and guidelines outlined, Clarksdale has not implemented any additional measures for city employees. 

Though city workers are “stretched to the max,” Espy said the city is still able to conduct its daily functions and operations, other than providing upkeep for the city. Additionally, they are working to hire private contractors to do grass cleanup and demolish 75 abandoned homes.

“At least once a week, I go out in the community … clean up right there in my own neighborhood and it takes about 15 minutes and we are needing  that type of help,” Espy added. “Clean it up, bag it up, and throw it in your trash can.”

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