This year’s Australian Open Golf Championship was
postponed Tuesday because of the coronavirus pandemic but officials said they
were hoping to restage the event early in 2021.
Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club had been due to host
the 105th edition of the historic championship, the world’s fifth oldest
professional golf tournament, in November.
But with the country battling a surge in COVID-19 cases
and the game’s stars facing major tournaments moved to later in 2020, Golf
Australia operations manager Simon Brookhouse said they would instead look at a
“January to March 2021 window”.
The US Masters, originally scheduled for April, will now
be played in Augusta from November 12-15.
Coupled with COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine
measures, that means it would be almost impossible to assemble a world-class
field in Melbourne.
“Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter of whether
or not we could co-ordinate any international stars to visit,” Brookhouse
said.
“The uncertainty of the quarantine requirements for
any players coming from outside Australia needed to be considered,” he
said, noting that the restrictions would also impact Australian players
currently overseas.
“These are very challenging times for all Australians
and the uncertainty the global pandemic has caused makes it very difficult to
be definitive in relation to future dates at this time,” Brookhouse said.
Australia closed its borders to most international
travellers in March to curb the spread of COVID-19, although exceptions have
been made for some professional athletes who agree to quarantine for 14 days.
While most of the country has successfully contained the
epidemic, Melbourne is struggling to control a second wave of the virus,
closing nearly all travel into the city and surrounding Victoria state.
Last year’s Australian Open in Sydney was plagued by smoke
from unprecedented bushfires. It was won by Australia’s Matt Jones.
The
postponement means 2020 will be the first year since World War II in which the
Australian Open will not be held.
