The world golfing calendar is in full swing but ongoing restrictions in Australia around Covid-19 have made it impossible to restart events.
Major golfing tours around the world have continued throughout much of the Covid-19 pandemic, and crowds have returned en masse in recent times with the sport back in full swing.
But an inability to guarantee any sort of quarantine-free trips to Australia for overseas based players has again proved an insurmountable challenge for officials who have had to abandon both the men’s and women’s Australian Opens cancelled for a second-straight year.
Only World War II had previously been able to stop the men’s event from running annually but now it will go without a title holder in 2020 and 2021.
Golf Australia has a tentative slot, in November or December 2022, pencilled in for the men’s event to be resume at Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne.
There is no timeslot yet for the next women’s event, after both were wiped from the calendar in 2021.
They had both been scheduled for early 2022, but citing the “pressure and risk on host venues” and the challenges of getting overseas-based players into Australia, the decision was made by Golf Australia to focus on getting ready for the return of the two opens in the 2022-23 summer of golf.
“The decision has not been made lightly, but we believe it to be the right outcome under the current circumstances,“ Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.
“The international element means shifting quarantine and travel restrictions wreak havoc on planning, and with our marquee players living abroad, the challenge is even greater.
“The pressure and risk on organisers is also high – these are small businesses who have already faced huge disruption due to the pandemic.”
The Australian PGA Championship will still go ahead as scheduled from January 13-16 at Royal Queensland.
The world’s best players compete for millions of dollars each week at events in the US and Europe. The prospect of missing up to three tournaments to travel to Australia, possibly quarantine, even if only for seven days, play, then return home, was a commitment none could make.
The tournaments were set to be played in NSW and South Australia and officials said it had become “increasingly apparent” it wouldn’t be possible to run
Superstar Australians including Adam Scott and Marc Leishman had already indicated that it was too hard for them to return home to play, citing the need for 14 days in quarantine.
In August Scott lamented the “frustrating” nature of Australia’s border policies, which made it hard for him to return to Australia.
“Australia’s kind of going backwards a little bit. It’s not looking promising for later this year at the moment,” he said.
Golf Australia still intends to run the men’s and women’s Vic Open at 13th Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula from February 10-13, albeit without international tour sanctioning.
Sutherland said Golf Australia, the PGA of Australia and the WPGA Tour are working closely together and remain optimistic about the future of the tournaments as the world opens up.
“While it’s disappointing to lose these tournaments for the second year in a row, we’ll continue to work together to deliver an exciting schedule of local tournaments across the summer,” he said.
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