Before Covid only World War II had stopped the Australian Open, and reactions have been strong after news the tournament won’t be played for a second straight year.
Cameron Smith says he’ll be the “first one” on a plane home to play when quarantine conditions are eased as Australians reacted to news of the men’s and women’s Australian Opens being cancelled for a second year.
An inability to guarantee any sort of quarantine-free trips to Australia for overseas-based players has again proved an insurmountable challenge for Golf Australia, which has had to abandon both tournaments.
The announcement came 24 hours before the NSW declared its international borders would re-open to fully vaccinated travellers on November 1, with no quarantine required.
Smith, Australia’s top-ranker player having risen to number 24 in the world, hasn’t been home since 2019 when he played the Australian Open and PGA.
The Queenslander, who has resumed his US PGA Tour season at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas this week, said he was desperate to play in Australia again.
“Obviously, it’s pretty disappointing. I love going back home and playing golf in front of the home crowd,” Smith said after carding an opening round of six-under to be in the top 10 at the exclusive 78-player event.
“It seems like forever. I haven’t been back for a couple years, I haven’t seen my family for a couple years, so it’s been pretty tough. I’ll be the first one over there pegging it up.”
The Oceania Golf Players‘ Association went harder in a statement declaring it was frustrated at not being consulted by Golf Australia about the decision.
“The OGPA are extremely disappointed in the cancellation of both the 2022 Women‘s Australian Open and the 2021 Men’s Australian Open,” the statement read.
“We believe it is fundamentally wrong that the players were not involved in the decision-making or problem-solving process with respect to getting a 2022 Australian Open up-and-running in some form.”
Only World War II had previously been able to stop the men’s event from running annually, but now it will go without a titleholder in 2020 and 2021.
Golf Australia has a tentative slot, in November or December 2022, pencilled in for the men’s event to 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.
Adam Scott said the decision was disappointing but “expected” it having already expressed his frustration at the different rules in Australia for returning travellers compared with most other countries around the world.
He conceded there was no point holding an Australian Open that didn’t have the best field possible, with none of the world’s best prepared to quarantine and possibly take three weeks out of their playing schedule for one event.
“(It was) expected maybe, I think. They’re not in a situation where they … can hold these kind of events,” Scott said after his opening round in Las Vegas.
“I think it’s a good idea overall. I mean, there’s no point forcing anything with golf or any other event down there at the moment.
“There are more important things to get under control.”
Scott opened with a four-under 68 in Las Vegas, along with fellow Aussie, and 2017 Australian Open champion, Cameron Davis.
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