Indian Open postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak
The Hero Indian Open, which was scheduled to tee off next week at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram, New Delhi, has been postponed due to the ongoing threat around the spread of the Coronavirus.
The postponement marks the fourth event on the European Tour to be cancelled due to the virus with the Kenya Open cancelled last week. The European Tour had previously postponed the Maybank Championship and Volvo China Open, which were scheduled for April.
Stephen Gallacher with his son after winning the 2019 Indian Open (Credit: European Tour)
The decision was made following consultation between the Indian Golf Union , the tournament’s co-sanctioning partners – the Asian Tour and the European Tour – and the tournament title sponsor Hero MotoCorp Ltd, after the latest public health travel advisories announced by the Indian government.
All parties are looking into the possibility of rescheduling the tournament at some point later in the year, but there are no definitive plans at this stage.
“In these difficult global circumstances, we fully understand and appreciate the recent restrictions introduced in respect of travel into India. As these new measures now prevent many members of both Tours being able to play in the tournament, everyone involved in the staging of the Hero Indian Open felt it was the correct decision to postpone the tournament,” said Keith Pelley, European Tour CEO.
“With these new travel regulations now in place, there has been a significant impact on the ability of our members, officials and service teams of both Tours to make their entry into India for the tournament,” added Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant.
“We will continue to take advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local health authorities while monitoring the situation in relation to the possibility of rescheduling the event later in the year.”
Two-time Dubai Desert Classic winner Stephen Gallacher broke a 5-year European Tour drought to win the title in 2019.
Source – Asian Tour
