Pandemic wipes out Australian summer golf calendar

The PGA of Australia has announced that all major events on the Australian summer schedule, including the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Open and Women’s Australian Open, have been cancelled.

There was some hope that the tournaments would be able to be played in early 2021, however, with Europe and the US still well in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems highly unlikely that players will be able to travel to Australia.

Adam Scott won the 2019 Australian PGA Championship (Credit: PGA Australia)

And without the big name international stars, sponsors, advertisers and broadcasters are not going to take the chance of spending millions on the staging and promotion of a golf event in this climate.

“It’s unprecedented and a real blow for Australian golf and its fans,” said PGA of Australia chief executive Gavin Kirkman.

“We have collectively spent months in exhaustive consultation with all relevant authorities and our sanctioning partners to try to find a way to stage all three events safely and at that world-class level to which we’ve all become accustomed..

“But even with multiple contingency plans, it has reached a point where decisions have to be made and this, regrettably, is the one we’ve had to take.”

“We look forward to bringing all three tournaments alive again when they return as normal for summer 2021-22.”

The Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship were to be played at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath and Brisbane’s Royal Queensland, respectively with the PGA Championship returning to the banks of the Brisbane River for the first time since 2001.

The last time the Australian Open was cancelled was due to World War II from 1940-1945.