Coronavirus Cancellations - How The Pro Golf World Has Been Affected

We currently don't know when the next time live golf will be on the TV

Coronavirus Cancellations - How The Pro Golf World Has Been Affected
(Image credit: Getty Images)

We currently don't know when the next time live golf will be on the TV

Coronavirus Cancellations - How The Pro Golf World Has Been Affected

The current global coronavirus pandemic has effectively shut down professional sport and that includes golf.

Latest: Coronavirus and Golf

We've seen some huge events called off already including The Masters and ANA Inspiration, both the men's and women's first Majors of the year, and it looks like May's USPGA Championship may be on the verge of being postponed too.

Below we list the Tours and events affected by the coronavirus to give you an idea of when the next elite level pro golf events are scheduled to take place.

PGA Tour

Having cancelled the Players Championship after the first round, the PGA Tour also announced that every event through to the Valero Texas Open has been cancelled.

That means that this week's Valspar Championship as well as the following WGC-Mexico Championship and Corales Punta Cana Championship will also not go ahead.

As things stand, the next event scheduled is the RBC Heritage from 16th-19th April, however that will surely be called off fairly soon.

The real bulk of the PGA Tour season is only just supposed to be getting underway but it looks like events throughout April, May and June will be in serious doubt.

That means that tournaments including the USPGA Championship, US Open, Memorial Tournament, Canadian Open, Bryon Nelson, Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship and more may not get played this year.

This could wipe out the entire season with the FedEx Cup Playoffs set for August - who knows what the PGA Tour schedule will look like by then.

European Tour

The European Tour has postponed all of its tournaments up until the GolfSixes on 9th/10th May, after postponing the Andalucia Masters today, which was scheduled to begin on 30th April.

However, Chief Executive Keith Pelley has essentially put the entire season on hold at the moment after announcing that ticket and hospitality packages are currently suspended until further notice.

The events that have been postponed are last week's Magical Kenya Open plus the Hero Indian Open, the Maybank Championship, the Volvo China Open and Andalucia Masters.

The Czech Masters, scheduled for August, has also been postponed.

The European Tour's stronger events come at the start and end of the year, so there may be hope that big Rolex Series events like the Irish Open at the end of May, the Scottish Open in July, the BMW PGA Championship in September and the Italian Open in October could still be played.

The Race to Dubai finale in November is still a long way away with the Turkish Airlines Open, Nedbank Golf Challenge and DP World Tour Championship.

Majors

Augusta National postponed The Masters, which came after the first ladies Major of the year, the ANA Inspiration, was also postponed.

The Masters could take place later this year in Autumn, but that could still be doubtful.

Related: Jack Nicklaus doesn't think The Masters will take place in 2020

The men's USPGA Championship is scheduled for mid-May but that is also expected to be postponed after the CDC advised that events be cancelled for the next eight weeks in the USA featuring more than 50 people.

More than seven million residents in the San Francisco Bay Area have been ordered to confine themselves to their homes so an announcement, you'd expect, may be coming fairly soon.

The US Open set for June in New York at Winged Foot could still go ahead and the Open Championship at Royal St George's is in its usual spot of mid-July.

If travel bans and isolation measures continue throughout the summer, it is possible that there could be no Major action in 2020.

The women's ANA Inspiration in California in early April has been postponed, whilst the US Open and PGA Championship in June, Evian Championship in July and British Open in August are all currently on the schedule.

Latest: Coronavirus and Golf

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is due to take place at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from 25th-27th September.

All will be revealed in the coming weeks and months in regards to whether it goes ahead and how players could qualify.

The 2001 Ryder Cup is the only match to have been postponed, due to 9/11, and the teams remained the same for the 2002 rescheduled match as they would have been for 2001.

The matches in 1939, 1941, 1943, and 1945 were all cancelled due to World War II.

Olympics

Golf makes its second appearance in the Olympics since 1904 this year at Tokyo, although there are now serious doubts about the Games taking place.

Organisers have ruled out staging the Games behind closed doors so it could turn out to be the biggest 2020 sporting event to be postponed.

Twitter Official World Golf Ranking guru Nosferatu has shown projections of how the final player list would look if there is no golf until 22nd June...look away now Justin Rose and Tiger Woods.

See more

LPGA Tour

The LPGA Tour has cancelled or postponed a number of its tournaments with the next event currently scheduled for 15th April at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii.

That will be almost two months since the previous event after big tournaments in Asia including the HSBC Women's World Championship were cancelled.

Following on from Hawaii, there are two events scheduled for California before Florida, Virginia and New Jersey events in May ahead of the US Women's Open in June.

Of course, these events now look highly unlikely to go ahead.

Commisioner Mike Whan said in a video on social media that "we are on a break."

Latest: Coronavirus and Golf

Ladies European Tour

The LET's lucrative Saudi Ladies International, which was set for next week, has been postponed.

The next tournament on the schedule is the Jabra Open in France in early May.

Related: 8 things to do when there is no golf on the TV

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV