Covid delays Open and PGA

FORCING golfers into two weeks’ hotel quarantine was too much to ask and so for the second year in a row, the Covid-19 pandemic has cost Australian golf the chance to stage its flagship tournaments.

Outbreaks around the nation have forced both the Australian Open and the PGA to be postponed until early 2022.

Neither event has been played since 2019 because of the pandemic, with last year the first time they weren’t staged since World War II.

Last month, Australian star Adam Scott expressed his “frustration” with quarantine requirements in his homeland and basically declared it was too hard to return. That is a scenario mirrored by dozens of Australia’s best players plying their trade overseas.

The PGA, scheduled for December 2-5 at Royal Queensland, has been pushed back to January 13-16, while the Open has moved from November 25-28 at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney to a date yet to be announced in late-January or February.