Summer golf faces wipeout W

ith each passing postponement I’m becoming increasingly fearful of golf in Europe being wiped out this summer.

For those of you keeping track, and I know I am, the announcement this week that the Irish Open has joined the growing list of postponed events was another blow for the European Tour.

We’re now looking at June being the earliest point of return but I’d be amazed if there is any golf played then and even July is starting to look a fanciful notion.

That would mean the Scottish Open and the Open being under threat but in these unprecedented times it seems we will know the prospect of those events going ahead by the end of the month.

Like the rest of you no doubt, I find myself following the news more than ever these days and when I see the SECC in Glasgow being transformed into a hospital and the Nightingale hospital being set up in London, it really hits home just how serious this situation is.

In addition, the Scottish Government predicts it will be the end of April before we reach the peak in Scotland. If that’s not worrying enough, we don’t know how long that peak will last for.

With 25,000 being tested daily in Britain, a country with a population in excess of 50 million, clearly it is going to take some time before any semblance of routine daily life returns.

With Uefa postponing all international football scheduled for this summer and Wimbledon now being cancelled it shows you just how uncertain authorities are about when it will be safe to return.

Golf is not immune to the uncertainty. I could discuss and ponder contingency plans every week but ultimately it is the World Health Organisation and the government who will dictate when it is safe to be out and about and living a normal life again.

We’re midway through a 21-day lockdown and I’m not sticking my neck out by claiming another three-week notice to stay

“We’re itching ever closer to the Open being in doubt as well as the Ryder Cup”

at home is likely to be coming our way.

That means we’re itching ever closer to the Open being in doubt while looking further ahead, the Ryder Cup is also facing uncertainty.

Padraig Harrington, the European captain, is keen for it to go ahead even if the qualification is going to be reduced to, at best, a handful of tournaments, but it may be he has to make 12 captain’s picks or six picks with six automatically qualified.

It’s still planned to go ahead and until that changes, he is free to ponder the permutations as much as he wants.

IN LIMBO: European captain Padraig Harrington wants the Ryder Cup to go ahead