2020 Open Championship Cancelled

Royal St George's will host The Open next year instead

2020 Open Championship Cancelled

This year's Open Championship at Royal St George's has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus, the R&A have announced.

The tournament will go ahead next year, still as the 149th edition, and Royal St George's Golf Club in Kent will be the host.

St Andrews was due to host the 150th Open next year but that has been pushed back to 2021.

Confirmation:

The 149th Open will be played at Royal St George’s from 11-18 July 2021.
The 150th Open will be played at St Andrews from 10-17 July 2022.

This is the first time The Open has been cancelled since 1945.

Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said, “Our absolute priority is to protect the health and safety of the fans, players, officials, volunteers and staff involved in The Open. We care deeply about this historic Championship and have made this decision with a heavy heart.

"We appreciate that this will be disappointing for a great many people around the world but we have to act responsibly during this pandemic and it is the right thing to do.

“I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing The Open this year but it is not going to be possible.

“There are many different considerations that go into organising a major sporting event of this scale.

"We rely on the support of the emergency services, local authorities and a range of other organisations to stage the Championship and it would be unreasonable to place any additional demands on them when they have far more urgent priorities to deal with.

"In recent weeks we have been working closely with those organisations as well as Royal St George’s, St Andrews Links Trust and the other golf bodies to resolve the remaining external factors and have done so as soon as we possibly could. We are grateful to all of them for their assistance and co-operation throughout this process.

“Most of all I would like to thank our fans around the world and all of our partners for their support and understanding.

"At a difficult time like this we have to recognise that sport must stand aside to let people focus on keeping themselves and their families healthy and safe.

"We are committed to supporting our community in the weeks and months ahead and will do everything in our power to help golf come through this crisis.”

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