BBC Golf Presenter Leaves Open After Close Contact With Positive Covid Case

Anchor of the BBC highlights coverage Eilidh Barbour has been identified as a close contact to a positive Covid case.

BBC Golf Presenter Leaves Open After Close Contact With Positive Covid Case

BBC golf presenter Eilidh Barbour has been forced to leave the 149th Open Championship after being identified as a close contact with someone who recently tested positive for Covid-19.

Barbour is the anchor of BBC's Open highlights coverage, which is being shown every day of the tournament on BBC 2 and 8pm BST.

She anchored the Thursday highlights show and was due to present for the remainder of the weekend until she was informed she was a close contact.

It is not known who the positive case was.

She announced the news on her Twitter account on Friday morning and also revealed that Rishi Persad will be taking over for the rest of the week.

Related: Who Is Eilidh Barbour?

The BBC has only been showing highlights coverage of The Open Championship since it lost full rights to Sky in 2016.

The last Open coverage in full by the BBC was in 2015, where Zach Johnson lifted the Claret Jug at St. Andrews.

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Rishi Persad, who will be taking over the highlights show from Barbour, is a recognised face for the BBC.

He has already covered The Open for the broadcaster in previous years and has also featured on the BBC's coverage of the Olympics and Ryder Cup.

Persad will be most well known for his recent coverage of Wimbledon - where he took charge of many post match interviews - as well as for anchoring Channel 4's cricket coverage of England's tour of India in February and March 2021.

The year's BBC coverage also features Ken Brown on commentary and the two hour highlights show will feature his famous 'Ken On The Course' segments for viewers to enjoy.