Updated April 07, 2020 08:46:59

Photo: Royal St George's last held The Open in 2011 - the English south coast course has to wait until 2021 to host again. (Reuters/Action Images: Andrew Couldridge)

This year's 149th Open Championship, due to be held at Royal St George's, has been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A statement from golf's governing body, the R&A, said the decision to scrap the 2020 tournament, scheduled for July 16-19, had been made with a "heavy heart" but was the only option.

It will be the first time the Open, the oldest of golf's four majors, has not been held since 1945.

The Open was last held on the Royal St George's course in Kent, on England's south-east coast, in 2011 when Northern Irishman Darren Clarke claimed victory.

"We appreciate that this will be disappointing for a great many people around the world but this pandemic is severely affecting the UK and we have to act responsibly," Martin Slumbers, chief executive of The R&A, said in a statement.

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

The one silver lining for Royal St George's is that it will host the tournament next year instead. The 2021 event, which would have been the 150th, was to be held at St Andrews. It will now return to the 'home of golf' in 2022.

The Open is the only one of this year's majors to be cancelled, but golf organisers have stepped in to try to salvage the season by rescheduling the other three biggest tournaments of the year.

The PGA Championship, which last year moved to May, will go back to August.

That will be followed by the PGA Tour's postseason, the US Open and Ryder Cup in consecutive weeks, and then the Masters from November 12-15.

"Any Masters is better than no Masters," pro golfer and Augusta native Charles Howell III said after the announcements.

Still to be determined, however, was when — or even if — golf could resume because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down sports worldwide.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said the Masters identified November as "intended dates".

Chief executive Seth Waugh said the PGA of America was "holding" August 6-9 as dates for the PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco.

USGA chief Mike Davis said moving from June to September was the best chance to mitigate health and safety concerns — Winged Foot is eight kilometres from a coronavirus hot spot — to have "the best opportunity" of staging the US Open.

Photo: Ireland's Shane Lowry won The Open last year — he says he's disappointed he can't get to defend the title in 2020. (AP: Jon Super)

Shane Lowry of Ireland would have been hoping to retain The Open trophy at Royal St George's.

"Obviously I'm disappointed that I won't get to defend my title but people's health and safety come before any golf tournament," he said in a video posted on Twitter.

"I'm sure the R&A have thought long and hard about this. You can guarantee the Claret Jug is in safe hands for another year and I look forward to seeing you all in 2021."

Preparations for staging the Open involve a huge logistical operation and the "build" would have begun soon in Sandwich on the Kent coast.

The R&A boss said it would have been unreasonable to put any extra pressure on the local authorities.

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"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," Slumbers said.

The R&A said tickets and hospitality packages purchased for the 2020 championship would transfer to 2021, with full refunds for those who could not attend next year.

Apart from stoppages due to world wars, the only other time the Open had been cancelled was in 1871 because there was no trophy — Tom Morris Jr having been allowed to keep the Challenge Belt for winning the tournament three times in a row.

The British sporting calendar, like that across the world, has been decimated because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week the Wimbledon tennis championships were also cancelled for the first time since World War II, while the soccer, rugby and cricket seasons were all suspended.

Reuters/AP

Topics: infectious-diseases-other, respiratory-diseases, covid-19, sport, golf, united-kingdom, england, united-states

First posted April 07, 2020 08:35:46