Report: R&A To Cancel The 2020 Open Championship

Until now, golf’s leading organizations have been in postponement mode, but with Wimbledon’s cancellation we appear to have the R&A’s decision on The Open: cancellation.

Joel Beall and Brian Wacker with the first report for GolfDigest.com. This will be the first year without an Open since 1945 and also the first major championship cancelled since then.

This was noteworthy as well:

Similar to Wimbledon, the R&A has a policy that shields against a global pandemic, and a source indicated the Open would have to cancel by a certain date in order to collect on its insurance premium.

“The R&A is the most [insured] of all the tournaments,” a source said. “They have complete cancellation insurance. I just don’t see any golf [being played] before August.”

An early fall Open would have required reducing the field plenty of other scheduling headaches. Still, this would be a massive blow to fans, players and organizers knowing what this championship means to all involved.

**The R&A’s statement:

STATEMENT FROM THE R&A ON THE 149TH OPEN AT ROYAL ST GEORGE’S

2 April 2020, St Andrews, Scotland: In light of recent media speculation, we would like to clarify the position regarding The 149th Open.

Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said, “We are continuing to work through our options for The Open this year, including postponement. Due to a range of external factors, that process is taking some time to resolve. We are well aware of the importance of being able to give clear guidance to fans, players and everyone involved and are working to resolve this as soon as we can. We will give a further update as soon as we are in a position to do so and thank everyone for their support and understanding in this challenging situation.”

As Alistair Tait notes, the inevitable shake-up to the Open schedule will have consequences for both Kent and St. Andrews, the next two host towns.