The 2021 Open Championship will take place between July 15-18 at Royal St George’s after the event was postponed 12 months.

Royal St George’s was due to stage the 149th Open Championship in 2020 between July 15-19, but the R&A took the decision to postpone for a year due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Rather than move it to later in the year – something that has been done with the USPGA Championship, US Open and Masters, the 149th Open Championship will remain at Royal St George’s in 2021 and will involve a reshuffle of the planned Open host venues.

The postponement of this year’s Open means that 2020 will be the first year since World War II that the Claret Jug hasn’t been played for.

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement: “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.”

READ: 2020 Open Championship Postponed

Where is the 2021 Open Championship being held?

Royal St George’s will still host the 149th Open Championship, retaining its status despite the event being moved back 12 months.

Royal St George’s has hosted The Open 14 previous times between 1894 and 2011, when Darren Clarke was the most recent winner at the venue.

Other winners include John Henry Taylor (1894), Harry Vardon (1899 and 1911), Jack White (1904), Walter Hagen (1922 and 1928), Henry Cotton (1934), Reg Whitcombe (1938), Bobby Locke (1949), Bill Rogers (1981), Sandy Lyle (1985), Greg Norman (1993) and Ben Curtis (2003).

Open Championship Future Host Venues

St Andrews was due to have the honour of staging the 150th Open Championship in 2021, but the home of golf will now stage the historic anniversary in 2022.

Royal Liverpool (2023) and Troon (2024) have shifted back a year as a result of the cancellation of the 2020 edition.