The 2020 Open Championship has been postponed for 12 months due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Royal St George’s from July 16-19 but organisers the R&A have taken the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 edition of the world famous major.

Rather than move it to later in the year, the 149th Open Championship will instead take place at Royal St George’s in 2021 and will involve a reshuffle of the planned Open host venues.

St Andrew’s was due to have the honour of staging the 150th Open Championship in 2021. That will now be in 2022, with Royal Liverpool (2023) and Troon (2024) also set to shift back a year.

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, although the decision had been on the cards.

Statement from the R&A about the 2020 Open Championship

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers 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.”

Major Tournaments Cancelled

The 2020 Masters and USPGA Championship have already been postponed from their April and May dates due to the ongoing threat of coronavirus.

The US Open, due to take place at Winged Foot from June 18-21, remains under threat with the outbreak continuing to have a major impact on golf and the sporting world.

The 2020 Ryder Cup, which will take place at Whistling Straits in September, is also going ahead as scheduled as things stand.

The Masters, meanwhile, could be staged at Augusta in October in a bid to save the major.

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