Australian Open golf postponed indefinitely amid pandemic

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This article was published 27/07/2020 (2200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MELBOURNE, Australia – The Australian Open golf tournament has been postponed indefinitely, although organizers remain hopeful it can be held in early 2021.

The tournament was scheduled for Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, which is back in lockdown because of a large increase in COVID-19 deaths and infections in the last month. The 105th edition of the tournament was set to be played in November.

Golf Australia operations manager Simon Brookhouse on Tuesday said he was hopeful that the national championship will still be played later in the Australian summer, likely in January, February or March of next year.

“These are very challenging times for all Australians and the uncertainty the global pandemic has caused makes it very difficult to be definitive in relation to future dates,” Brookhouse said. “Unfortunately, it is not a simple matter of whether or not we could co-ordinate any international stars to visit. The uncertainty of the quarantine requirements for any players coming from outside Australia needed to be considered.”

Australian Matt Jones held off South African Louis Oosthuizen by one stroke to win his second Australian Open title last year at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.

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