Golf is one of the many sports which got affected by the pandemic of COVID-19. The European Tour was the first of the leading tours which took actions and postponed the upcoming tournaments till the middle of April. Initially it was announced that Maybank Championship and Volvo China Open are postponed. Later the Magical Kenya Open Presented by Absa and Hero Indian Open also were postponed due to the ongoing threat posed by the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The same decision was taken by the PGA Tour although at the beginning of the week they confirmed that the season will continues as planned and if it is needed tournaments venues will be closed for fans.
This decision didn’t last long and during the first round of The Players Championship the tournament was interrupted. Initially it was announced that after the first round the tournament will continue without spectators on the course. However even the first round was not finished and the tournament was cancelled. In an official statement the PGA Tour informed that the tournament won’t be finished and all future tournaments till the Valero Texas Open are postponed. This mean that Valspar Championship, World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship won’t be held as planned and most probably they won’t be rescheduled.
The biggest shock came yesterday when the governing bodies of Augusta National announced that the 2020 Masters Tournaments is postponed. Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, said that the health and well-being of everyone associated with the tournament is their top priority and they had to take this hard decision. The last time The Masters was postponed was in 1945 when the tournament was not held due to World War II.