India Open: Country’s biggest golf tournament cancelled due to coronavirus

Hero Indian Open, the biggest golf tournament the nation hosts, was on Friday cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament, co-sanctioned by the European Tour, was earlier scheduled to be held from March 19 to 22 in Gurugram however was postponed. The ladies’s Indian Open was additionally cancelled on Tuesday due to the pandemic.

“Keeping in mind the health and safety of everyone as top most priority, we have decided to cancel this year’s Hero Indian Open,” Devang Shah, Chairman of the Indian Golf Union (IGU), instructed PTI.

“We have made the decision after due consultation with our sanctioning partner European Tour.”

Shah stated they’d deliberate to host the occasion someday in October however have been compelled shelve the plan due to the worsening COVID-19 state of affairs within the nation.

“It is becoming serious day by day, so we decided to cancel this year’s tournament after consultation with European Tour. It will now be held in 2021,” Shah stated.

IGU appearing president Lt Gen D Anbu (Retd) stated it was a really robust resolution however they’d to take it contemplating the well-being of everybody.

“It was a very difficult decision, but the right one under the present circumstances of the ongoing pandemic. With no likelihood of any respite in the foreseeable future, safeguarding the health and well-being of all players, officials and spectators is of paramount importance,” he stated.

The Hero Indian Open was established by the IGU in 1964 and is among the oldest working worldwide sports activities occasions within the nation. It has been a European Tour-sanctioned tournament since 2015.