(Reuters) – This year’s World Amateur Team Championships (WATC), scheduled for October, have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Golf Federation (IGF) said on Tuesday.
The biennial amateur golf competition, which dates back to 1958, had previously been moved from Hong Kong to Singapore due to political unrest.
“This unprecedented decision was due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty that this has caused to ensuring that the 2020 WATC could be staged successfully,” IGF Executive Director Antony Scanlon said in a statement https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2020/05/world-amateur-team-championships-canceled-due-to-covid-19.html.
“Most importantly, it was made to safeguard the health and safety of all athletes, officials and volunteers at the 2020 WATC.”
Scanlon added that scheduling and logistical issues had made it impossible to move the event to 2021 and that the IGF was looking forward to staging the competition successfully in 2022.
The golf calendar has been ravaged by the outbreak, with three of the sport’s four majors re-scheduled and the British Open cancelled.
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
