Golf tournaments postponed/cancelled across India
The new year has just begun but is already looking like a repeat of 2020 and 2021 as the surging Omicron variant has led to a rash of golf tournaments being postponed across the country, including the PGTI’s Q school..
State Governments have instituted weekend and night curfews as the daily positivity rate currently stands at 10.21%. Looking at the situation, golf bodies have already started taking precautions.
Hero Women’s Pro events
The Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour (Hero WPGT) which recently announced its first four events for the 2022 season, has postponed the first two at Pune GC and Aamby Valley Resort Jan. 12-14 and Jan. 19-21 respectively.
It remains to be seen whether Leg 3 and 4 in Visakhapatnam and Mumbai can take place as currently scheduled from Feb. 15 – 18 and 22 – 25, respectively.
The Hero Women’s Pro Tour suffered multiple halts in 2020-2021 because of the Covid pandemic but was still able to hold 24 tournaments across the two years. The tour is expected to return stronger as many of the top Indian girls who were playing in Europe during the second half of 2021, will be available to play in India in the early part of the year.
Hero Indian Open
The apex body for amateur golf in India, the Indian Golf Union (IGU) managed only half of its amateur season in 2021 and had started to announce a few events in 2022. The organization has been focused on successfully staging the US$ 2 mn Hero Indian Open scheduled by the DP World (European) Tour for Feb 24-27 at DLF GC, Gurgaon, but the return of India’s most prestigious tournament depends on the COVID-19 situation in India.
Club Golf Leagues postponed
It isn’t only professional bodies that are experiencing a disruption. Local clubs over India have decided to postpone their club leagues, which were scheduled to start in January and February. These include the Bombay Presidency GC, Royal Calcutta GC, Bangalore GC and Pune GC.