USGA on Championship Cancellations Amid COVID-19
(From USGA on May 18) – The USGA announced several updates to its 2020 championship schedule today, as the organization continues to reconfigure its season due to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., and the 120th U.S. Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 10-16 at Bandon (Ore.) Dunes Golf Resort, will be conducted as scheduled, provided that CDC
In addition, the USGA announced that the remaining four 2020 amateur championships will be canceled: those are the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (which was scheduled Aug. 29-Sept. 3 at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C.); U.S. Senior Amateur (Aug. 29-Sept. 3 at Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.); U.S. Mid-Amateur (Sept. 12-17 at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va., and Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Va.); and U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur (Sept. 12-17 at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Ala.).
“Throughout this process, our primary focus has been the safety and well-being of everyone involved, including our players, volunteers, host club representatives and staff,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of Championships for the USGA. “We have not taken these decisions lightly and wish we had more options. But with a continued, keen interest in doing what is best for all involved, although we are extremely disappointed, this is the right decision.”
The USGA previously announced the cancellation of six 2020 championships: the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, , U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Senior Women’s Open, U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Junior Amateur.
The USGA will thus conduct four championships in 2020, all at their originally scheduled sites. In early April, the USGA announced that the 120th U.S. Open will be played at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., from Sept. 17-20, and the 75th U.S. Women’s Open will be played at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, from Dec. 10-13. Testing and robust health and safety protocols will be in place at each of the four championships.
All four championships will be conducted without qualifying, which means the fields will be filled entirely through exemptions. Given continued health and safety concerns, as well as the potential burden on Allied Golf Associations and the courses
“As you can imagine, this was an incredibly difficult decision, as qualifying is a
Additional information regarding the expanded exemption categories for each championship will be made available in the coming weeks.
The USGA previously announced that it would delay opening entries for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships until the week of July 6. The 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be contested April 24-28 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. The 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball will be played May 22-26 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., and The Home Course in DuPont, Wash.
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(From USGA on April 24) – The USGA announced today that due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, several additional changes have been made to the 2020 championship season schedule:
U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Junior Amateur Championships
The 72nd U.S. Girls’ Junior, which was scheduled for July 13-18 on the Blue Course at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the 73rd U.S. Junior Amateur, which was scheduled to be played July 20-25 at Hazeltine National Golf Club and Chaska Town Course, both in Chaska, Minn., have been canceled and will not be rescheduled.
“Our primary focus when making determinations around championships continues to be the safety and well-being of everyone involved,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of Championships for the USGA. “While we are incredibly disappointed to have to make the decision to cancel our two junior championships, we know it is the right one.”
Current and proposed federal, state and local guidelines regarding gatherings would make effectively conducting qualifying for both championships next to impossible for Allied Golf Associations, which were scheduled to hold 100 qualifiers in 41 states between late May and early July.
“Given that juniors in most parts of the country are not physically attending school at this time, we did not feel comfortable asking them to compete in qualifying events,” said Bodenhamer. “We considered postponement but knowing that school will restart in many places around the country in August, we did not believe it was a viable option.”
Remaining 2020 USGA Amateur Championships
In addition to the cancellation of the junior championships, the USGA has made the decision to delay opening entries for six additional amateur championships until the week of May 18: the U.S. Women’s Amateur (scheduled for Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.); U.S. Amateur (Aug. 10-16 at Bandon (Ore.) Dunes Golf Resort); U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (Aug. 28-Sept. 3 at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C.); U.S. Senior Amateur (Aug. 28-Sept. 3 at Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.); U.S. Mid-Amateur (Sept. 12-17 at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va., and Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Va.); and U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur (Sept. 12-17 at The Lakewood Club in Point Clear, Ala.).
The USGA will continue to rely on CDC and WHO recommendations, as well as state and local government guidelines in locations where championships and qualifiers are to be conducted, in determining schedule considerations for the remaining six 2020 amateur championships.
In addition to the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Junior Amateur Championships, the USGA previously canceled four 2020 championships: the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball on March 17, and the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open on April 6.
In early April, the USGA also announced the postponement of the 75th U.S. Women’s Open to Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, and the postponement of the 120th U.S. Open Championship to Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. For all 2020 USGA schedule updates, click here.
2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships
The USGA has also delayed opening entries for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships until the week of July 6. The 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship will be contested April 24-28 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. The 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball will be played May 22-26 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., and The Home Course in DuPont, Wash.
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(From USGA on April 6, 2020) – The USGA announced today that due to the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued uncertainty surrounding it, several additional changes have been made to the 2020 championship season schedule:
The 120th U.S. Open, which was scheduled to be held June 18-21 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., has been postponed. The championship has been rescheduled to Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot.
“We are hopeful that postponing the championship will offer us the opportunity to mitigate health and safety issues while still providing us with the best opportunity to conduct the U.S. Open this year,” said Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA. “We are incredibly thankful to the membership and staff at Winged Foot for their flexibility and support. We are also grateful for the wonderful collaboration among the professional tours and other majors in working through a complicated schedule.”
The USGA is currently evaluating how the postponement will affect exemption categories, and definitive changes will be communicated as soon as possible. As previously announced, the USGA will strive to conduct qualifying that fits health and safety guidelines while accommodating the rescheduled championship dates.
More information about the postponement can be found here.
In addition to the postponement of the U.S. Open, the USGA has made the decision to cancel the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championships for 2020.
The 41st U.S. Senior Open had been scheduled for June 25-28 at Newport Country Club in Newport, R.I. The 41st edition of the championship will now be played at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club from July 8-11, 2021. The 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which was scheduled to take place July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn., will not be conducted this year. More information about future sites and dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” said Davis. “Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer. Given the ongoing health and safety issues related to COVID-19 and the significant consolidation of schedules into the back half of 2020, including the postponement of the U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Open, we felt it necessary to make these unfortunate adjustments to our 2020 championship plans.”
More information regarding the Senior Open championships can be found here.
Remaining USGA Amateur Championships
The USGA will continue to rely on CDC and WHO recommendations in determining schedule considerations for the remaining eight 2020 amateur championships. The first two scheduled championships for 2020, the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, were canceled on March 17.
On April 3, the USGA announced the postponement of the 75th U.S. Women’s Open to Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. For more USGA schedule updates, visit usga.org.
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(From USGA on March 17, 2020) -- Given the recent CDC guidance and the evolving dynamics of the Coronavirus pandemic, the USGA announced today that it has canceled its first two 2020 championships, the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball, originally scheduled for April 25-29 at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla., and the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, originally scheduled for May 23-27 at Philadelphia (Pa.) Cricket Club. These championships will not be rescheduled in 2020.
In addition, the USGA has canceled local (first stage) qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Open and qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Women's Open in their current forms, and in conjunction with our Allied Golf Association (AGA) partners and International Federations, will look to redesign qualifying going forward as events unfold. We will continue to hold the dates for the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club and the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club.
At this time, it is premature to speculate what might occur with other 2020 USGA championships. We will continue to monitor all available guidance and regulations from the CDC, WHO and other federal, state and local authorities to do what is in the best interests of our community. We appreciate everyone's understanding and support during these unprecedented times.
