The Hero Indian Open, scheduled to take place on March 19-22 at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram, New Delhi, has been postponed due to the ongoing threat posed by the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
The decision was made following consultation between the Indian Golf Union , the tournament’s co-sanctioning partners – the Asian Tour and the European Tour – and the tournament title sponsor Hero MotoCorp Ltd, after the latest public health travel advisories announced by the Indian government. All parties are looking into the possibility of rescheduling the tournament at some point later in the year, but there are no definitive plans at this stage.
Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour, said: “In these difficult global circumstances, we fully understand and appreciate the recent restrictions introduced in respect of travel into India. As these new measures now prevent many members of both Tours being able to play in the tournament, everyone involved in the staging of the Hero Indian Open felt it was the correct decision to postpone the tournament.
“I would like to thank Dr Pawan Munjal and everyone at Hero MotoCorp in addition to the Indian Golf Union for their continued support, and we look forward to returning to India in due course.”
Cho Minn Thant, Asian Tour commissioner and CEO, added: “With these new travel regulations now in place, there has been a significant impact on the ability of our members, officials and service teams of both Tours to make their entry into India for the tournament.
“We will continue to take advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local health authorities while monitoring the situation in relation to the possibility of rescheduling the event later in the year.”
Just a few days earlier, the Asian Tour had announced the postponement of the Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open which was scheduled to follow the Indian Open. The US$400,000 full field Asian Tour event was poised to become the richest professional golf event in Bangladesh and was slated to take place at the Kurmitola Golf Club in Dhaka on March 25-28.
“Several new cases of Covid-19 have recently been discovered in Dhaka and travel restrictions are being imposed on incoming and outgoing travellers for the immediate future to prevent further spread of the virus. In view of this global outbreak, a request has been made by the Bangladesh Golf Federation (BGF) to postpone the event and we have also decided that it is in the best interest of all the players, staff and officials to postpone the event,” said Cho.
“The Asian Tour will continue to work closely with the BGF to identify a new date for the event once it is deemed safe to travel.”
