Golf Australia<\/a>, the PGA of Australia and the ALPG \u2013 said they had hoped to find an arrangement to preserve the Vic Open, but confirmed on Friday last week that this was not possible, for similar reasons to the withdrawal of the other big events.<\/p>\nThe men\u2019s Vic Open dates to 1957 and has been played every year since except 2008.The women\u2019s Vic Open began in 1988, went into abeyance in 1992 and resumed in 2012 when the mixed concept was launched, including men and women in the same event at the same venue.<\/p>\n
The concept has won worldwide applause in the golf fraternity and the Vic Open\u2019s prizemoney grew from $150,000 in 2012 to $3 million this year, with equal prizemoney for men and women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are disappointing decisions to make, no doubt,\u201d Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of how far the Vic Open came since the mixed concept was put together, and we\u2019re more than aware of how popular this event has become. We\u2019ve tried to make it happen, but the call had to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the major issues in the decision to cancel included provision of a safe environment for the players during a pandemic, and lack of certainty on quarantine and border issues, leaving the officials with no chance of drawing the type of international field that the event deserved.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve taken advice from the relevant domestic government authorities and looked at the contingencies including the creation of a \u2018bubble\u2019, but they are not viable. It left us in a position where our field strength would have been severely compromised.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed for golf fans and for all the hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers who have helped make the Vic Open so successful, and we\u2019re disappointed for the players who lose an opportunity to ply their trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, we will view it as temporary and what we need to do now is to focus on the future of all our events and work towards getting them back better than ever for the summer of 2021\/22 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE COVID-19 pandemic and resulting border closures along with international travel restrictions have forced the cancellation of next year’s Vic Open, scheduled for February at 13th Beach Golf Links. This follows last week\u2019s cancellation of the summer\u2019s other premier golf events – the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Open and the Women\u2019s Australian Open. The three […]<\/p>\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":35917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-35916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVic Open cancelled for 2021 - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/sport\/vic-open-cancelled-for-2021\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vic Open cancelled for 2021 - Geelong Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE COVID-19 pandemic and resulting border closures along with international travel restrictions have forced the cancellation of next year’s Vic Open, scheduled for February at 13th Beach Golf Links. This follows last week\u2019s cancellation of the summer\u2019s other premier golf events – the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Open and the Women\u2019s Australian Open. 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