AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE International Golf Federation (IGF) has announced that the 2020 World Amateur Team Championships scheduled for October has been cancelled due to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This decision follows the IGF’s announcement in February that the biennial event for men and women, originally to be held in Hong Kong, was moving to Singapore due to ongoing social unrest in Hong Kong.
It is an open national team’s event that Tanzania made its maiden appearance in 2010 in Argentina, when former Tanzania Golf Union (TGU) Chairman Dioniz Malinzi was at helm, but the country had since missed all four events that followed.
According to a statement issued by the IGF Executive Director Antony Scanlon that the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ had its copy, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they continued to work with the Singapore Golf Association (SGA) to host both competitions at Tanah Merah Country Club and Sentosa Golf Club on the same dates as planned.
The Espirito Santo Trophy for women was scheduled from October 14-17 and the Eisenhower Trophy for men from October 21-24th this year.
“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,” said Scanlon.
“But most importantly, it was made to safeguard the health and safety of all athletes, officials and volunteers at the 2020 WATC, to which there was no certainty that this risk could be mitigated to an acceptable level.”
Scanlon added: “I would also note that we gave thoughtful consideration to postponing the Championships to 2021.”
However, he said that this would have created considerable scheduling and logistical issues that were insurmountable, plus they still could not say with absolute certainty that could hold it without risk next year.
He therefore, said it is preferred that the IGF look forward to focusing on and delivering a wonderful 2022 event in France.
Dating back to 1958, the World Amateur Team Championships include up to 72 countries competing in 72 holes of stroke play competition.
Each country fields two or three players with the two lowest scores counting per round. The IGF is composed of 151 Member Federations; from 146 countries include Tanzania, representing more than 60 million people who play golf.
All national golf federations affiliated to the IGF are being included in the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of their countries.
The IGF is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the international federation for golf.
In addition to the World Amateur Team Championships, the IGF also organises the golf competitions at the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games.
