Wednesday 11 March 2020 16:37, UK
The Hero Indian Open and the D&D REAL Czech Masters have become the latest European Tour events to be postponed due to coronavirus concerns.
The Indian Open was due to be held next week at the DLF Golf and Country Club in New Delhi, while the Czech Masters was not scheduled until late August but has already been called off six months in advance.
The European Tour and Asian Tour remain hopeful of finding another date later in the year for the Indian Open, but organisers and sponsors of the Czech Masters have announced that their event has been cancelled outright along with two Challenge Tour tournaments in June and July.
The latest developments add to a fast-growing list of postponements, with the Volvo China Open, the Maybank Championship in Malaysia and the Magical Kenya Open already off the schedule.
In postponing the Indian Open, the European Tour said: "The decision was made following consultation between the Indian Golf Union, the tournament's co-sanctioning partners - the European Tour and the Asian 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."
European Tour chief executive, Keith Pelley, added: "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."
The Tour issued a later statement confirming the cancellation of the Czech Masters, which read: ""We received notification from RELMOST, the promoter of the D+D REAL Czech Masters, of the cancellation of their European
Tour tournament, which had been due to take place from August 20-23, 2020 at Albatross Golf Resort in Prague.
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"Furthermore, RELMOST has also advised us of the cancellation of the two Challenge Tour events they promote in the Czech Republic, the Prague Golf Challenge (May 7-10) and the D+D REAL Czech Challenge (June 4-7), along with the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge (July 2-5).
"We look forward to returning to both the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2021."
