Two Rolex Series events cancelled; three new events on European Tour

The European Tour has announced wholesale changes to the remainder of their 2020 schedule, with three new tournaments added and two Rolex Series events cancelled.

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The Turkish Airlines Open and Nedbank Golf Challenge - traditionally the two events preceding the season-ending DP World Tour Championship - both won't take place this year because of the global travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Italian Open has been moved to October 22-25 and will not be part of the Rolex Series, similar to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, with the venue yet to be confirmed and the event set to follow an extended second UK Swing.

The Scottish Championship will be played at Fairmont St Andrews from October 15-18, the fourth tournament in as many weeks in the UK, while the European Tour will make its first visit to Cyprus for back-to-back events.

The Cyprus Open will be held from October 29-November 1 before the Cyprus Classic is played a week later, with both €1 million events played behind closed doors at Aphrodite Hills Resort in Paphos.

Ben Cowen, the European Tour's deputy chief operating officer international, said: "We are pleased to be able to announce these three new tournaments as part of our 2020 International Schedule, which will continue to give valuable playing opportunities to our members."

The back-to-back tournaments, which will be promoted by International Sports Management (ISM), also continue the European Tour's strategy of staging consecutive tournaments in geographical clusters wherever possible to reduce the onus on international travel.