R&A CEO dismisses report that British Open is canceled, says it's still considering options

Late Wednesday evening Golf Digest ran a story that cited sources saying that the R&A was set to cancel The Open Championship this summer due to COVID-19, a novel strain of the coronavirus.

On Thursday, the R&A issued a statement disputing that. While the statement didn’t rule out cancelation, R&A CEO Martin Slumbers wrote that “We are continuing to work through our options for The Open this year, including postponement.”

This tracks more with what we’d expect regarding a tournament that isn’t scheduled to be held until July. While I’m certain that cancelation is on the table, it seems strange that the R&A would make such a huge decision without knowing more.

Do I think the tournament will happen in July? Right now, I’d guess not. But August, if they can make it work with the schedule? Why not try? Think how much the world has changed in the last two and a half weeks. It’d be silly to try and predict what will be happening in July or August, even if cancelation looks possible or even likely.

The full statement:

“We are continuing to work through our options for The Open this year, including postponement. Due to a range of external factors, that process is taking some time to resolve. We are well aware of the importance of being able to give clear guidance to fans, players and everyone involved and are working to resolve this as soon as we can. We will give a further update as soon as we are in a position to do so and thank everyone for their support and understanding in this challenging situation.”

We’ll update the story as we learn more.