The ripple effect is that the Presidents Cup will also be delayed a year to 2022 -- again, pretty much what we expected.
And certainly it's the right decision. The Ryder Cup is as much about the fans as about the players, and there is no way (given the current conditions) that the fans could be safely included. Postponing it was the only real choice.
You can find plenty of info about the effects of this decision online, but the most interesting to me was the European decision to freeze their points lists until January 2021. I don't guess there was anything else they could do and still give all the players a fair shake, but it's still an unforeseen side-effect.
Likewise, the LPGA's season will start as planned -- without fans and with their first major intact -- but with some uncertainties about the Marathon Classic, which said fan attendance (especially for pro-ams) was a necessity for the event to go on. Again, this sort of on-the-fly decision is pretty much what we expected for the LPGA events, which don't have the advantage of the deep pockets that the PGA Tour does.
But at least we're seeing some amount of predictability in a time of tremendous unpredictability... and that's something worth celebrating. (With masks and appropriate social distancing, of course!)
When the 2001 Ryder Cup was postponed a year due to 9/11 it ended up being held the week after the 2002 Solheim Cup, but it was then decided that going forward that the ladies' team competition would be staged in odd numbered years. With the Ryder and Presidents Cups now going back to their pre-9/11 rotation will the Solheim Cup and now the International Crown be forced to move as well? Next year's Solheim at Inverness is still a go, and would precede the guys by 3 weeks this time.
ReplyDeleteGiven how closely the PGA, PGA Tour and LPGA are working together now, I don't think there will be a problem. It's just one week each year to work around, after all.
Delete