USGA announces postponement of US Open due to coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the postponement of the 120th US Open which was scheduled to take place from June 18 to 21, the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced on Monday.

The tournament will now be played from September 17 to 20.

"The 120th U.S. Open, which was scheduled to be held June 18-21 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., has been postponed. The championship has been rescheduled to Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot," USGA said in a statement.

The CEO of the USGA, Mike Davis, said he is hoping the postponement will help them mitigate health and safety issues.

"We are hopeful that postponing the championship will offer us the opportunity to mitigate health and safety issues while still providing us with the best opportunity to conduct the U.S. Open this year," David said in a statement.

"We are incredibly thankful to the membership and staff at Winged Foot for their flexibility and support. We are also grateful for the wonderful collaboration among the professional tours and other majors in working through a complicated schedule," he added.

Also, the USGA announced the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women's Open Championships for 2020.

The 41st U.S. Senior Open was scheduled for June 25 to June 28 but the championship will now be played next year from July 8 to July 11.

The 3rd U.S. Senior Women's Open was slated to take place July 9 July 12.

Reflecting on the same, Davis said: "Canceling this year's Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make. Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer."

"Given the ongoing health and safety issues related to COVID-19 and the significant consolidation of schedules into the back half of 2020, including the postponement of the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Open, we felt it necessary to make these unfortunate adjustments to our 2020 championship plans," he added.