According to Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press on Tuesday, the 2020 Evian Masters has been cancelled because of coronavirus. The women’s golf major on the LPGA Tour was scheduled to take place August 6-9, 2020.
Even though 11 women’s golf tournaments on the LPGA Tour were cancelled already this year because of coronavirus, the cancellation of the Evian Masters is extremely noteworthy because it is the first major this season that has been cancelled. The Evian Masters was initially scheduled to take place from July 23-26. It was then moved to August 6 when it was announced that the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo would not take place this year.
The Evian Masters has happened every year since 1994, and became a major in 2013. The defending champion is Jin-young Ko of Seoul, South Korea. Ko won her second major of 2019 at Evian when she had a four-round score of -15, and beat Shanshan Feng of China, Hyo-joo Kim of South Korea, and Jennifer Kupcho of the United States by two strokes. Ko had also won the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, California earlier in the year.
The fact that there is no Evian Masters in 2020 should actually come as no surprise, and it is actually a surprise that this announcement was not sooner. On April 29, the French government had cancelled all major sporting events until September 1. However, the Tour de France is projected to start on August 29. There are currently 154, 591 cases of coronavirus in France and 29,296 deaths.
With the cancellation of the Evian Masters, there will be only four majors in women’s golf this year. The Women’s British Open in South Ayrshire, Scotland is scheduled to go from August 20-23. That is to be followed by the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, California from September 10-13, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Philadelphia from October 8-11, and the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston from December 10-13.
