Coronavirus chaos for European Tour

Whether we think it is an overreaction or not, it is looking like a chaotic outlook for the golf calendar as a result of the Coronavirus. Two further European Tour have been postponed and add in the President Trump travel ban and the future for European golfers, in particular, is looking dim.

Next week's Hero Indian Open and the Czech Masters set for August have joined the list of postponed events which included this week's Kenya Open, the Maybank Championship and the China Open.

There is now a significant gap in the European schedule as there was no event in the two weeks leading up to the Masters and so the next event will be Andalucia Masters in Spain at the back end of April

Add into the mix the Trump travel ban and there is bound to be a few Europeans who were due to tee up at Augusta who will find they are unable to travel to the USA. There has been a question mark over the staging of The Masters and its postponement would not bode well.

The postponements also throw up issues around the Ryder Cup which takes place in September. Assuming the event will go ahead the loss of events and travel restrictions impact on the qualification process, particularly for the European team, with players losing the opportunity to play their way into the team.

Add in effect on the golf industry as a whole of all the postponements and it is not a pretty picture.