Four events cancelled due to coronavirus

The women's golf circuit has suffered a huge blow as four big tournaments have been cancelled due to health concerns following the coronavirus outbreak.

Two of the biggest events in women's golf have now been called off. The Honda LPGA Thailand, schedueld for 20-23 February will no longer be taking place, while the HSBC Women's World Championship scheduled a week later in Singapore has also been cancelled.

The HSBC Women's World Championship held at Sentosa Golf Club features the LPGA's top players and is one of the biggest events in women's golf outside the five majors.

It was recently announced that the Blue Bay LPGA in China had been cancelled due to the nearby outbreak of the coronavirus, meaning the LPGA Tour will have a month gap without any tournaments following the recent ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

“It is always a difficult decision to cancel events and the LPGA greatly appreciates the understanding and all the efforts made by our title sponsors (Honda and HSBC) as well as IMG to host incredible events for our players,” said the LPGA in a statement.

“The health and safety of our players, fans and everyone working on the event is always our highest priority. While we are disappointed that these tournaments will not take place this season, we look forward to returning to Asia soon.”

Adding to the list of cancelled events in the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship, due to take place in Thailand, but the R&A were taking no risks.

“With our partners at the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, we have taken the decision to postpone the Women’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship," said R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers.

“The decision has been taken amid serious concerns for the safety of players and officials travelling during the current coronavirus outbreak.

“Our utmost priority is to ensure their safety and the advice we have received in the last 24 hours is that we should not ask them to travel at this time. We will assist all players with their arrangements and hope to reschedule the championship later this year.”

More tournaments are at risk if no vaccination can be found for the coronovirus, with the scheduled European Tour event the Volvo China Open scheduled for April, while the LPGA still has events in China, Korea and Taiwan planend for later this year.