The RBC Canadian Open, one of the major events of the national sports calendar, was canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The PGA Tour announced the cancelation of the RBC Canadian Open as part of its suspended 2020 schedule. The four-day tournament was planned to start at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto on June 11.
The PGA Tour has hoped of resuming the season at Colonial the same weekend as the Canadian Open would have taken place and would keep fans away for at least the first month.
Started in 1904, the Canadian Open is the third-oldest tournament on the PGA Tour behind the U.S. Open and the British Open.
It is the first time the tournament to have been canceled since it missed the second straight year in 1944 because of the Second WW. It was also scrapped from 1915-1918 due to the First WW.
The Canadian Open also becomes the latest big annual summer sporting event in Canada to be postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Queen’s Plate in Toronto and the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal will not run on their planned June dates; meanwhile, the Rogers Cup women’s tennis tournament in Montreal, planned for August, will not take place in 2020.
A cancellation seemed increasingly likely in recent weeks when the pandemic worsened. Three regional qualification tournaments scheduled for mid-May were scrapped last month.
Toronto Mayor John Tory has announced that the city was canceling its permits for public gatherings up until at least June 30.
However, the edict didn’t apply to sporting events that are held on private property, such as the NBA’s Raptors and NHL’s Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center, or the Canadian Open itself at St. George’s in the city’s west end.