The U.S. Women's Open in Houston has been rescheduled from the beginning of June to the middle of December, the USGA announced on Friday. And the men's U.S Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, scheduled for June 18-21, is likely to be postponed.
The USGA said the COVID-19 pandemic has led the Women's Open at Champions Golf Club to be moved from June 4-7 to Dec. 10-13.
In regards to the Open at Winged Foot, the USGA's Craig Annis said in an email to Newsday on Friday: "It is increasingly likely that we will need to postpone. We should be in a position to make a decision by next week. At this point, we are not in a position to speculate on alternative dates but do believe we could play the U.S. Open at Winged Foot through September."
A number of alternative courses for hosting the Open have arisen over the past week: Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Oakmont outside of Pittsburgh, and Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach in California.
"We are fortunate to have a number of USGA host site partners who we are engaging with to determine viability," Annis said. "It's simply premature to share that information as we first need to determine if we will postpone and when the date would be."
The dates of the Women's Open would be the latest a major championship has been played. Mike Davis, the CEO of the USGA, said the move couldn't have happened without collaboration with the LPGA Tour and Fox Sports, its broadcast partner, which has NFL games during December.
The LPGA Tour postponed the next five events, with four of them already assigned new dates. The changes mean the next event would be the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship on June 19-21.
The Pelican Women's Championship, a new event in the Tampa Bay area, moves from May 14-17 to Nov. 12-15; the ShopRite LPGA Classic in Atlantic City moves from May 29-31 to July 31-Aug. 2; and the Meijer LPGA Classic in Michigan will be rescheduled from June 11-14. The Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill Resort in Virginia was canceled and will return to the 2021 schedule. A previously postponed tournament, the Kia Classic in Carlsbad, Calif., moves from March to Sept. 24-27.
