What has Aussie Wade Ormsby now got in common with Ireland’s Shane Lowry? The answer lies with news that the Hong Kong Open is being postponed well into next year.
Last year, the Hong Kong Open was forced to move its tournament from November, 2019 to January 2020 due to the pro-democrat protests that rocked the island. The Asian Tour event had been due to be again co-sanctioned with the European Tour but for some reason the rescheduling of the event in January went ahead without European Tour involvement.
Lowry, along with American Tony Finau, kept to a promise to return in January but it was Ormsby who led from start-to-finish, including posting three closing scores of 66, to hold off Lowry by four shots in HK.
The event has been won in the past by the likes of Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, David Frost, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy but again is being forced to find another date due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic that has decimated so much of the Asian golfing schedule so far this year.
It means Ormsby, much like Lowry who will not get to defend his Open Championship crown to July, 2021, will also not get to defend the event, first played in 1959, to well into 2021.
“As with all tournaments, the safety and well-being of players, spectators and tournament personnel is our absolute priority,” said organisers in a recent statement.
“In view of the continuing restrictions in force due to Covid-19, organisers of the 2020 Hong Kong Open have made the decision to postpone the tournament until the new year and are reviewing suitable options for staging the event.”
Ormsby is also a dual winner of the Hong Kong Open having captured the title in 2017 with England’s Aaron Rai, last week’s winner of the ASI Scottish Open, successful in the 2018 edition of the Hong Kong Open for his maiden European Tour success.
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