“All golf clubs in Limpopo are autonomous and they are entitled to continue with their trade.”
This is according to Thinus Labuschagne, President of the Limpopo Golf Union, after the first announcement of a national lock period of 21 days, which has since been increased by another two weeks as from Friday the 10th of April.
“We urge the members of Limpopo Golf Clubs to keep supporting your local club, but to take extra hygienic measures to keep yourself and others safe”, said Labuschagne.
“With due consideration of the National Disaster pronounced by State President Cyril Ramaphosa on the 15th of March 2020, the executive committee has decided to postpone a number of events until further notice”, said Labuschagne.
These are all the Open Tournaments at Groblersdal, Koro Creek and Marble Hall. This includes all scheduled league events for April, all-union meetings and travelling.
“Tournaments beyond April 2020 will be considered for continuation or cancellation on a rolling basis at least 30 days before the event with due consideration of the prevailing state of affairs around the Coronavirus National Disaster at that time”, said Labuschagne.
An update on the cancellation status of National Tournaments was also issued out by the South African Golf Association (SAGA) and Womens Golf South Africa (WGSA).
Further to the memorandum issued by SAGA and WGSA on the 16th of March regarding the cancellation of tournaments, these associations are implementing the following amendments and additions to that advisory:
All tournaments under management authority of SAGA and WGSA scheduled to be held up to the 30th of June are cancelled.
All cancelled events are “cancelled” and will not be rescheduled. Though not advisable, should Unions reschedule cancelled tournaments, no SAGA National Order of Merit (OoM) points or WGSA Ranking Points will be allocated.
Tournaments beyond the 30th of June will be considered for continuation or cancellation on a rolling basis at least 60 days prior to individual events and 90 days prior to team events with due consideration of the prevailing situation around the Corona Virus National Disaster at that time.
By implication, the cut-off date for a decision on the SAGA Open Amateur IPT is thus the 15th of June and the WGSA Inter-Provincial is the 20th of June.
The allocation of SAGA OoM and WGSA Ranking Points have been “frozen” from the time of the first tournament cancellation (16th March) and those tournaments will not be removed from the SAGA OoM or the WGSA Ranking until all returns back to normal.
After the return to normal, tournaments played will replace the same tournament of 12 months prior. This means that tournaments not played during the current period would be reflected for a period of no less than 12 months prior to being replaced.
The national selection policies will be adapted accordingly to allow for the disruption to the SAGA OoM and the WGSA Ranking Points until 12 months after the resumption of tournaments.
SAGA and WGSA highly recommended that Unions also revise their own selection policies to accommodate the potential selection of Provincial Teams due to a very few events having been played in the time leading up to the teams’ tournaments.
SAGA and WGSA encouraged its members to continue the safe behaviours and protocols in the continued fight to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around.
