The DP World Tour has officially announced this Tuesday a change in the immediate calendar of the circuit. The reason, of course, is the Covid and the restrictions derived from the pandemic. In this way, Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, whose celebration is scheduled for February 10 to 13, just in three weeks, has been suspended and postponed to the end of spring. The new date is not specified, but the idea is to try to coincide with the WGC Match Play or the following week.
The increased incidence of Coronavirus in the country that will host this year’s World Cup has skyrocketed since last Christmas. So much so that the number of cases is practically double that of Abu Dhabi or Dubai at this time. In view of the statistics and, above all, the difficulties in getting to and from Qatar, the DP World Tour has decided to suspend the tournament.
Once again, work has been done against the clock to find a solution that avoids the gap in the calendar. Thus, the decision was Ras al Khaimah be the scene of two consecutive tournaments of the circuit, the first will be the week after Dubai, with the name of Ras al Khaimah Championship and the second will be just seven days later with the name of Ras al Khaimah Classic. This formula has already been widely used by the European circuit in times of pandemic. Without going any further, it happened last year with the three consecutive dates in the Canary Islands or the tournament in Mallorca that replaced the one in Portugal.
Thus, the European Tour has already announced this important change in the calendar. This week is played in Abu Dhabi, the next will be the Dubai tournament and the next two will be played in Ras al Khaimah, on the route Al Hamra Golf Club. It has also been decided to keep the same dates as Qatar, so many players will spend two weeks in the neighboring emirate of Dubai.
It must be remembered that this has not been the only last-minute change made by the European circuit, accustomed since the pandemic broke out to showing this flexibility. A few days ago, the DP World Tour announced the suspension of the tournament scheduled for Oman, just after Qatar and the advance a week of the Hero Indian Open, which will be held from February 24 to 27 in New Dehli.
The Covid continues to hit the DP World Tour hard. It must be remembered that the South African tour of three tournaments with which it was planned to start the year, was reduced to just one and barely two days due to the emergence of the Ómicron variant in South Africa.
