What’s more important: An immediate decision on the Open – or a correct one?

Everyone is getting awfully impatient about the Open, and whether or not it should be postponed until later in the year or, indeed, cancelled altogether.

It’s still set to go ahead, much to the disbelief of people desperate for a bit of golf news to fill their self-isolation boredom. But it’s easy to see why the R&A have yet to make an announcement.

In fact there are several reasons. At the time of writing, the European and PGA Tours are only suspended until the end of May.

Now they will be pushed back, of course, with seemingly no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, but we are still a full three and a half months before the first ball is due to be struck at Royal St George’s – and a decision is yet to be made on the US Open, and that’s a full month before our version.

The pressure has been piled on the R&A by the All England Lawn Tennis Club, who this week announced that Wimbledon has been cancelled. The final of tennis’s oldest major was due to take place just four days before the opening round of golf’s oldest major.

Reports coming out of the US earlier in the week indicated that the R&A’s preferred option is to cancel and collect the insurance money – meaning a calendar year without an Open for the first time since the second world war – while reports closer to home suggest they will soon announce they have a reserve date, likely to be in September, should they need to postpone.

But does it really matter if it’s played in September, October, or even November? It’s a links course. It’ll be wet. It’ll be cold. It’ll be windy. So like almost every other Open that’s ever been played.

So why are the R&A so keen to get it played? Probably less to do with the several years that have been invested in the course and infrastructure at Royal St George’s and the surrounding areas, and more to do with the fact that so much has been invested in next year’s Open being the 150th at St Andrews.

I mean this in the sincerest way possible – but does anyone outside of golf’s most famous building really care about that number? I love the idea that the Martin Slumbers of 52 years from now will grimace every time he’s reminded ahead of No 200 that the 150th Open was played on the Wirral.

It’s feeling increasingly likely that the R&A are going to be pressured into making a decision soon, and for my money it feels like the easiest option is to just forget about this year and push everything back 12 months – so Royal St George’s next year, St Andrews for 150 in 2022, Hoylake in ’23, and Troon in ’24.

We can go a year without an Open. Particularly when people’s lives are at risk. But it’s more important to get the decision right than to rush it.

Do you think the Open should be postponed or cancelled now, or are the R&A doing the right thing by biding their time? Let me know in the comments below or you can tweet me.

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