Cancellation of the BMW International Open in 2020.

• Tournament organiser BMW and the European Tour announce cancellation of the BMW International Open 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Sebastian Mackensen, Senior Vice President BMW Group Germany: “Although this decision is very unfortunate for every golf fan in Germany, the health of everyone involved has paramount priority.”
• Purchase price for tickets purchased in advance will be reimbursed.

Munich. The BMW International Open scheduled to take place between 24th and 28th June 2020 has been cancelled due to the German government’s ban on large events until 31^st August. Tournament organiser BMW and the European Tour decided not to hold the tournament this year after close consultation. Both partners regret the cancellation of the iconic tournament, but agree that the health of everyone involved has paramount priority. Tickets purchased in advance will be reimbursed.

“It was by no means an easy decision to cancel the BMW International Open for the first time in 31 years of the tournament’s history, particularly in view of the golf fans in Germany and our tournament partners,” said Sebastian Mackensen, Senior Vice President BMW Group Germany and Tournament President of the BMW International Open, “but the health and well-being of visitors, players, media representatives, partners, organisers and volunteers has top priority. We would like to thank the European Tour for the cooperative partnership based on trust, also in this situation. Many thanks go to our partners and service providers as well, for their support to date in preparing the BMW International Open 2020.”

Keith Pelley, CEO of the European Tour, said, “The decision to cancel the BMW International Open, which has been a cornerstone of the European Tour calendar for three decades, was made in consultation with our long-term partner BMW with public health and well-being the absolute priority for all of us.

“Our thanks go to BMW for their constructive and conscientious collaboration in making this decision, and of course, for their ongoing support of the European Tour.  We continue to monitor the effect of the ongoing pandemic on all our events, whilst also planning behind the scenes for a variety of different scenarios for when it is safe and permitted to resume playing. We will only announce details of these plans when we have clarity on the global situation.”

Scenarios such as holding the 32^nd BMW International Open without spectators or postponing it until later on in 2020 were investigated by BMW and the European Tour and assessed as not feasible.

The cancellation of the BMW International Open and the cancellation announced today for the Open de France, as well as the postponement of the Scottish Open now sees all European Tour tournaments up to the end of July 2020 cancelled or postponed.

Special provision has been made for customers who have already purchased one or more tickets for the BMW International Open 2020 during advance sales. The purchase will be cancelled automatically in the near future and the full amount will be reimbursed. In addition, every customer will receive an e-mail informing them of the reversal of the ticket purchase as a cancellation confirmation. This special provision replaces the “Terms and Conditions for the Relocation or Cancellation of the Event” and applies for all ticket categories.

The BMW Championship (Olympia Fields Country Club, Chicago, USA) has already been postponed by a week. The new date for the penultimate tournament of the PGA TOUR Playoffs is the 25^th to 30th August 2020. The BMW PGA Championship (8^th to 13^th September 2020, Wentworth Club, London, England) and the Ryder Cup with Worldwide Partner BMW (22^nd to 27^th September 2020, Whistling Straits, Kohler, USA) are currently still scheduled to take place as planned.