Jakarta, Indonesia: The Queen Sirikit Cup, the Asia-Pacific’s premier amateur team championship for women, has been rescheduled for 2021.

Given on-going travel restrictions prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, officials have cancelled the 2020 edition of the 15-nation gathering that was scheduled to take place at Pondok Indah Golf Club in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta from June 30 to July 3.

It will be the first time since the tournament’s inauguration in 1979 that the Queen Sirikit Cup, also known as the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship, has missed a year.

Rae-Vadee T. Suwan, Secretary-General of the Queen Sirikit Cup and a driving force behind the launching of the event, said: “The safety and well-being of players, officials and all those at the host venue are the number one priority. Due to the uncertainty that remains regarding travel and quarantine, we felt we could not delay making a decision any longer.”

Rae-Vadee confirmed that when the Queen Sirikit Cup returns to the schedule in 2021, it will be played at Pondok Indah, host to the golf tournament at the 2018 Asian Games and venue for last year’s Bank BRI Indonesia Open on the Asian Tour.

Murdaya W. Po, Chairman of the Indonesian Golf Association, said: “The Indonesia Golf Association very much looks forward to hosting the 42nd Queen Sirikit Cup next year at our magnificent Pondok Indah Golf Club. The Queen Sirikit Cup is an elite amateur event with a long history and we hope to have the best players competing at Pondok Indah in 2021.”

The 2020 Queen Sirikit Cup was originally scheduled to take place at Pondok Indah from March 12-15. However, with the spread of Coronavirus, the event was rescheduled to the end of June.

Over the past five decades, the Queen Sirikit Cup has been an important stepping stone to global fairway fame for Australians Karrie Webb and Minjee Lee, China’s Feng Shanshan, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Ya-ni, Japan’s Ai Miyazato, Koreans Pak Se-ri and Shin Ji-yae and New Zealander Lydia Ko, among others.

The Queen Sirikit Cup is part of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation’s portfolio of events that also includes the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, Nomura Cup, APGC Senior Championship, APGC Junior Championship Mitsubishi Corporation Cup, Bonallack Trophy and Patsy Hankins Trophy, and the Asia-Pacific Open Diamond Cup Golf on the Japan Golf Tour Organisation schedule.