Hoag Classic golf tournament in Newport Beach postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19

The Hoag Classic golf tournament, a staple of the PGA Tour Champions at Newport Beach Country Club, was postponed indefinitely Friday due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The tournament, which is put on by Hoag, was scheduled for March 1-7.

“From our perspective, Hoag Hospital’s job is to keep the community healthy, not to put anybody in position to contract this illness,” Hoag Classic executive director Jeff Purser said. “Even doing something skeletal, a very scaled down event, is not in the best interests of Hoag and not in the best interests of our community, the club and everyone involved.”

The Hoag Classic, formerly known as the Toshiba Classic, is one of the most popular PGA Tour Champions events. It has been won twice by Hale Irwin, Fred Couples and Jay Haas, while Ernie Els was the 2020 tournament winner.

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The 2021 edition would mark the 26th year of the tournament overall, and its 23rd year being managed by Hoag. The tournament has raised more than $20 million over the years for Hoag and other local charities.

Purser said he is hopeful, but not optimistic that the tournament will be able to be rescheduled for later this year.

“The challenge is that it would be difficult to do this at Newport Beach Country Club,” Purser said. “You can imagine all of the weddings and events that have been put on the back burner due to COVID over the last year. The last thing we want to do is be in a position where we’re interfering with, and really interrupting, the club’s very busy time of year with its member activities. We 1,000% do not want to ask somebody to reschedule a wedding or another charity function again, for the tournament.”

“It’s not just the week of the tournament. We’re there six weeks for buildup, the week of the event and a couple of weeks for tear-down ... I think for us to play, we’d have to find another place to play, and I’m not sure that’s a great move.”

Purser said tournament officials will focus on coming back in 2022, unless major progress is made in fighting the pandemic over the next couple of months. That could possibly enable a scaled back tournament later in 2021, he said.

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