THE ONWENTSIA CLUB IN LAKE FOREST-THE GROVE COUNTRY CLUB IN LONG GROVE, both have had their junior golf championships canceled for next month, due to Covid-19 concerns. This was announced jointly by the Western Golf Association (WGA) and the Women’s Western Golf Association  (WWGA).

BY RORY SPEARS: Director of Content and Creation for Golfers on Golf Radio and Golfersongolf.com. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, or Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Par 3, 9th hole at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest.

The 103rd Western Junior, and the 94th Women’s Western Junior Girls Championships have been canceled for 2020, and will not be played.

The boys were scheduled from June 15-18 at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, and the girls from June 15-19 at the Grove Country Club in Long Grove.

The site for the boys Western Junior Championship will be announced at a later date.  The girls junior 2021 championship will be played at the Aurora Country Club from June 21-25.

The Clubhouse at the Grove Country Club in Long Grove IL.

“We’re obviously very disappointed that we won’t be able to conduct our two world-class golf junior championships, the Western Junior Championship’s and the Women’s Western Junior, in 2020, but we feel strongly that this is the right decision under these challenging circumstances,” said Vince Pellegrino, WGA senior vice president of tournaments. “Our foremost priority is the health and safety of all of those who would have been involved, including players, their families, the club members and staff and our tournament officials.”

Jackie Wacker, Women’s Western Junior tournament chairman, added that canceling the tournament was a difficult decision.

“We waited as long as possible to see if there might be a significant improvement in the resolution of the ongoing and unprecedented health crisis we are facing,” Wacker said. “However, we ultimately decided the risk is just too great  to have so many young girls and their families travel-many from long distances-to compete. We hope and trust all involved will understand we are doing this out of care and concern for the welfare of our players and everyone who would be on hand to support them in the competition.”

The good news is that the Western Amateur Championship scheduled for July 27-August 1st at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel Indiana, and the Women’s Western Amateur Championship set for July 20-25 at Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort Illinois are still scheduled to be played. And their are no plans at this time to alter the schedule according to Pellegrino.

For more details on WGA and WWGA events stay clicked in here, or visit WGAESF.org or WWGA.org.