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Jason Day is excited that golf's three US-based major championships will take place later this year, but the British Open has been cancelled.
A relieved Jason Day has welcomed golf stakeholders' new plan to squeeze in three of the four majors and resume the US PGA Tour in the second half of a year.
The former world No.1 was delighted to learn the US PGA Championship, which he won in 2015, has now been rescheduled for August 6-9 with the US Open from September 17-20 and the Masters from November 12-15.
The British Open, however, was a major casualty of the coronavirus crisis sweeping the world with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club cancelling their championship for the first time since 1945.
After the PGA Championship, the US PGA Tour's final regular season event will be followed by its three-tournament playoffs series.
The hugely popular Ryder Cup biennial battle between the US and Europe will remain in its original dates of September 25-27.
The mooted new schedule was a boost for Day, with his family at their home in Ohio.
"It will be strange playing the majors late in the year but it will be fun," Day told AAP.
"The Masters will start right on my birthday (November 12), so I'm pumped about playing Augusta National then.
"It's obviously very sad with the Open Championship being cancelled but I understand and support the R&A's decision, especially after Wimbledon cancelled their event.
"Overall, it should be a fun second half of the year."
Golf's powerbrokers stressed that the majors dates are being held but by no means does that guarantee they will go ahead, with so much depending on how the Covid-19 crisis currently hammering the US and Europe plays out in coming months.
Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley said the Masters identified November as "intended dates".
CEO Seth Waugh said the PGA of America was "holding" August 6-9 as dates for the PGA Championship.
Also welcoming the news was Day's countryman, amateur Lukas Michel.
The Victorian earned exemptions to play the Masters and US Open courtesy when he became the first Australian to win the US Mid-Amateur Championship.
"Playing the Masters will be incredible in the fall (autumn) when the course is obviously going to look and play different, but in a way I think that is going to add to the experience rather than take away from it," Michel told AAP.
"It is music to my ears knowing they're both planned to happen this year.
"Winged Foot is a course I dreamed of making my US Open debut at, especially with Geoff Ogilvy winning the last one there (2006), so it's very exciting to know it will stay there.
"I'm hoping spectators will be allowed because it'd be great to have that authentic experience playing a major in New York in front of big crowds."
GOLF'S NEW 2020 SCHEDULE
- August 6-9: US PGA Championship
- August 13-16: End of PGA Tour regular season at Wyndham Championship
- August 20-23: Start of FedEx Cup play-offs with the Northern Trust
- August 27-30: BMW Championship, second play-off event
- September 4-7: Tour Championship
- September 17-20: US Open at Winged Foot
- September 25-27: Ryder Cup at Wisconsin's Whistling Straits
- November 12-15: Masters at Augusta National
