Ladies European Tour: Becky Morgan on financial pressures

Ladies European Tour golfer Becky Morgan admits she faces financial uncertainty after the coronavirus pandemic plunged the season’s schedule into doubt.

Upcoming tournaments in May across Europe, including in Italy, France and Spain, could follow a host of other sports in facing postponements, cancellations and rescheduling.

Morgan, who has not played golf competitively since December, is concerned some of the Tour’s players who are reliant on tournaments as their primary source of income will suffer.

“Obviously not having played since December, I haven’t had an income since then and I was hoping it was going to start now,” Morgan said.

“The big PGA [LPGA Tour] players have great sponsors but unfortunately a lot of the [Ladies] European Tour players don’t so we rely on income from tournaments.

“Now it’s just trying to batten down the hatches, try and save for a little bit and just get ready for when we do start.

“It’s not overly motivating at the moment. You sort of peak for events and not knowing when our next event is, it is quite tricky.”

Morgan did recognise these are unprecedented times but is confident the sport and the Tour can withstand any financial pressures caused by loss of revenue and sponsorship if the schedule continues to be adversely affected.

For now, Morgan says her fellow professionals can only wait and see what the extent of the damage will be, but she admits the situation could force golfers like her to seek part-time work if they continue to go without pay.

The LPGA confirmed on Thursday that the next three events on the LPGA Tour schedule, the Volvik Founders Cup in Arizona and the Kia Classic and ANA Inspiration in California are postponed, with the intention to rearrange them for later in the year.

As for the Ladies’ European Tour, their tournament in Saudi Arabia next week is already off over coronavirus fears and travel restrictions.

“We’ve all had flights cancelled booked, re-booked, cancelled, so it’s been quite the few weeks with trying to figure out expenses and stuff,” Morgan said.

“It’s been frustrating but obviously there’s much bigger things happening in the world right now.”

Asked whether the Tour could collapse as a result, Morgan said: “I don’t think so. The irony of it is this is the most exciting year for the Ladies European Tour for a while.

“The last few years have been tough, we had a really good schedule this year and the first part of it is going to be hugely impacted.

“But I think we’ll survive, they’ll all survive and we’ll see what happens when we start playing again.”

Coronavirus – key sporting developments

• Premier League, EFL, FA Cup and Women’s Super League suspended
• Champions League and Europa League matches postponed
• England Test series in Sri Lanka postponed
• Golf’s Players Championship is cancelled
• F1 cancels Australian GP
• Coronavirus: NFL teams suspend travel
• NBA season suspended “until further notice”
• Euro 2020 likely to be postponed by UEFA
• ATP Tour suspended for six weeks
• PRO14 season postponed until further notice

(c) Sky Sports 2020: Ladies European Tour: Becky Morgan on financial pressures