Kyriacou, Kemp out of maiden Aust WPGA

Murray Wenzel | January 12, 2022

Steph Kyriacou and Sarah Kemp have been ruled out as COVID-19 cases swept through the field on the eve of the Australian WPGA Championship in Brisbane.

With Hannah Green already a late scratching, LPGA Tour-bound Kyriacou was set to be the face of the new event at Royal Queensland Golf Club from Thursday.

Organisers had initially delayed the announcement of Thursday’s groupings after Kyriacou, who had tested positive using a rapid antigen test, awaited the result of a PCR test.

Kemp initially tested negative after learning on Tuesday her sister had caught the virus. 

But on Wednesday, a day after declaring her intention to lift the Karrie Webb Cup, she tested positive and immediately ruled herself out of the running for the $180,000 first prize.

Matt Guyatt and Zach Kelly were also late scratchings in the Australian PGA Championship, which will run alongside the women’s event in Brisbane.

Green was originally announced as the star attraction but was a victim of her home state Western Australia’s tight border restrictions and ruled herself out earlier this month.

Australian No.1 and world No.7 Minjee Lee, who on Tuesday was awarded the Greg Norman Medal as Australia’s best golfer for a second time, is also a non-starter in the 24-woman field.

The tournament was ironically created to bolster a domestic calendar crippled by the virus.

They will play alongside the men for equal first-place prizemoney in a format that has sparked interest after the men’s event was cancelled last year.

Now, after being rescheduled to January, the tournament will miss some of its biggest US-based stars.

The virus has also forced the cancellation of the men’s and women’s Australian Open for a second-straight year.

An expanded, stand-alone Australian WPGA Championship in the future was flagged at the event’s launch in November.