Golf - CJ Cup moved to Las Vegas from South Korea due to COVID-19

(Reuters) - The PGA Tour's CJ Cup has been switched to Las Vegas from South Korea because of travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tour said in a statement https://www.pgatour.com/news/2020/08/24/pga-tour-cj-group-announce-move-of-the-cj-cup-nine-bridges-to-shadow-creek.html on Tuesday.

The $9.75 million tournament, which has been staged at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island for the past three years, will now be held at the Shadow Creek course in Las Vegas from Oct. 15-18.

South Korea has been one of the biggest success stories in reining in the coronavirus but recent rises have seen the total number of cases rise to more than 17,900, prompting the country to tighten curbs.

The United States has by far the world's highest number of infections at more than 5.75 million. Nevada, home to Las Vegas, alone accounts for more than 65,000 cases, according to a Reuters tally.

"While our players have always looked forward to visiting Korea, the current circumstances provided this new opportunity to bring the event to Las Vegas," PGA Tour executive vice-president, international Ty Votaw said.

Justin Thomas sealed a playoff win over Marc Leishman in the inaugural event and prevailed again last year. Brooks Koepka won by four shots in 2018.

The CJ Cup is part of the PGA Tour's three-event Asian swing which also includes the Zozo Championship in Japan and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Nick Macfie)