The Australian Amateur Championship remains on the summer schedule – and with a bold new twist.

With many national events cancelled at both professional and amateur level, Golf Australia’s operations general manager Therese Magdulski was delighted to announce positive news.

“We’ve had too much bad info to pass on in the past few months, so we’re really delighted to advise that the Aussie Am will be played, albeit it with a few changes from our original plans,” Magdulski said.

“We’d been planning to play in Melbourne in mid-January, but because of the pandemic, we shifted our focus to Adelaide.

“One of the events that was cancelled, in part because of international quarantine restrictions, was the Women’s Australian Open which had been scheduled for the second full week of February at Kooyonga.

“So with immense support from Kooyonga Golf Club, we’re going to be able to use that brilliant venue and date for a different national championship.”

Kooyonga has hosted six Australian Opens – five men’s and one women’s – and is regarded globally as one of the best-conditioned tournament courses.

Kooyonga general manager Brett Lewis said the club and its membership was “both honoured and delighted” to host another national championship.

“The Australian Amateur has a rich history and impressive honour roll,” he said.

“It provides an excellent opportunity to present the course in tournament condition and showcase our course and recently renovated clubhouse to the best amateur players in the country.

“We are confident that the challenging layout and immaculate playing surfaces at Kooyonga will provide players with a memorable golfing experience.”

The Australian Amateur, first held in 1894, is one of the oldest consecutively run events in the world, having only missed in war years.

It will be played from 9-12 February in a new format for the first time in 2021, as a stroke play event over 72 holes with the field limited to 156 players.

“Entries will open later this month and we hope that with the event delayed that month later than has been our custom, we will have a greater chance of having fewer travel restrictions affecting our would-be field.”

Magdulski said Golf Australia would monitor the recent Covid-19 outbreak in South Australia.

“We’ll reassess things if need be, but we envisage the SA authorities will control the issue and advise us of any additional changes if and when they’re needed.”

The PGA of Australia has recently announced it will host a swing of tournaments, including events as part of its new The Players Series, from late January through March.

Its schedule will resume with the Gippsland Super 6 in Yallourn from 21 January.