Jack Newton Junior Golf Peter O'Malley Junior Masters cancelled amid coronavirus outbreak

Bathurst Golf Club had received a new record number of entries for the popular junior event, which has become one of the premier non-metropolitan competitions on the calendar, but were forced to call the event off this week.

JNJG put out a release on Monday stating that all tournaments up to April 30 would be cancelled.

Bathurst Golf Club general manager Brad Constable said it was an easy decision to come to given the recently imposed guidelines on crowd numbers.

"It was the only decision that could be made in the end, in my opinion, because if we didn't make this decision at the start of the week it would have been exacerbated anyway with the changes to numbers at gatherings," he said.

"I spoke at length with the Jack Newton CEO, Peter Van Wegen, and they - as do we - want to promote a full, inclusive tournament. People are always excited for the event ...but in the back of peoples minds they might be wondering whether they might catch coronavirus.

"We want the kids enjoying themselves and we want to do our part to slow its spread. We've seen with what's happened in Italy what can happen to hospital systems. They won't be able to cope."

Constable said there's hope that high level junior golf in some form can find its way to Bathurst this year when the coronavirus situation is under control.

"It's a cancellation but JNJG will speak to us in the future, because they've cancelled their other events, to do our best to find a suitable time when things get back to normal. We'll give it a red hot crack."

The JNJG tour cancellations have also affected the Central West edition of the Juniors On The Move event, scheduled for March 29.