There has been a mass exodus of British and Irish-born players from the Joburg Open after the UK Government added South Africa to a red list of travel destinations.

Fifteen players have withdrawn including Scots Richie Ramsay along with Tour rookies Liam Johnston and Craig Howie who are making their DP World Tour debut this week.

Also pulling the plug on the event is the likes of England’s Richard McEvoy, Matt Ford, Oiver Wilson, Matthew Jordan, Stephen Browne, Graeme Storm and the Tour’s only player to shoot 59 in Ollie Fisher.

All four Irish players – Cormac Sharvin, Niall Kearney, Paul Dunne and Jonnie Caldwell are rushing home to beat the curfew time.

There is also one Welsh withdrawal in Oliver Farr.

UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said flights to England from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe will be suspended from midday Friday and all six countries will be added to the red list.

Anyone arriving after 4am on Saturday will need to stay at a managed quarantine hotel.

There will be fears now that other UK and Irish players intending to tee-up in the remaining two South African co-sanctioned events will travel to South Africa.  Among those is top-ranked Scot Robert MacIntyre.

And it is just not golf that is affected as Reuters reports

South African sport faced a shutdown on Friday due to the detection of a new coronavirus variant, with British rugby teams scrambling to leave before travel restrictions are imposed, and the first event of golf’s new-look DP World Tour under threat.

Four rugby teams were due to play South African opposition in the United Rugby Championship (URC) but Welsh clubs Cardiff and Scarlets said they were looking to leave, as Britain prepares to impose travel restrictions from 1200 GMT on Friday.

“With the situation in South Africa having changed so quickly, we are now looking to repatriate our staff ASAP,” Cardiff said on Twitter.

“For concerned families and friends, please rest assured that our focus is to ensure the safety and welfare of our people and will keep you updated with any developments.”

Scarlets said they too were trying to leave as quickly as possible.

Officials told Reuters on Friday that URC games would be called off, with an announcement expected later.

Cardiff were due to play the Lions in Johannesburg on Sunday while the Scarlets are in Durban to face the Sharks on Saturday.

There was no word on the plans of Irish club Munster, due to meet the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday, or Italy’s Zebre, in Cape Town to take on the Stormers.

They are the first clubs to arrive in South Africa since the onset of the pandemic and the postponement of fixtures will come as a major blow to the newly launched tournament involving sides from South Africa, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.

The first round of golf’s Joburg Open resumed at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Friday after a thunderstorm brought an early end to play on Thursday.

The second round teed off at 7 a.m. but by then 15 British and Irish golfers had already withdrawn.