Australia will field a new-look team when the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific championship – hopefully – reconvenes next September.

The R&A and Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation confirmed overnight that the WAAP, the region’s most prestigious women’s amateur tournament, would be shifted on the calendar for a third time because of the global pandemic.

The 2020 event was originally scheduled for February, moved to October and then until February 2021.

The organising bodies have now switched to 7-10 October next year, with the event still slated for the Siam Country Club’s Waterside Course near Bangkok, Thailand.

No formal decision has been made for the cancelled men’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, which was originally scheduled to be held at Royal Melbourne this week.

Six Aussie women – Grace Kim, Doey Choi and Steph Kyriacou, all of NSW, and Cassie Porter, Stacey White, and Kirsty Hodgkins, all of Queensland – had originally been named for the 2020 WAAP.

But the team is guaranteed to be different next year with at least Kyriacou having turned professional and more changes possible, according to Golf Australia’s national female pathway manager Stacey Peters.

“Obviously Steph will be unavailable, but given some of the previous members of the team are considering qualifying schools, we’ll have to wait and see who’s still exempt,” Peters said.

“The main thing is, again, to hold the event safely and we are excited that it’s at least back on the schedule and the girls have something to aim for with such big incentives on the line.”

The WAAP winner earns invitations to play in two major championships – the AIG Women’s Open and the Evian Championship – as well as an exemption to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.