Golf is safe, it’s a safe activity, it’s easy to social-distance, it’s easy to follow guidelines established in this current world war against the Corona Virus.
As of last week, golf was shut down in 12 states — with specific mandates in-place disallowing all play. Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington have said no to golf, even with precautions that are easy to follow.
Here in Florida golf was never taken from us. In the Tampa area, private courses are rockin’ — lots of play, one person per cart, don’t touch the flagsticks, raised cups, carts sanitized after every round. No rakes around the bunkers. Bad lie? Go ahead and move your ball.
At historic Rodgers Park, a city-owned course, it was walking only, show up, drop your money in the box (total honor system), go play. Don’t touch the flagsticks. In lieu of raised cups, they came up with the clever idea of trimming those pool noodles and insert them at the base of the flagstick, you ball goes in the hole, but not all the way, easy to remove without making contact with any part of the cup.
There have been experts from all over the country weighing in on the relative safety of golf as an activity during this pandemic.
“Golf has got to be one of the safest sports under the current circumstances,” said Dr. Charles G. Prober, a professor of infectious diseases, microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.
As far as we’re concerned, a guy at Stanford with that many degrees who says it’s safe, well, we’ll surely go along with his beliefs.
And you don’t need masks out on the course, especially if you’re out there walking alone, as we are prone to do most of the time.
“Masks are not really to protect you, but to protect other people,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Senior Scholar at John Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security . There’s also the fact that masks may actually not be that good as masks risk doing more harm than good because people tend to adjust them frequently. “So they’re probably got their hands on their face more, including their eyes and their nose,” he said.
Social distancing is easy on a golf course, especially if you tend to hit the ball straight, you might not be near your playing partners.
“The virus doesn’t teleport from one person to another. It has to have some mechanism to get there,” Adalja said. That’s where the six-foot or more “social distancing” comes into play.
That’s why doctors everywhere have all cited the now-standard practice of maintaining that suggested six-foot gap as a precaution. “More is better, but these respiratory droplets really don’t spread much more than spitting distance. When you’re outside, the risk is even lower,” is the consensus of doctors across the U.S.
Fortunately for all of us, more and more golf courses are being opened for play every week. The National Golf Foundation recently found that nearly 50 percent of courses around the country are allowing golfers to tee it up.
A good friend up in a small town in Illinois is totally frustrated with the governor’s decision to squash golf. “It’s ridiculous,” he told me. “People are out there walking around, why can’t we just walk around and hit a golf ball?
Make perfect sense to me.
Let’s get those courses open, with the guidelines, NOW!
6 Comments
RM
Hi Tom,
Hope you are well. Could not agree more with your article.
I’m very fortunate my club never shut the courses down, although the indoor hitting bays and facility were and remain closed. The pool noodle gadgets replaced the raised cups this past week. I lost a few strokes when the raised cups went by the wayside!
No guests and one person per cart for the time being. I’ve noticed a lot of walkers on the course and also a few people tailgating with a drink post round (against the rules but doesn’t seem to be actively enforced).
Waiting for the club’s bar and food venues to reopen but no word or hints yet. State is on lockdown until May 15 and who knows about that? Have to think the bars and restaurants whose livelihoods depend on it have war gamed out pretty thoroughly how they can make things work but stay safe.
Tom Edrington
Great that folks can get out, good to see walkers; Problem with this country is most players probably aren’t capable of walking nine holes!! Played nine yesterday with a fourth-year med student who believes that deaths are being hyped more than recoveries; believes it’s not as serious a major media networks area leading us….
baxter cepeda
Imo deaths are being hyped because too many people still do not see the gravity of the situation.
There is no way we are in this quarantine position, especially with a business oriented president, if it wasn’t serious.
The biggest mistake by officials was telling the world early on that younger people are not in as big a risk; which really slowed our progress from the get go.
People are dying at a much higher rate than the flu.
Tom, I don’t know about Sweden (apples and oranges). sweeden is more like Hawaii Alone than all of America. It’s somewhat isolated and the population is manageable.
If America let this go, the numbers would be overwhelming. For most of us it would be morbid images on tv, bad enough, but for rescuers it would be overwhelming, traumatic, and dangerous.
How can people not see this ?
I get Who am I to disagree with a Med Student but I am a man…I’m 40! (Almost). And we have a nurse in the family.
Tom Edrington
If they released the demographic of those who haven’t survived, it would be interesting to see the number over 75 with other serious medical conditions; In the Tampa Bay area, most of the deaths are at skilled nursing facilities, if you’ve ever been inside of one, it’s easy to understand.
baxter cepeda
Imo Kudos to the leaders in all those states for holding strong for health and safety despite the mounting financial pressures.
While golf can be safer than most activities, Literally everyone in society is finding ways to justify resuming their business or industry.
The fact is every industry increases risks by resuming, regardless of precautions, and golf is no different.
Fast food thinks it’s all good if they deliver; when in Hawaii at least one of the biggest outbreaks happened at a mcdonalds. All it takes is one sick teen back there.
Even with all the precautions golfers are still at risk.
Golf is very different from walking. You can walk anywhere. During a round of golf, we Start and end each hole in the exact same spot. We all have to come close to the ground to tee up and to pick up the ball, not to mention cleaning and lining up on the green. That’s 36 times we all end up in the same place.
If someone is dropping virus Around the tee boxes and holes, it is very possible to get infected.
Personally when My fam get back on the course, courses are still closed here for now, we will find an underutilized practice area and get to work.
But as for playing where everyone else plays, as the memes say, I’m gonna let y’all test the air first.
Aloha.
Tom Edrington
I see Sweden never shut down, they simply sheltered the most vulnerable; Their death rate is about same as ours compared to population; Less than 11 million in the entire country…