Golf was made for Social Distancing, we play outside no one has to come with in 6 feet of anyone and everyone has there own equipment.
Some of the restrictions that have been put on are silly IMO and golfer being a generally older group are much more responsible than the general population?
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I agree with you except for two guys riding in a cart together. All of the research shows that sustained close contact with an infected person is the riskiest behavior. Being outside helps, but not if you’re sitting together two feet apart for 4 hours.
I would agree with this sentiment. Most courses are managing single riders unless you live in the same household.
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Best thing that happened at the local muny was the two months they banned carts.
Pace of play was significantly faster
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I played every week during height of COVID in Florida, clubs just moved us to single riding. Sped up play too
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I always walk so have no issues maintaining proper social distancing on the course. My course is still giving riders the option to ride solo if they so desire. None of the measures the course opened back up with in mid-May have been relaxed, unlike other courses in my area.
Which restrictions are “silly”? I do think that initial concerns over contact transmission have been shown to be exaggerated, but how much impact have those had? Restrictions on touching the flagstick, the removal of rakes from the course, the removal of water coolers have been inconvenient, but they’re not all THAT bad. As others have said, I understand the concerns involving two-rider buggies, you DO spend significant time pretty close to another person. All in all, the cost of these measures in inconvenience isn’t enough to make me resent them.
As for older people being more responsible, I’m not sure that’s automatically true. A friend of mine had his father die from COVID. He said his Dad thought it was nothing, and paid no attention to any of the recommended safety measures. Our head pro isn’t a particularly young guy, but he doesn’t believe the danger is significant, really resists the idea of wearing masks. Without getting too far into the politics, we’ve had very mixed messages from the various levels of government, and even from the medical experts, so there are widely varying opinions in the general public about the dangers of the disease.
I am all for any precautions of the COVID protocols that have been used in general public and especially at the local golf courses. I had COVID back in July, I’m healthy, 44, no underlying conditions. It almost took me out, literally. For three days I had oxygen levels just barely at 90% and my heart was racing at 143 bpm just laying in bed. It felt like someone was near squeezing me harder than I’ve ever been squeezed. I did all of the right things, unfortunately one of my coworkers was an anti masker and believer of COVID and because we fly in a helicopter in close proximity he passed it on to me. Besides being in the cockpit I always have/had a mask on. Wish I would’ve been wearing it in the cockpit, but it is what it is. Believe me, you don’t want that crap if you become symptomatic, so be happy/thankful that they’ve figured out a way for us to keep playing golf while at the same time keeping others relatively safe.
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I’m just happy to be out playing. I don’t mind the pin being in and the lack of rakes, and all the golf courses around here only allow two people in a cart if they live in the same household. I miss ball washers and hearing the ball hit the bottom of the cup, but Covid is no joke and it’s just great to get out and play.
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Yeah, I don’t know who did it, but they put golf courses on the exempt list for all of the shutdowns. Single riders or walkers was the rule and only not pulling the pin if you didn’t want to. Seems like most of the time, people pick up gimme putts more often than holing them anyway.
Silly Rule? How about at most courses in my area that I play; the practice putting greens are closed. The course is open.
The responsibility of the Elder versus Teenagers?
I say go to about any golf course parking lot versus any High School parking lot, after school ends and see for yourself!
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OK, I’ll agree that keeping putting greens closed may be excessive, although that’s a place where a significant number of golfers can be in pretty close proximity for a while. I suppose that depends on how many golfers are likely to be there.
And you didn’t initially compare elders to teenagers, you compared golfers in general to the general population. In my experience, golfers may skew a little older, but aren’t too much different in composition from the general population. Again to generalize, golfers may tend to fall in the political group that more often pooh-poohs the severity of COVID, so from that standpoint MORE regulation may be appropriate, rather than leaving it to golfing public’s best judgement.
Other than the putting green prohibitions, the COVID measures seem to err slightly on the cautious side, but not excessively so.
One person to a cart was a good idea, and it sped up play, but almost every course near me has been back to two in a cart for several months now. Maybe not the right decision, but many courses didn’t have enough carts. I think it was more a financial decision than a public health one.
Leaving the flagstick in, I’m used to it by now. But that is very low on my list of concerns of a likely way to contract covid. Same with rakes in a bunker. My opinion is, if you don’t want to touch them, then don’t.
Fortunately for us, golf is an activity where it is very easy to socially distance, without a whole lot of effort or inconvenience.
And fortunately for those of us in the US, golf courses seem to still be open. I feel sympathy for our friends in the UK and Ireland, who won’t have golf to distract them over the next few weeks.
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