Golfers Swing Through Pandemic Playing Essential Sport

As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many businesses and places of leisure that people normally take for granted to close or drastically change, one option that has remained open to Arizonans has been golf.

Golf courses were deemed as essential by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. That decision was met with great relief by golfers.

“It saved my life, or my sanity anyway,” said Steve Sutton, who plays in the Friday Men’s Group at Sedona Golf Resort. “To be out with good people, at least you got to meet some people, you’re out in the nice weather.”

Ducey’s decision to label golf courses as essential was met with some backlash. But Sutton, a doctor, noted that while golf is generally an activity done with other people, it is safe to do.

“The virus goes people to people — it doesn’t go in the air. You’re as safe here as anywhere,” Sutton said. “Medically, I consider it safe. If it wasn’t safe I wouldn’t be doing it and my wife would certainly not be letting me do it.”

Jim Reichert, who golfs with Sutton, added that the situation in the county has helped make golf a practical option.

“If we had a huge problem in Yavapai County, you wouldn’t see us out here,” Reichert said. “They’d close the course, too. We’ve been quite lucky with the number of cases.”

While the courses have remained open, they have had to take a number of precautions to keep people safe. This has included removing things like water coolers from courses and not allowing golfers to wash their golf balls.

Additionally, while cups have since been put back, SGR removed the normal cups from the holes and replaced them with cut-off pool noodles. Instead of the ball needing to fall to the bottom of the cup, it was deemed in the hole as soon as it touched the noodle.

Other things have changed as well. For instance, rakes have been removed from bunkers. If a ball goes into someone’s footprint, a golfer is allowed to move it. Sand and sea bottles have also been removed from carts, making it harder to repair divots. They’ve also eliminated one of the few situations that would call for golfers to be within six feet of each other by allowing golfers to ride alone in a cart upon request.

Despite the changes and the pandemic causing people to be more cautious with where they go, SGR general manager Jeremy Hayman has seen steady traffic at the course.

“Even the locals who let’s say play two days a week are playing three or four,” he said. “Usually we drop off pretty considerably after Memorial Day but we’ve been busy the whole week. And I think we’re seeing some of the Phoenicians coming up, trying to escape the heat.”

“We’ve made a lot of modifications,” he added. “But being one of the few businesses that was left as essential, what it’s done, at least what it seems like, is it has basically given a lot of people something to do — golf in general. They couldn’t go to the movies, couldn’t go out to dinner, there was a whole laundry list of things they couldn’t do. Golf was left alone.”

SOURCE: Michael Dixon
VIA: RED ROCK NEWS