Should You Golf During COVID-19?

Some golf courses are open. Learn the precautions they are taking; what you should consider before playing; and a potential silver lining post-pandemic.

After a couple weeks of being stuck at home due to COVID-19, I can hardly blame you if you’re going a bit stir-crazy.

This virus has us all on-edge. And with the milder spring weather rolling-in across the country, playing a round of golf sounds pretty amazing right about now.

To that end, I received an email from a local golf course yesterday announcing they were open for business!

My fingers couldn’t tap on that email fast enough.

It wasn’t a joke – they are really open. Albeit with the following guidelines that included:

• Stay home if you’re not feeling well
• Book your tee-time and pay online (the clubhouse is not open to the public)
• Please walk if you can (just 1 person per cart)
• Maintain social distancing with other players and course workers on all areas of the course
• Holes have a foam insert so golfers do not have to touch flagsticks or reach into the cups
• No scorecards or pencils – the course suggests downloading and using the digital scorecard on their app
• Ball washers, rakes, benches and water coolers have been removed for safety
• There is now 10 minutes between groups teeing-off (normally 8 minutes) to help avoid close contact on the course

It sounds like they put a good deal of thought into keeping people safe out there. And to be honest, I’m wrestling with the notion of actually grabbing my clubs and going to play!

But I won’t.

As much as I’d like to support local businesses – especially golf courses, that little voice in my head is telling me “now is not the time.”

There is just too much uncertainty for me, a family man with young kids, to venture out for several hours where others, whom I don’t know, are also occupying space (albeit from at least 6 feet away).

Of course your situation might be different and you’ll need to use your own judgement based on several things including your risk-factor and local laws and mandates. At the very least, I would definitely check to see if your local course has taken specific safety precautions first.

As for me, I’ll be staying home and I apologize in advance to my local golf courses.

However, there is a silver lining in all this for golf courses and golfers in general.

Once COVID-19 dissipates and life begins to return to some sort of normalcy, golf is going to be an extremely viable recreation activity in a post-pandemic world.

To begin with, golf is outdoors and in groups of no more than four. So social distancing shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

With booking online, you’ll never have to walk into a crowded clubhouse. And the foam hole thing is a great idea. With the aforementioned “rules” listed above, you could probably play an entire round without ever getting within 6 feet of another human or touching something that doesn’t belong to you.

I’d venture to say golf might even experience a little boon later this year.

So hang in there – things will get better and when they do, golf should be at the top of your list!

UPDATE! (as of November 2020)

I ended up playing a couple of rounds over the summer when the virus calmed-down a bit here in the northeastern US.

I actually scored my best round ever the first time out this season (what a crazy year this has been) and then back to normal on my second outing. Either way it was great to get out there and play!

That said, it wasn’t totally comfortable. For example, I did have to enter the clubhouse to pay – and the person behind the counter wasn’t wearing a mask (I was). And we were paired-up with a twosome who kept getting within 6 feet (I get it, it’s so hard to remember to follow the social distancing rules – especially when you are doing something familiar – it’s simply force of habit to get within a few feet of someone on the putting green for example).

But I surmise folks will get better the longer we live with this pandemic (and it does seem it will be with us well into next year at least). Overall I’m glad I got out there and played and glad the game I love is a viable option during this surreal time.

Before you go play, I echo my sentiments from this post: Call the course first to see what their COVID-related rules are and once on the course, don’t assume every golfer will follow them; wear a mask (I did pull my down when no one was nearby, like walking in the fairway or rough); keep your social distance; and stay safe!