Is Golf Available Where You Live? (COVID-19 Edition)

[KoHo]

And......there goes the rest of the courses in Nevada. Governor ordered all to close. Too many people not following the guidelines...

[Patch]

The Nevada govenor shut down all golf courses in the state at his news briefing yesterday. Atleast that's what friends are telling me. 

[cutchemist42]

Handicap season starts in 6 days in SK but no golf will be happening. I dont think any courses qould have opened till the 30th because of weather anyway.

I do think the government maybe should relax it as it's the Prairies that are dealing with this the best so far. Seems like harder-hit states are allowing golf.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by cutchemist42

[Sean_D]

Shelter-in-place order in California extended to May 1st. Golf is still allowed in CA and is a county decision. The Sacramento County Public health guideline were released and are more stringent, but golf is still allowed. Many muni and private courses are closed though.

[cutchemist42]

I think most of Canada is saying golf courses are non essential, and I usually hate what-aboutism arguments, but I really am bugged then by what's deemed non essential. Like I've been buying beer ever since I got the order to work from home while thinking I shouldn't be allowed to in this environment. The same goes for Cannabis or coffee shops.

 

[iacas]

I think the thinking is if you close those stores grocery stores will be more crowded.

[krupa]

New York State just closed golf courses until the end of the month.

[The Flush]

Ross County Ohio just allowed courses to open today, while adjacent Pike County has been open for golf for the last 2 weeks it seems.

[Lugowskins]

Michigans governor and several other of our politicians made a point to call out golfers directly, more specifically the "white folks complaining about golf". It's a super fun time right now. I don't think they realize the state is bigger than just Wayne county the majority of the state is rural farm land and I believe we should have gone the route of making it a county decision rather than a blanket state wide ordinance. But hey what do I know, aside from a bunch of people who make their living through golf. 

[dennyjones]

30 minutes ago, Lugowskins said:

Michigans governor and several other of our politicians made a point to call out golfers directly, more specifically the "white folks complaining about golf". It's a super fun time right now. I don't think they realize the state is bigger than just Wayne county the majority of the state is rural farm land and I believe we should have gone the route of making it a county decision rather than a blanket state wide ordinance. But hey what do I know, aside from a bunch of people who make their living through golf. 

She made the point to say that "you had to go into pay, someone had to take the money, someone had to put the clubs in the cart and someone had to clean the carts".   Obviously, her circle of golf friends are "privileged".    I can pay online, show up by myself, walk 18, get in my car and drive home w/o any interaction from a single person.  

I understand her thinking but if people would really follow social distancing, golf would not be a problem during this "stay at home" period.

[iacas]

49 minutes ago, Lugowskins said:

Michigans governor and several other of our politicians made a point to call out golfers directly, more specifically the "white folks complaining about golf". It's a super fun time right now. I don't think they realize the state is bigger than just Wayne county the majority of the state is rural farm land and I believe we should have gone the route of making it a county decision rather than a blanket state wide ordinance. But hey what do I know, aside from a bunch of people who make their living through golf. 

It’s not county by county in PA either. 😞

[Vinsk]

14 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

She made the point to say that "you had to go into pay, someone had to take the money, someone had to put the clubs in the cart and someone had to clean the carts".   Obviously, her circle of golf friends are "privileged".    I can pay online, show up by myself, walk 18, get in my car and drive home w/o any interaction from a single person.  

I understand her thinking but if people would really follow social distancing, golf would not be a problem during this "stay at home" period.

Same here. Aside from them cleaning the carts, none of those things happen when I play at my course.

[krupa]

52 minutes ago, Lugowskins said:

Michigans governor and several other of our politicians made a point to call out golfers directly, more specifically the "white folks complaining about golf". It's a super fun time right now. I don't think they realize the state is bigger than just Wayne county the majority of the state is rural farm land and I believe we should have gone the route of making it a county decision rather than a blanket state wide ordinance. But hey what do I know, aside from a bunch of people who make their living through golf. 

Same thing happens in NY. Manhattan has a population density of 67,000 people per square mile.  The village I live in has 1800 people per square mile (that's the entire village, by the way.) The same rules can't/won't apply. The county only has 100K people.

I suspect, though, that if it were a county-by-county decision, most would close anyway because superficially, it looks bad.  "THERE'S A PANDEMIC GRIPPING THE NATION AND YOU'RE LETTING PEOPLE GOLF!?"

[Papa Steve 55]

[Lugowskins]

41 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

She made the point to say that "you had to go into pay, someone had to take the money, someone had to put the clubs in the cart and someone had to clean the carts".   Obviously, her circle of golf friends are "privileged".    I can pay online, show up by myself, walk 18, get in my car and drive home w/o any interaction from a single person.  

I understand her thinking but if people would really follow social distancing, golf would not be a problem during this "stay at home" period.

Drives me crazy since there are plenty of ways to pay without going in with todays technology, I've never had my clubs handled by someone else at a course (honestly wouldn't want them to even in normal conditions), and I think dedicating an employee to taking a couple minutes to sanitize carts post round is an easy solution. These aren't very good excuses to keep courses shut down. 

I get her thinking as well but her logic is deeply flawed. As long as there is no cap on how many people can be in a store at a time, or mandatory wearing of gloves and masks then I think i should be able to go walk on a 200 acre golf course.

It's great for public health as well in my opinion it's the safest outdoor athletic activity. We've still got AT LEAST 3 more weeks of this, I may go insane. I go to work where we're short handed and as busy as we've been in years, go home run the dog, grab a few beers and head to the garage where I practice for between 2-3 hours depending on the day, go inside cook dinner, shower, then drink more while playing video games... not a healthy lifestyle lol

25 minutes ago, iacas said:

It’s not county by county in PA either. 😞

I understand not doing it though, it would just encourage people from infected counties to travel to the rural areas to golf. Even if they didn't spread it due to precautions at the course they'd be stopping at gas stations or party stores and would spread it there. So while living in a rural area with only a handful of cases in a 30 mile radius of where I live I think it's BS but at the same time I don't want them dirty city folk coming up here crowding our courses and infecting us lol

Edited April 10, 2020 by Lugowskins

[eich41]

1 hour ago, Lugowskins said:

Michigans governor and several other of our politicians made a point to call out golfers directly, more specifically the "white folks complaining about golf". It's a super fun time right now. I don't think they realize the state is bigger than just Wayne county the majority of the state is rural farm land and I believe we should have gone the route of making it a county decision rather than a blanket state wide ordinance. But hey what do I know, aside from a bunch of people who make their living through golf. 

It was even worse than that... The AG tweeted "I just can’t hear about one more black health care worker, police officer or bus driver die while getting a barrage of complaints from white folks outraged because they can’t go golfing."

 

It's actually hard to believe that is an actual quote from Michigan's current AG.  A lot to unpack there, but apparently only "white folks" golf, and only black people are working on the front lines and dying.  Flip the races around and she would have already been forced to resign.  

Focusing more on the golf related aspect of that nonsense, the problem we have in Michigan right now (and likely other places across the country) is that rather than our government putting some thought behind restrictions to really assess what is effective, what needs to be shut down, and what can certainly be allowed to open safely, they're taking the simpleton, lazy way out and just locking down everything with no regard to the collateral damage it causes.  

 

I was talking with a friend and discussing this whole situation, and there seems to be a large contingent of people who are of the mindset that if you aren't miserable, you aren't taking it seriously.  We can't be doing anything that might be labeled "fun" or "enjoyable" right now.   They believe we need to maximize suffering to effectively practice social distancing.  Don't apply the logic to these folks that there are other aspects of maintaining mental and physical health besides just avoiding the virus.  Nor is there any utility in pointing out that golf can easily be played without coming into contact with anyone else, and certainly with less contact than simply taking a walk in most public parks right now.  Nope, here in Michigan, that will just get you labeled as a "white folk" complaining about not being able to golf while black people are dying.  Disgusting...

 

[Lugowskins]

1 minute ago, eich41 said:

Nope, here in Michigan, that will just get you labeled as a "white folk" complaining about not being able to golf while black people are dying.  Disgusting...

 

Well you knew it was just a matter of time before a certain group of people would try to make this a race issue...

[Vinsk]

1 minute ago, Lugowskins said:

Well you knew it was just a matter of time before a certain group of people would try to make this a race issue...

Let’s not do that here or give any attention to that route. 🙂