Golf determined to stay on its game with new safety protocols

With great opportunity, great responsibility.

When golf courses were given the go-ahead to reopen in L.A. County on May 8, it meant golfers could tee off in all of California’s 58 counties again for the first time since March, when public officials ordered courses closed in an effort to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

Now, after weeks of being stuck at home, golfers are flocking to their local, reopened courses. And operators are determined to make sure everyone adheres to the safety protocols that have allowed the sport — so “peculiarly amenable” to the moment, as the Southern California Golf Association’s Craig Kessler put it — to become one of the first recreational activities restored during the pandemic.

“Basketball is in a gym, with confined space and walls and a ceiling,” said Riverside golfer Ed Holmes, an independent director for the Southern California PGA. “We are outdoors, on approximately 150 acres, with people spread all over, from here to there.”

Even with those built-in advantages, golf officials want to get it right.

The SCGA and Southern California PGA are partnering on a “Do Your Part, Play Safe” campaign to remind golfers of the new set of golf-specific health guidelines. Those include a variety of regulations meant to limit touch points (keep that flagstick in the cup!; no, you will not find a rake nearby to even out that bunker) and to establish social distance (expect to set up at least 12 feet apart on the driving range).

The SCGA and @scpga have launched an educational campaign “Do Your Part, Play Safe.” We are encouraging the golf community to adhere to social distancing and other guidelines required by health officials. It's on us, now. #DoYourPartPlaySafe

LEARN MORE: https://t.co/IwH2TuczFT pic.twitter.com/NqJiU9xLBC

— SCGA (@thescga) May 7, 2020

Additionally, the business slice of a typical golf outing — clubhouses, restaurants and pro shops — remain mostly closed. Putting and chipping areas also are off limits and some courses require golfers to wear face coverings, at least while they’re near other people.

“The world is watching,” said Kessler, the director of governmental affairs for the SCGA. “And if the world is happy with what it sees … we’ll continue to enjoy the recreational component of golf.”

And, perhaps, they’ll lead the way in a gradual recreational reawakening?

“We’re actually anxious to do that and be in that role,” Holmes said. “That’s why these course openings are so important to us, and why we’re appealing to all of our golfers, ‘Please, please abide by these restrictions, at least for now. Let’s see how this goes, give this pandemic a chance to calm down so we can get back to normal, even if it’s a new normal.’

“Obviously, the pro sports teams want to get in action, that’s a money-oriented thing. But this is a recreational thing that’s important.”

For his part, La Canada Flintridge golfer Brent Kuszyk is less concerned with a broader precedent that might be set than he is about having a place nearby that he and his 14-year-old son, Nolan, can play.

“We’re just thinking we want golf to stay open, so we just hope that everyone follows the rules and the guidelines that they’re giving us,” said Brent Kuszyk, who spent time in the previous weeks using a baseball glove to snag Nolan’s shots as he worked on controlling his distance in the open space of Hahamongna Watershed Park in Pasadena.

That version of target practice was fun and surprisingly helpful, Nolan said, but he’d much prefer days like Thursday, when he played 27 holes at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

“The pro shop and the locker room is closed, so you can’t do the normal stuff you would do,” Nolan said. “But once you’re out on the course, everything feels the same.”

It isn’t exactly the same, though.

For one thing, the pace of play has benefited from tee times that are fewer and further between to increase social distance. But then golf clubs are having to juggle cart usage, either by informing those teeing off at certain times that they should expect to walk or carefully spacing out starts to give staff time to disinfect each cart before the next individual (or co-quarantining pair) can use it.

It’s a matter of managing expectations, said Tony Letendre, assistant general manager at Dove Canyon Golf Club in Trabuco Canyon and SCPGA president.

“That’s the hardest thing,” he said. “The members have an expectation that we should be back to normal, that we’re open so that must mean everything’s OK.”

Now, instead of eliciting eye rolls for addressing, say, on-course wardrobe, Letendre gets them for reminding members that they have to keep a safe distance from one another.

“We constantly have to play the police and say, ‘You can’t do that,’ … ‘Hey, sorry, can’t have you guys all standing on the putting green, exchanging money,’ … ‘OK, guys, spread out,’ ” Letendre said. “But whether you agree or disagree, at the end of the day, the whole point is to keep everybody safe.

“We have some people walk in and think it’s absolute hogwash and some people who are scared for their life, and you have to manage that. Not everyone’s gonna agree that we should be open, and not everybody is gonna agree (with the new guidelines). Our mission is to not cause anybody a reason to come in and inspect to make sure we’re not doing what we should be doing. The last thing we want is to be fined, or to be told we can’t open.”

Letendre said he believes his colleagues in the golf industry are up to the challenge.

“We feel very fortunate that golf is one of the first sports that was able to reopen,” he said. “But because of that, everybody’s got eyes on you, and you have to make sure you’re doing the right things.”