While most of the Rhode Island-based club’s course is in Massachusetts, residents of that state can’t play all 18 holes. Also in today’s report: No-cart restrictions bring backlash, but also a new spotlight for courses offering the best walking experiences; adding up the cost of not doing business for two months; tennis and golf OK’d in England, but only for family affairs; and OSHA issues workplace safety guidelines in 13 languages.
Here is C+RB‘s latest roundup and summary of club-related developments surrounding the pandemic that have recently been reported. Please send updates on what your property is doing that you would like to share with the C+RB community to [email protected].
All of C+RB’s daily updates on the coronavirus situation can be found at https://clubandresortbusiness.com/category/covid-19/.
Tale of Two States
While the 118-year-old Pawtucket Country Club is based in Rhode Island, most of its Willie Park Jr.-designed golf course is actually in Massachusetts, Boston.com reported.
And now, with play finally allowed in both states following the lifting of pandemic-mandated closing, players at Pawtucket CC have to abide by both states’ guidelines when it comes to playing the course.
Rhode Island, unlike Massachusetts, never shut down its golf courses because of the coronavirus outbreak, Boston.com reported. The state did impose guidelines, though, including that only Rhode Islanders could play at Rhode Island courses.
That is now causing problems for Pawtucket CC, after Massachusetts became one of the last states to allow golf courses to reopen under its own state guidelines that were announced on May 7th, Boston.com reported. Because of Rhode Island’s restrictions, Massachusetts residents still can’t play all 18 holes on Pawtucket CC’s course, because the first and 10th holes, the putting green on the 18th hole, and the clubhouse are located on the Rhode Island side of the border.
Which holes Massachusetts players can and can’t play isn’t the only restriction players at the course have to deal with, Boston.com reported. Under the guidelines released by Massachusetts, players in the state cannot use golf carts and have to walk from hole to hole. But Rhode Island doesn’t have that same guideline, so players from its state can still use a cart.
Gary Reiss, a co-owner of Pawtucket CC, told David Bienick of station WCVB ABC 5 in Needham, Mass., that it takes $1 million each year to maintain the greens on the golf course and that he’s worried members are going to cancel their memberships due to the conflicts between the two states’ laws.
“These are blue-collar, hard-working people,” Reiss told Bienick. “I’m not looking for a favor for spoiled rich people in any way. These people deserve to be out there.”
But Max Jackson, a Rhode Island resident, told Bienick he was still finding a way to play the course with friends from Massachusetts.
“Until they can play all 18 holes, we’re not really keeping score,” Jackson said.
WCVB’s video report on Pawtucket CC’s unique situation can be viewed at https://www.wcvb.com/article/golf-course-on-massachusetts-rhode-island-line-feels-brunt-of-differing-coronavirus-guidelines/32424851
More Mass Uprisings
Massachusetts has been a lightning rod for much of the controversy surrounding the ability to play golf during the pandemic—and controversy continued in the state even after its courses were finally allowed to open on May 7th. Courses across the state opened the next day, MassLive.com reported, to a host of angry, frustrated golfers who threatened to take their clubs to Connecticut and sue Massachusetts courses.
Restrictions imposed by Massachusetts for course reopenings that included a ban on the use of golf carts, was still preventing golfers who aren’t able to walk the course from participating, and that led to a person threatening to sue the owner of Kettle Brook Golf Club in Paxton and Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston, MassLive.com reported.
“They said they were going to sue me,” said Cara Cullen. “I explained it’s the state, not me.
“We’ve always been cognizant of the fact that golf is one of those sports that a variety of people can play,” Cullen added. “The senior population is a big customer base. We have firefighters with COPD. We have veterans with injuries. Just various limitations, and people are mad.”
Cullen told MassLive.com that she had reached out to the Massachusetts statehouse and state representatives about the issue, without any success.
Similar interactions were reported between staff and golfers at other courses in the state, MassLive.comreported.
At The Ranch Golf Club in Southwick, the pro shop had dozens of callers cancel tee times once they realized carts weren’t allowed, MassLive.com reported.
“I let them know it’s walking only and they say, ‘Oh, never mind. I’ll go back down to Connecticut,’” said Bill Ashton, a golf pro at The Ranch. “It’s unfortunate, but we’re trying to follow the governor’s orders.”
David Southworth, who owns a pair of courses in Massachusetts as well as some in other states and overseas, told MassLive.com that when he noticed the state was restricting golf carts under its guidelines, he knew issues weren’t far behind.
“There’s a lot of older golfers or people who have medical issues,” Southworth said. “They’re the ones that need the exercise and the outdoor activity more than most, and it’s not easy to walk 18 holes if you’re not used to it. That’s something I think they should look at.”
Southworth, who operates Renaissance in Haverhill, Mass. and Willowbend Golf Club on Cape Cod, said it’s fairly common for golfers on the Cape to bring their own carts to courses, which is no different than driving in a car in terms of the pandemic.
At The Ranch in Southwick, Ashton suggested allowing one golfer to a cart, followed by an employee sanitizing it after a round.
The regulations released on May 7th dictated that updates could follow at any time, MassLive.comreported, and many course owners said they believed that a lifting of the restriction on carts would come sooner rather than later.
“I think if that restriction was prolonged, it would have an [economic] impact,” Southworth said. “May 18 was supposed to be the day to start relaxing a few things anyway. I’m hoping we got a little jump on that and that by the 18th some of these policies will be revised or looked at.”
A Good Walk Spotlighted
The new emphasis on playing while walking, though, has also put a renewed spotlight on courses where that can be an especially pleasing experience.
Noting that “the carts are in the barn and golf is a walking game once again,” MLive.com asked three top players from the Golf Association of Michigan, another state that banned carts as part of its reopening guidelines, to make their recommendations of courses across the state that “offer a challenge, yet are walker-friendly.”
The clubs making the list included:
Belvedere Golf Club, Charlevoix
Bucks Run Golf Club, Mount Pleasant
Candlestone Golf Resort, Belding
The Emerald Golf Course, Saint Johns
The Fortress Golf Course, Frankenmuth
The Heather Golf Course at Boyne Highlands
Kaufman Golf Course, Wyoming
The Loop at Forest Dunes Golf Club, Roscommon
The Mines Golf Course, Grand Rapids
For the raters’ comments about what made each course such a pleasure without needing a ticket to ride, go to https://www.mlive.com/sports/2020/05/nine-michigan-golf-courses-that-are-challenging-yet-walkable.html
The Cost of Not Doing Business
Even with the euphoria that came with course reopenings around the country, reports have also begun to come in about the costs that many operators have suffered because of the delayed opening of their seasons and the restrictions imposed on play even after bans were lifted.
In New Mexico, where courses had been closed since mid-March and could not open until May 1, Jason White, General Manager of the New Mexico State University Golf Course and President of the Sun Country PGA chapter, told the Las Cruces Sun News that its course lost an estimated $175,000 in revenue after it has to be closed down on March 24.
During the same period at Pichacho Hills Country Club, General Manager Todd Barranger told the Sun News, an estimated $350,000 was lost in revenue from golf, the restaurant, liquor sales and events.
And at the daily-fee Sonoma Ranch Golf Course, General Manager Vernon Bane estimated a loss of $170,000 on the restaurant side and close to $120,000 in golf revenue.
“The hardest part was laying off all of the staff because I couldn’t keep people on,” Bane told the Sun News. “I’m working on maintaining our staff and getting everyone back.
“Two weeks ago, we were not making any money, but now we might make payroll next week,” he added.
Sonoma Ranch kept a staff of four to maintain the golf course and two staff members patrolled the course, which some people treated like a park during the closure, Bane said.
“People were parking in the neighborhood and treating the golf course like a park,” Bane said. “We broke up a baseball game on No. 9. People were fishing in the pond on No. 8. You name it, we saw it.”
Barranger’s staff of 40 prior to Pichacho Hills’ closing on March 17 shrunk to seven, as the country club still offered curbside food pickup, the Sun News reported. The staff was back up to 21 people after the first week, Barranger said.
“It was absolutely crushing,” he said. “For all of the GMs, laying people off hit us so fast because nobody knew how long this was going to last, and when or if we were ever going to open.”
Barranger expressed hope that alcohol sales would be among the next set of eased restrictions when New Mexico’s current orders expire on May 15, the Sun News reported.
“I hope the next announcement relaxes some things on the golf side even more, but in the worst case, I hope by June, we can be back to normal operations and then just wait and see from the restaurant side what the new regulations would be,” he said.
Tennis and Golf Get England’s OK—Just Keep It in the Family
The British government has announced that tennis courts and golf courses in England can reopen May 13th, although people can only play with members of their own household, the Associated Press reported.
The sports venues were ordered to be closed in March when Britain imposed a national lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Gyms and swimming pools will remain closed, although swimming in the sea or lakes will be allowed, the AP reported.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can set their own stance on tennis courts and golf courses, and their administrations have already indicated a more stringent version of the lockdown will be maintained, the AP reported.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a speech on May 9th to lay out the outlines of a “road map” for easing the coronavirus pandemic restrictions while maintaining forms of social distancing, the AP reported., saying that people can “play sports, but only with members of your own household.”
The UK’s golf bodies, including the Royal & Ancient, issued a response to Johnson’s announcement that said in part: “As a sport we must work together to resume play responsibly [and] ensure that the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved, from golfers to club staff and greenkeepers, is maintained at all times.
“Golf clubs and golfers have observed the lockdown very well and must keep it up and act responsibly as play resumes,” the statement continued. “We recently provided documents giving guidance on operations and resuming play, and golf clubs should consider this carefully as they restart their businesses. We also provided Essential Maintenance Guidelines to help greenkeepers prepare their courses for play.
“We fully appreciate the huge amount of expertise that exists within golf clubs throughout the country and this best-practice guidance simply aims to achieve as consistent an approach as possible to protecting everyone.”
Safe in Any Language
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced that its poster listing “Ten Steps All Workplaces Can Take to Reduce Risk of Exposure to Coronavirus” is now available for download in 13 languages, at https://www.osha.gov/pls/publications/publication.html#c19
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