Little sign of any silver lining for 2020 golf season

ALTHOUGH Golf Ireland has yet to declare the 2020 season as null and void by cancelling all national and inter-club events, it is looking increasingly likely and can surely be just a matter of time before an announcement is made.

It was thought that golf courses may well open for play shortly after May 5 when current restrictions were expected to be eased or lifted, but because of the high volume of people in this country who have not been observing the regulations in the past week or so, the likelihood is that the government will order the current lockdown to remain in place for a while longer, which automatically will push the return to the golf course even further away, and if this happens then expect an announcement from Golf Ireland forthwith.

You must remember in order for golf courses to re-open, the 2kk restriction on travel has to be lifted and so has the cocooning for over 70s because you can’t really allow play for under

70s only.

We can all live without Cups and Shields and competitive golf for one year once we can play social golf whilst observing regulations on social distancing, etc, and, in all honesty, it’s no big hardship for us as individuals. However, looking at the bigger picture, this Covid-19 pandemic is a disaster for golf tourism in this country and here in Kerry especially where we depend so much on it.

Our magnificent courses in this county attract thousands of golfers each year from overseas with an extremely high percentage of them coming from the USA.

Like I mentioned previously at the outbreak of the virus in early March, this does not affect just golf courses, there are hotels and accommodation providers, restaurants and bars, travel companies and caddies whose livelihoods have been wiped out for this year because of the current situation.

I’m no expert on the situation but, like most people, I watch the news and read the newspapers to remain au fait with what’s happening, and it would seem that an awful lot of things have to fall into place in order for Kerry and, indeed, Ireland to be able to salvage something from the 2020 golf tourism season.

I spoke with John Eggleston, General Manager of Ballybunion Golf Club, on Monday who said: “We are still hopeful that something might happen yet and that we can salvage some of our season towards the end of August or early September, however forlorn that is. We’ve had a lot of our American clients who have re-scheduled for later in the year and have indicated that they are still willing to come, provided of course that (a) they are allowed into the country and (b) services will be in place to accommodate them, ie, hotels, bars and restaurants open.”

John is hopeful that some Irish golfers might also like to come and play not just Ballybunion, but the courses in Kerry, and thinks that maybe steps will be taken to attract them. On salvaging some of this season he said: “Ballybunion was due to close to green fees from October 9th but will now extend that date by two weeks if the demand is there, in the hope that things might have returned to normal by then and visitors will still be willing to come that late in the year.

“The vast majority of our 2020 bookings are happy to re-schedule, some for later this year, many for next year, and some for two or three years down the road, they have been very understanding. However, we have not given up yet on seeing some of them later this year. Of course, in order for this to happen a lot of things will have to change and restrictions will have to be lifted when it’s safe to do so, but there’s a long way to go yet and a lot can happen in a relatively short time.”

Let’s all hope that things can return to normal as soon as possible and for that we can all play our part by obeying the regulations.