Clubs still face hazardous futures
So golf can be played from next Tuesday. But will it? Level three offers golf clubs a poisoned chalice, of added costs and virtually no income.
Golf clubs can be opened under a variety of Covid-19 restricting safety measures, the Government said yesterday.
But the measures imposed will cost golf clubs both time and money, at a time there is very little money.
Playing in your ‘‘bubble’’ or alone, will thin numbers on a golf course wildly – a four is the usual group configuration.
Clubrooms must remain closed. So there will be no bar intake.
And pro shops must remain closed. So there will be no sales of clubs, balls, drinks, sunblock or even tees.
Equipment hire – clubs, carts, trundlers – is out of bounds as well. No money to be made there.
Even with income, many of New Zealand’s 390 clubs struggled to make ends meet before the virus teed off here.
Golf clubs also survive on a mix of volunteer labour, member donations, hosting corporate days, tournaments, travelling golfers, even hosting conferences or weddings. Mostly gone.
Some of the more prestigious urban clubs are well heeled, but those in small rural towns from Houhora in the Far North to Stewart Island in the south have less to come and go on.
Now, if there is to be golf, sanitisation will have to rule. A golf course is about 6km long, with items all along the way that an errant golfer might touch.
Without golfers wandering too
Major sports bodies – including New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Netball – are looking at options of how the competitions might run within current health guidelines. Football New Zealand is also awaiting guidelines as contact sport is ruled out at level three which comes into effect on Tuesday.
‘‘Sport New Zealand has been far off line, items like gates, seats, flags, holes will have to be sanitised – often. Holes are a particular trap, as every golfer must use them 18 times a round.
Under the level three rules, clubs must contact trace everyone who steps on the course. Another cost. Golfers must play only with mass gatherings.
‘‘If there is professional sport to be played, it will be largely at empty stadiums,’’ Robertson said.
Sport New Zealand CEO Peter Miskimmin was ‘‘encouraged’’ by the amount of work sports bodies have put in to get the pro-sport leagues going. But he said the competitions won’t happen if guidelines aren’t met. others in their bubble.
They must not congregate, nor walk within two metres of another golfer not in their bubble.
Maintaining courses under Covid-19 restrictions was already problematic for clubs.
Doing that and more to accommodate a few golfers might community sport.
‘‘A major focus for us is making sure that New Zealanders can be physically active at this time and they can get back to the act of recreation and sporting interests as we move through the levels,’’ he said.
New Zealand Rugby said in an email to that it was promising to hear the Robertson’s words and the be too onerous for a lot of clubs.
Karori Golf Club on the outskirts of Wellington opted to remain closed, even before yesterday’s announcement. Part of the reason was to allow the greens more time to recover for a period where greenkeepers could not tend them. The other part was due to the return to play.
Football New Zealand CEO Andrew Pragnell is expecting a decision from the Government about level two in the next week or so.
All football has been put on hold until at least Queen’s Birthday weekend, and the season will be reshaped if football does get the goahead.
many restrictions that would need to be managed.
Conversely, across town in Lower Hutt, Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club will be all go for members from Tuesday, at 7.30am.
General manager Amy Sidford said she was awaiting the final restrictions, but tables, chairs, rubbish bin, flags has all been removed to lower the risk. There would be a starter, and random course checks.
‘‘We’ve taken the stance to look after our members,’’ she told ‘‘They’ve shown us loyalty to stay as members [through the lockdown] and we want to look after them in the first instance.’’
Whatever, a return to level three is not golfing nirvana.
Club committees across the country will have to examine their finances, crunch the numbers then decide whether to open their gates.
And if they do open their gates, they’d better sanitise them afterward.