The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Weather permitting, golfers out on courses
Lorain County seeing many new players with other entertainment options limited
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With many other entertainment venues still shut down until June 10, Lorain County’s golf courses have been a popular spot to get out during the novel coronavirus shutdown.
At Forest Hills Golf Course in Elyria, assistant golf professional Travis Porter says he’s seen plenty of new faces on the course, which opened April 24.
“I personally feel as if this has revitalized golf a little bit,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of new faces that I’ve never seen before. People that may have never golfed before, which you can definitely tell by how long they take.”
When the weather has cooperated, Porter says the course has seen large crowds as golfers look to get back into the swing of things. But, per usual, when the weather has been less-than-ideal the crowds have been almost nonexistent.
“If the weather was great, we were really busy,” Porter said. “But if the weather was marginal it was almost like nobody was out. Which is weird because people should have come out on the marginal days to stay away from the crazy crowds.”
Golfer Greg Perry of Parma was one of several golfers on the course June 6.
“People are a little farther apart than normal. But it’s a golf course so you really aren’t that close to begin with.”
— Greg Perry, golfer and Parma resident
Perry has been to several courses during the month that they have been open and says there hasn’t been too much of a change in the pace of play despite extra safety steps.
“We can’t go into the clubhouse, they’ve got plexiglass separating everyone in there and all of the bar seats are turned backwards, Perry said. “But outside of that it hasn’t been too different. People are a little farther apart than normal. But it’s a golf course so you really aren’t that close to begin with.”
Perry’s sentiment was echoed by Porter, who said outside of a few extra precautions, such as wiping down carts after every use, he hasn’t seen much of a change.
“People have been great so far. There have been some people who are more cautious than others,” Porter said. “They would rather pay outside, they would rather stay out of the building, but the reception has been good.”
In Avon at Bob-O-Link Golf Course, superintendent Bryan Fitch said he had to increase his staff to meet sanitation standards. Guidelines suggested that every golfer have their own cart, which Fitch admits
was difficult, both for the course and golfers to handle.
“Originally (the guidelines) had single carts for everyone. Which was difficult for us, trying to get that many carts through and making sure they were sanitized. So I had to up my staff a little bit,” Fitch said. “Most of the golfers have been very understanding of what was going on. They had some complaints, but once we explained what we were doing they seemed to be pretty happy with it.”
One casualty of said guidelines were golf outings, as Bob-O-Link was forced to cancel its June outings.
“We have not hosted an outing yet and we do quite a few over the summer,” he said. “We had to cancel all of our June outings just because until recently because of the social distancing guidelines they were almost impossible to have. They’ve lightened up a little bit, but we still haven’t done it.”
But much like Forest Hills in Elyria, the steady stream of golfers during a time where other forms of entertainment were unavailable has softened the blow.
“We have had a lot of open play as a result of that,” Fitch said. “We have seen a lot more families out, because this is pretty much the only game in town.”