‘Super to be back in swing of things’
BACK IN BUSINESS LOCAL CLUBS SEE FULL TIMESHEETS AS THEIR MEMBERS EMBRACE THE NEW NORMAL
CAROL Wickham must have felt a bit like a child entering a sweet shop as she pulled into the near-empty car park at Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club on the first day it reopened after lockdown.
Most of Ireland was probably still half-asleep that Monday morning when the former European Seniors Team champion stepped onto the first tee with Noeline Quirke and Patricia McAllister at the ungodly time of 7.28.
And by the end of their round Carol (pictured right) felt emboldened by the experience, convinced that golf with social distancing can work and still be enjoyable.
‘If you’d asked me during the eight weeks if I was missing it I would have said no because I did other things, but now it’s back I did miss it and it’s fantastic to be back,’ she reflected.
‘It’s a long time since I went eight weeks without playing - I love my golf socially, never mind competitively - but even during the lockdown I was able to cycle down to the club once a week because I live close to the Neptune Hotel, within the 2km zone. I know how lucky I was to have the course to go to, a haven.
‘I’m on the club’s Greens Committee and the head greenkeeper Stephen Hoey and the ground staff did fantastic maintenance work. We had very dry with spell strong coupled winds and it wass tough to keep it going.
‘For me it was fantastic to see the course coming back too its natural look. I was getting excited beforehand,, and it was like going back to my childhood playinging golf to see the lovely flowers growing, and with no people on the course there were no divots, things like that.
‘It was an absolute pleasure to be out early on Monday morning in those conditions.’
Safety, of course, remains paramount, and Carol has been impressed at how her sport has managed to adapt to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘The Golfing Union of Ireland and the Irish Ladies Golf Union have given fantastic information out to the clubs and have been emphasising the importance importance of social distancing distancing and how we ccan get back playing in these difficult times,’ she pointed out.
‘The first week people have been very good and trying their best. There’s no loitering around and the rules for the first phase are that you’re only allowed to go down 15 minutes ahead of your [tee] time. You check in at the pro shop and then go straight to the tee.
‘Groups go out at 14-minute intervals - as things go on that will be tightened up - and it’s like you’re on your own because you don’t catch up with the group ahead and the group behind don’t catch up with you.
‘The club got these new gadgets, hands-free ball lifters which are attached to the flag, and you’d hardly notice them. But these days we have to think outside the box.
‘There’s no rubbish bins on the course, so you have to bring everything with you, which is proper order.
‘We do have a takeaway service at the club, but you don’t hang around. You pick up what you want after your round and then go straight back to your car. You are going to miss going up to the club for the social element because it’s a major part of golf, but we just have to take baby steps.
‘I miss the social engagement, but because I’m a golf addict it’s not the major part of it for me.’
All the while players have to be wary of the two-metre rule, even around the wide-open spaces of the golf course.
‘You do have to remind yourself to social-distance,’ agreed Carol, ‘and these three weeks until June 8th (Phase 2) are a way of educating us on how we are going to play golf going forward. You want to make sure that everyone gets the same courtesy with regard to social distancing that you got.
‘But I was so pleased to be out and I hope people’s appreciation of it lasts because this whole thing rests with people abiding by the guidelines. It’s like training for all us as members to buy into all that and change our behaviours, and it’s all common sense.
‘If we adapt to the rules we can all have golf without it being taken back off us. What I would hate to see would be if we went backwards.’
Carol still plays off 1 - for any non-golfer out there that means she’s one of the best in the business - and while disappointed that most major tournaments have been cancelled for the year, she has one eye on the Irish Seniors Strokeplay Championship which is currently still going ahead in early September at Tullamore Golf Club.
That leaves plenty of time to work on her game, and that fact prompts Carol to reflect on one unexpected advantage of the current Covid-19 restrictions.
‘The first day out I was very rusty and there was a lot of movement in the swing. The second day was better, but because of social golf we went round in three hours 15 minutes the first day and three hours the second day.
‘What a treat to be able to play a round of golf in that time!’