Writing this column in the garden of my house in Wales on a brisk spring afternoon, I can understand why golfers increasingly want to be allowed to return to golf. The sun is shining, and one can feel unseasonably warm, when out of the wind. The sky is blue and cloudless. The normal hum of distant traffic is absent and in its place is birdsong. It would be the perfect weather for golf – if the current lockdown rules in force in the United Kingdom were not in force.
The clubhouse at my club is not open, so there is no temptation to sneak in for a quick coffee before going out to play, nor to stay after a game to have a drink. It is not difficult to change one’s shoes in the club car park and walk straight to the first tee. No touching the flagsticks or holes and abiding by social distancing and staying at least 6 feet from one’s playing partner. None of that is difficult. Surely, surely, the time has come to allow golf in the age of the coronavirus.
Golfers anxious to get out to start playing again received support from an unusual quarter recently. Three members of parliament, one a former deputy prime minister, joined the chorus and golfers thought that these extra voices might allow them to pick up their clubs and go and play once more.
“Let’s open golf courses to the public (there are 300,000 acres of them across the UK) and give people more room to walk and run,” Caroline Lucas, Green Party Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion, said recently. She backed an online petition that said: “Don’t close parks – open up golf courses so there’s more space to exercise safely.”
Helen Hayes, the Labour party’s member for Dulwich and West Norwood, said: “Access to open space is vital for maintaining our physical and mental health at this very difficult time. In order to alleviate pressure on our parks and help make sure they stay open, I’d encourage any organisation with a large area of private open space to consider opening it up to the public … it would be really great to see golf courses and sports clubs opening up their grounds too.”
This view was echoed by Harriet Harman, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham and a former deputy leader of the Labour party: “All who own large green space in our crowded city centre should share them with those locked down in flats.”
These were heartening words for golfers anxious to resume playing again who pointed to the reopening of clubs in Australia and the situation at The Villages, a senior citizen community north of Orlando, Fla., where the average age of the population is probably in the 70s. There, bowling, tennis, swimming, softball, pickleball are all forbidden, but golf is not because it is considered to be an essential activity.
The trouble is there is some misinterpretation going on here. The golfers want the courses open for play. The MPs want the courses to be opened for people to walk on them – members of the public, non-members, friends, dogs.
It is hard to imagine a private golf club where members pay thousands of pounds in annual subscriptions allowing anyone, whether golfers or not, to walk over their course. “We would not entertain having any Tom, Dick or Harry running around our golf course, that’s for sure,” Steve Bootes, general manager of the Sittingbourne and Milton Regis Golf Club, said. “The members pay a lot of money for the upkeep of the place and to have people running around it would just be a mockery to be honest. I don’t think us, as a private members’ club, would be interested in allowing it to be opened up to the general public for that.”
The scenario as outlined by Bootes soon came to pass. Lochwinnoch Golf Club near Glasgow in Scotland said that day trippers have visited the course and created a mess on it. A club in Ipswich in England said people were picnicking and sunbathing on the course, which is contrary to government advice.
The Senior British Open, sponsored by Rolex and due to be held at Sunningdale in July, has just been postponed. My own club, the blessed Royal Porthcawl in Wales on the edge of the Bristol Channel, has had its gates locked for nearly one month. This has led to members exchanging videos about golf, some poking fun at golfers – an Australian comedian was particularly funny – but more often demonstrating feats such as a golfer holing a long curling putt that had travelled down a 9-inch-wide avenue of bottles. One golfer posted a photo of a golf net he had erected in his garden with a row of chairs facing it. “Obviously not used to hitting a golf ball without a crowd,” the caption read.
Ian Finnis, Tommy Fleetwood’s caddie, has been fundraising for other caddies who are not so well off as he is. Billy Foster, currently working as a caddie for Matthew Fitzpatrick, is selling some of his memorabilia to give money to the National Health Service.
Numerous podcasts have sprung up. Giles Morgan, once of HSBC bank, has begun one called “The Captain’s Table,” which is a reference to Captain Morgan, the pirate. Eddie Pepperell, the whimsical English pro, is involved in one with the broadcaster Andrew Cotter, and as podcasts go The Pepperell Podcast is very good.
And now there are signs from continental Europe that though France have extended their lockdown until at least the second week in May, Italy, Spain and also Austria are slowly easing their restrictions.
For some, it may already be too late. This gruelling economic climate and COVID-19 virus will shrivel some golf clubs, maybe to death. Brora, in the north of Scotland, is a Mona Lisa of a golf course, “ … where golfers share a precious piece of territory with a hundred or so woolly sheep,” Peter Thomson, the great Australian who won five Opens, has said. “ … I pray it will continue and last as long as the world.” Sadly, it might not. It is said to be on its deathbed.
I can’t guarantee that doing one or all these tasks will compensate for a game of golf, but they might help.
Founded in 1786, Crail Golfing Links in Fife near St Andrews is the seventh-oldest golf club in the world and attracts considerable numbers and revenue from visitors. “Normally we expect to take £500,000 in green fees between Easter and October,” David Roy, the club’s secretary manager, said. “That is one-third of our income. We anticipate getting none of that this year.” Many other famous courses in Scotland and Ireland where American tourists, flying in during the summer, often generate an income source far in excess of the length of their visit.
Last week I put my thinking cap on and came up with some suggestions as to what golfers could do during the wretched time when no golf can be played.
- Clean the golf clubs, iron by iron, gouging out the dirt between the grooves. Empty the pockets of your golf bag. Mine has six, which contain considerable golfing detritus from my recent life – for example my winter mittens, a stick of suncream, two pencils, a plastic device to mark my golf balls, a Sharpie, a stud tightener and an instruction manual, a battered and bent copy of the Rules of Golf, effective January 2016 and one ball marker.
- Another pocket reveals 24 white golf balls and one yellow one. Do I need to carry so many? Actually, yes. I do a lot of chipping practice at my golf club and use 15 at a time all bearing a thin blue line marked with my Sharpie that differentiates them from any others that might be lying on the practice green.
- Now your golf bag is empty, turn it upside down and be surprised at what falls out. In my case it was several blades of grass, two specks of mud and a leaf.
- Finally, return the gleaming irons and clubs to your bag, which is now not only cleaner but lighter. I put it near the front door of my house so as to be ready for the first opportunity to go and play, and as I do so I notice that it is leaning forward and the irons are pointing forwards. This reminds me of a gun dog, nose quivering, just waiting for the instruction to go and pick up a fallen prey.
I can’t guarantee that doing one or all these tasks will compensate for a game of golf, but they might help.
A friend currently living in the north of Scotland texted me this week à propos of another matter and ended by writing: “All the courses are closed up here. The Open has been canceled, Brora Golf Club has reached out to the world regarding its financial viability. Golspie and Tain are in worse shape but too proud to beg. Royal Dornoch has scrapped their new clubhouse plans and there is a growing unease that it could be years before the international (particularly American touring golfer) returns to the Highlands … What does our future look like?”
Indeed. What does the future of golf in the United Kingdom look like?
Royal St. George’s was due to host the Open Championship in July. Now, the Open is cancelled and the course is closed. Photo: David Cannon, Getty Images