Bethpage Red opened on schedule April 1. Timber Point reopened April 1 after pushing back the start date -- walking only.
I don't really know whether golf is a safe activity or not.(and isn't really important to this comment)
I happen to think it is-in the right circumstances following the prescribed social distancing practices, and assuming there is NO face to face contact for employees. No range, no check in(online payment only) This requires a leap of faith in customers acting appropriately-the real fly in the ointment. More practical in a private club setting where fees aren't being collected, but its the publics that are the ones staying open, often with human contact.
All of that said, this really highlights the complete lack of consistency in strategies for fighting this virus, and how many may need to be reconsidered-especially as/if we ever get on the decline of this.
Here you have courses all over the world and country closed and yet, in the epicenter of the virus, New York, state and County owned golf courses are open.
If NYC golf courses can be open, couldn't a roofer, working alone, be allowed to work? Many roofers are working on...leaky roofs-pretty essential.
If I were struggling to make rent in a "non" essential business that I deemed I could operate safely, I would be quite resentful of people playing golf 6 feet apart.
My point is we have so many businesses walking the line of what is essential and none of it actually is-but at some point, certainly on the backside of this, we need to figure out what is actually essential and more importantly safe.
There are plenty of perfectly safe activities that are banned, yet people are playing golf in the epicenter of this, and God forbid our lawns(landscaping deemed essential) go a week without someone mowing them ,arriving 4 at a time in a truck.
Which is it?