[Colin Macqueen]

MKrohn,
You are correct! Not only technically, but in fact, Victoria is not  a country but an Australian state (no state rivalry here!). The way that a goodly number of Australian residents view the banning of golf in Victoria is that the Premier Daniel Andrews is somewhat of  a megalomaniac! I'm not sure but I suspect he has never played golf and had no idea regarding the ease with which social distancing can be enacted on a golf hole. When was the last time a member of a foursome's golfball was within 1.5 metres of one another other than on the green! Anyway, hopefully, tomorrow the 11th. will see his draconian, poorly considered and blanket approach to golfing relaxed. I am a wee bit strident as the golfing crew has been poorly treated in Victoria in my 'umble opinion.
Cheers Colin

[Thomas Dai]

Noticeable that the Leaders of both the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments have made statements prior to the one the Westminster PM is apparently going to be making later today. Some might be inclined to think the Nationalists are trying to make devolution related political capital out of a serious health issue. Others might think differently though.
As to borders, it’s surprising how many UK/NI course are within 5km or the mileage equivalent of the ‘borders’ between ROI-NI, Eng-Scot and Eng-Wales. One course even has holes on both sides of the ‘border’. And of course some folks live/work/are members of a club on opposite sides of the ‘borders’.
Strange times. Stay safe.
Atb

[Mark Pearce]

Some might be inclined to think the Nationalists are trying to make devolution related political capital out of a serious health issue. Others might think differently though.

Count me as an "other" then.  The way Westminster is handling this is at best a shambles.  Policy now seems to be driven not by what is right but what makes Boris look least stupid for his outburst at PMQs midweek.  Not a sound basis for policy making.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I agree Jeff.
All that will do is increase traffic to the parts of the country that are already the busiest.
Those golf courses will be fully booked while others remain quiet and unable to offer a safe place to exercise and get some fresh air.

No, the point of the travel radius restrictions was for the mathematicians and scientists to be able to contain and understand clusters of the disease. It has nothing to do with golf. People are not allowed to move out of their locale exactly to stop travel.


With regards to golf, this will mean some golf courses are busy and some are almost empty for a while. It’s members only. That’s hard luck on me for three extra weeks and it’ll be hard luck on some others for longer than that. So be it. I’d rather that than free movement of people and an inability to understand where it is coming from.


As an aside, what I find hard to believe is the lack of experimentation that all governments are bringing to their approach of finding out how the virus moves and what helps slow it.


For example, it’s a blanket approach of “will we wear a mask or not”. They should be isolating different techniques in different areas by only changing one variable to get an understanding of how much effect that variable is having. My tuppence.

[John Kavanaugh]

I’ve golfed a couple of times now and you may as well grab a few buds and French kiss each other in a dry hot tub. You are going to get whatever anyone in your foursome has got. Choose your friends wisely.


Even worse. My wife is flying home to get her hair done. It’s good to have choices.

[John Kavanaugh]

On a more serious note we went out to eat last night and our waitress said she has been laid off for two months. She was thrilled to be back working. Something stinks when the people who scream the loudest about keeping the country closed are the very ones still pulling in the largest paychecks.

[MKrohn]

The way that a goodly number of Australian residents view the banning of golf in Victoria is that the Premier Daniel Andrews is somewhat of  a megalomaniac! I'm not sure but I suspect he has never played golf and had no idea regarding the ease with which social distancing can be enacted on a golf hole.

Rather than not knowing anything about golf, he could be on this forum, loves GCA apparently and he's a 10 marker at Kingston Heath. Unfortunately I think that is playing against Victorian golfers as he doesn't want to be seen to be helping his own.

[Colin Macqueen]

MKrohn,


Yep. Hmmmmm ...that would make sense for sure.


Cheers Colin

[Kalen Braley]

On a more serious note we went out to eat last night and our waitress said she has been laid off for two months. She was thrilled to be back working. Something stinks when the people who scream the loudest about keeping the country closed are the very ones still pulling in the largest paychecks.

Amen to that one John,


And the corollary to that where for some reason, most essential workers often earn the lowest wages...

[astavrides]

I’ve golfed a couple of times now and you may as well grab a few buds and French kiss each other in a dry hot tub. You are going to get whatever anyone in your foursome has got. Choose your friends wisely.

There's never been a better time to be a 'social misfit', as you once ungenerously called those of us who enjoy playing alone.

[Scott Warren]

MKrohn,
The way that a goodly number of Australian residents view the banning of golf in Victoria is that the Premier Daniel Andrews is somewhat of  a megalomaniac! I'm not sure but I suspect he has never played golf and had no idea regarding the ease with which social distancing can be enacted on a golf hole.

He is a member at Kingston Heath.

[Tony_Muldoon]

I didn't hear odays announcement but it looks like Golf is back, in the UK, but only for "Family Groups".  No distance restriction.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/uk-coronavirus-lockdown-what-has-boris-johnson-announced


Wonder if my wife will walk round with me ...for caddy rates?

[Ian Galbraith]

I don't think this will apply to Scotland just yet. Our trajectory seems somewhat lagging compared with most of England.


Not complaining - I think it is the right call from the Scottish Govt.  for now.

[Mark Pearce]

I didn't hear odays announcement but it looks like Golf is back, in the UK, but only for "Family Groups".  No distance restriction.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/uk-coronavirus-lockdown-what-has-boris-johnson-announced


Wonder if my wife will walk round with me ...for caddy rates?

You heard all the best bits, then.  I have never heard any form of public announcement before which has left me less clear what the speaker had meant to say. 

[James Reader]

I didn't hear odays announcement but it looks like Golf is back, in the UK, but only for "Family Groups".  No distance restriction.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/uk-coronavirus-lockdown-what-has-boris-johnson-announced


Wonder if my wife will walk round with me ...for caddy rates?

You heard all the best bits, then.  I have never heard any form of public announcement before which has left me less clear what the speaker had meant to say.

I can only conclude that the speaker wasn’t at all clear what he meant to say either Mark.  Unbelievable!

[Angus Moir]

Golf courses in England can open for singles play or with immediate household members only...R&A tweet tonight...but not in Wales,Scotland or N.I yet....

[Thomas Dai]

Reference golf in England reopening folks may wish to read -
EGU statement - https://www.englandgolf.org/response-from-uk-golf-bodies-to-prime-ministers-announcement/
R&A statement - https://www.randa.org/en/news/2020/05/uk-golf-and-the-coronavirus-group-statement
And here is a transcript of the PM’s statement - https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-address-to-the-nation-on-coronavirus-10-may-2020Atb

[Pete_Pittock]

I belong to two courses. The semi-private one just outside of town (10 miles away) town just upgraded to single rider power carts and rental carts. Course is in the suburbs as well as in a high covid county, and there seems to be fairly strict compliance with distancing, masks at check-in.  The other course I belong to is private, about 1:40 away on the Pacific coast. It is in a county with low covid cases, until 25+ at a seafood packing company tested positive. Although they had virtually the same restrictions as the course near Portland, my observation is there/their compliance was in the 50%-60 range.  They were closing beaches, upping prices at motels to keep the metro crowd from heading to their area for the weekend, but they are forgetting about themselves, which will be a big undoing.
Portland and Seaside/Astoria.


23 of Oregon's 36 counties have petitioned to reopen. The major population centers unlikely to change until June at the earliest.

[Pete Lavallee]

SD County opened on Friday 5-1. Temperature check on arrival, you must have a tee time, requested online. Masks around the clubhouse, no rakes or ball washers. We’ve been allowed to place in the bunkers. Several different types of cup appliances. Coronado has a plastic bottom the can bs lifted with a sleeve around the flag stick. Torrey is putting the cups in upside down. Singing Hills had a wooden doughnut to make the ball easy to retrieve.


Cart situation was pretty interesting. At first you needed a handicapped license plate to get a cart. After an uproar all golfers over 55 were allowed single rider carts last Monday. By Tuesday all players could rent a single rider cart.   American golfers do love their carts!


Varying levels of maintenance with most greens being a little slow with a higher cut. Torrey seems to have not applied Primo during the shut down with lots of Poa seed heads; haven’t seen that for quite a few years.


Sadly the 4 military course have yet to open.


Glad to just get back out on the course and get out of the house. I know my wife has enjoyed interacting with people other than me!

[Pete_Pittock]

both my courses have gone from raised cups that deflect balls to using foam inserts (Amcom?) that let the ball drop an inch or two.

[Pete Lavallee]

Ageeded, the current hole depth makes fishing the ball out a little tedious while leaving the flag in. The raised liners are to my mind a great improvement. Not a huge fan off the upside down cups. Much better than hitting a raised liner though.

[astavrides]

If the ball doesn't drop into the cup, but rather hits a cup that is above the surface of the ground, it doesn't seem like golf to me. If it glances off something, how do you know if it would've gone in or not? And it doesn't matter how fast it's going when it hits it. Maybe people are just happy to be on a golf course and hitting shots, but I wouldn't bother if I don't know if I made the putt or not. I've never seen it or tried it though. Maybe I'm missing something?

[John Kavanaugh]

We are using foam in the cup and I love it. The only ball that is counted as holed is one coming to rest in the hole.

[Peter Pallotta]

Can't we all just pull a Nicklaus instead, and keep our glove on while putting?

[Chris Kane]

Rather than not knowing anything about golf, he could be on this forum, loves GCA apparently and he's a 10 marker at Kingston Heath. Unfortunately I think that is playing against Victorian golfers as he doesn't want to be seen to be helping his own.

There might be something in that, but IMO the very public and personal attacks on the Premier from prominent golfers like Sam Newman (along the lines of what Colin wrote above) probably cost us several weeks. He couldn't back down in the face of that.

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