Covid Personal On Course Habits

[Peter Sayegh]

I know there is a Covid thread dedicated to course operations/openings/closures.
How has it impacted your round?

Walking more? Flag stick always in?

I ask because I recently joined a club for the first time. My first purchase was a lightweight bunker rake-just to show I care. Anyone else?
P.S. Don't want to rehash older threads on bunker conditions and play it as it lies ethics. Just curious. Thanks.

[Derek Holland]

It hasn't impacted my round much. I always carried and kept flag sticks in prior so that hasn't changed. I have not gone as far as to buy a rake and just tend to smooth out the bunker with my foot. Golf isn't really that different with or without COVID for me. I don't even mind the pool noodles 

[Rob Marshall]

Three courses I played in Naples last week all had no rakes in the bunkers and wanted the pins left in.

[Tom_Doak]

I saw a few places this fall in the midwest that had put rakes back into the bunkers.  I can't imagine carrying a rake around with me.  I was happy to just play the nasty lies in the bunkers, and/or let someone improve the lie if it was outrageous.


I saw many many different methods for keeping the ball going to the bottom of the cup.  The pool noodle seemed like the best of them.  There were a couple of contraptions I didn't like, including the very shallow cups at Crystal Downs . . . they just made it look like your ball would slide right over the hole instead of going in.  And I don't need any more negative mental images than I already have with my putter right now 



I've always walked and carried my bag so the pandemic didn't change anything for me there.  I actually played MORE "social golf" with fellow members of the Downs than normal, since we couldn't bring any guests.  It did not feel like we were endangering one another.

[Mark Smolens]

"I've always walked and carried my bag so the pandemic didn't change anything for me there.  I actually played MORE "social golf" with fellow members of the Downs than normal, since we couldn't bring any guests.  It did not feel like we were endangering one another."
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[James Reader]

I’m really not sure if I’ll go back to putting with the flag out when that becomes an option again.  If anything, I think my short putting might have improved with the fixed point of a flagstick to focus on.  It’s also definitely speeded the game up.


As for bunkers, I’m sure most courses didn’t have rakes when I started playing golf in the ‘80s.  I’m not misremembering am I?  The way some people talk, the idea that using your foot to smooth the worst of your divot and footprints should be sufficient is like something out of the 1800s, not the way many of us grew up playing golf (and I’m not that old!).

[Tim Martin]

I’m with Tom in that I won’t be carrying a rake any time soon. There was no adjustment required for the flag being always in as I was good with that pre virus. I did purchase a Cliqgear pushcart which was an added pleasure and also saw all kinds of contraptions to get the ball out the hole with some being better than others. Finally I didn’t play one round with a caddie all year and on the few occasions I took a cart because of heat I rode alone.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Leaving flagsticks in was a big change but many folks started going this way with the rule change on Jan 1, 2019. Here in the Toronto area most courses were using these lifter devices to get the ball out of the hole.  I could see those devices, perhaps built into flagsticks, being the new normal as it helps older golfers who can't bend over that readily.

[Niall C]

It sounds like I'm a bit of an outlier on this thread as I much prefer having the flag out for the mid to short putts. The long putts I like to have tended. The convention in most if not all the UK clubs I've played at is as a group walks onto the green the closest to the hole tends the pin and then the first to putt takes over once they have putted. Rather than take more time I think it brings a focus to deciding who's honour etc and therefore saves time. I was taught as part of the etiquette of the game when I was younger and I'd be sad if that disappeared.


Niall

[Ira Fishman]

I have always carried except in extreme heat. But I do stay further away from my playing partner. I have found that the absence of rakes a positive in terms of speeding up play. I have been quite surprised that despite the increase in rounds and new golfers that pace has improved generally.


Regarding flag sticks, anything inside four feet is a gimme except for birdie putts. But that has been my rule for the 15 years since I stopped keeping score.


Ira

[Wayne_Kozun]

It sounds like I'm a bit of an outlier on this thread as I much prefer having the flag out for the mid to short putts. The long putts I like to have tended. The convention in most if not all the UK clubs I've played at is as a group walks onto the green the closest to the hole tends the pin and then the first to putt takes over once they have putted. Rather than take more time I think it brings a focus to deciding who's honour etc and therefore saves time. I was taught as part of the etiquette of the game when I was younger and I'd be sad if that disappeared.

That was the convention here in Canada but that started to change last year with the 2019 rule changes and this year we were not supposed to touch the flagsticks.

[Thomas Dai]

Prior to C-19 my personal preference was always pin in (tended) on mid/longer putts. Since C-19 though pin in all the time and don’t touch it has been the norm whoever I’ve play with and wherever I’ve played.
One aspect of special donut inserts and ball retrieval mechanisms etc used during C-19 period has been that flagsticks are sometimes not perfectly centred and thus may not be sitting perfectly vertically in the centre of the hole. This can cause a ball that would otherwise likely have dropped into the hole to not to actually fall in. And as at many/most courses in the U.K. hole locations are not changed every day this can become worse over the period of a couple or few days. In addition this situation can be worsened in a strongish wind when flagsticks are likely to be blown slightly sideways and thus off-centre by the wind.
With regard to bunker rakes, these were removed from any course I’ve played months ago and haven’t been put back. The convention seems generally to be to lift and place within 6” any ball that goes into a sand bunker.
Course furniture, like benches and bins, have been removed or covered over in some obstructive way, ball-washers have been covered over and dropping away from hazard posts that in usual circumstances would otherwise be moveable is permitted. On-course toilets have been shut and drinking fountains covered over and the water supply turned off. I’m sure there are other measures that have been adopted as well. They’ll probably occur to me sometime soon.
Atb

[Tim Martin]

Unintended shadows and having your line stepped on are eliminated without anyone tending the pin. Occasionally you will catch a break on a long putt when a clanger hits the pin and slows it down.

[Rob Marshall]

After 7/1 clubs in my area  put the rakes back out, nothing in the cup, and you could remove the flag. A lot of players didn’t use the rakes. You could also share a cart. Last week in Florida at Royal Palm they had a piece of plastic separating the driver and the passenger in the carts. First time I’ve seen that.

[Sean_A]

I definitely dislike the pin in for trying to make putts. I have seen too many not drop because of the pin.

Still haven't seen a bunker rake. It's not been a big issue for social golf.

Clubhouses being closed has been by far the biggest hassle.

Ciao

[A.G._Crockett]

I was always a walker, and had been putting mostly with the pin in anyway, so for the most part my personal habits have changed little.
FWIW, I've seen exactly ONE course since March that had rakes, and that was also the only course I've played that didn't have something in the cup to prevent the ball from going to the bottom.  It was a tournament round, and I must say, it made me profoundly uncomfortable to handle rakes, etc.  I just didn't see any benefit to it, and even if the risk is low, it's still unnecessary.

[Steve Lang]

   Other than wearing a mask in the clubhouse, we hesitate to join others, there's lots and lots of twosomes out on our courses.   A self regulating distancing thing going on...


In tourneys, folks have option to request plastic separators if they're riding, I'll let other guy drive cart and carry my clubs, while i walk, and have alternated driving cart with one guy...


Not being a human vector is certainly most important habit, on course or off.

[John Kavanaugh]

I know there is a Covid thread dedicated to course operations/openings/closures.
How has it impacted your round?

Walking more? Flag stick always in?

I ask because I recently joined a club for the first time. My first purchase was a lightweight bunker rake-just to show I care. Anyone else?
P.S. Don't want to rehash older threads on bunker conditions and play it as it lies ethics. Just curious. Thanks.

A walker who carries his own rake is quite possibly the greatest member in the world. A word of caution: Your fellow walkers would hate you. If some nut job general manager would make this a requirement you would never get a game again.

[A.G._Crockett]

I should have added this as "personal" habits.

I have always played as much tournament golf as possible; local senior stuff, but I love it, and I had played as many as 30 events some years.  I decided early on this year, especially in fairness to my wife, that there were two things I just wouldn't do; no shotgun starts, and no riding with someone else.  If it wasn't tee times and either walking or solo carts, I just didn't play.  That reduced the number of events I played in by a huge amount, but I just wasn't comfortable with a bunch of guys around the range and putting green, or in a cart.

Fortunately, the Carolinas Golf Association adopted rules early on in 2020 that allowed walking, and they did NO shotgun starts all season, which was great.  Not so with the other organization I had always played in, so I just didn't sign up for those events.

[Dave Doxey]

I play in a large seniors group.  Age and health issues prevent quite a few from walking.  Sadly, over half of the scheduled courses refused to provide single-rider carts.  Many of us passed on those courses.  Demand seems sufficient for courses to operate with that position on carts, which obviously returns more profit.


I wonder about the future market for smaller, single-rider carts

[Ryan Van Culin]

Everything is pretty much back to normal at my club, with the exception of the pool noodles still being in the cups. Most golfers are leaving the flag in, I think mostly out of habit.


I am in the camp that prefers to have the flag out on "makeable" putts. I feel like it's probably psychological, but I just do what the group wants to do. I've had covid and they say I have the T cell immunity, so I don't mind touching the flagstick.


I have not encountered a course that has refused single rider carts to whomever asked for one. I would say the majority at my club still do single-rider, except on busy days.