Golf Courses Proceed with Caution

Golf courses, with a slew of safeguards, provide a valued outlet amid COVID-19.

By Andy Bigford

WARNING: Given the fluid nature of the coronavirus and related orders, the following information could change before and after you read this.

IN LATE MARCH, Mitch Galnick, the hands-on GM and owner of Lake Valley Golf Club north of Boulder, had just navigated the most stressful, chaotic 36-hour period in his 20 years of stewardship when he was suddenly stopped in his tracks. In this COVID-19 climate, Galnick’s first order of business was ensuring the safety of his staff and members, and then assuring Lake Valley could adhere to both the spirit and the letter of the law in providing basic golf. He spent hours on the phone with the Boulder County health department, the county and state attorneys general offices, and fellow course operators up and down the Front Range; he also held staff meetings to hear from employees. On March 26, Boulder County enacted a stay-at-home order that prohibited golf. Then on March 27, Gov. Jared Polis’ statewide order reversed that, allowing the activity under increased restrictions, and Lake Valley re-opened the next day.

After long hours of keeping tabs on the reopened course, Galnick was catching up on emails, mostly coming from extremely appreciative members.

Then an unfamiliar address popped up. A doctor at the local hospital, a nongolfer who happened to live on the course, was expressing his dismay, in no uncertain terms, at the scene he encountered when arriving home after a long day, during which his colleagues were battling on the life-and-death front lines of the coronavirus.

“I understood his perspective, and I agreed 100 percent,” recounts Galnick. “We disagreed on what role golf should play.”

Course operators and golfers are engaged in a two-front challenge, keeping it just as safe as other outdoor activities like hiking or biking, and also fighting off naysayers. Critics, while in a minority, have been vocal, including headlines like: “Golf, guns and ganja are essential services?”

Even as many Colorado golf courses record 200-plus rounds on busy days, there exists a faction of golfers who believe they should be closed. One member of a foursome texted this to his regular partners: “Apparently, no one is concerned about being exposed and bringing it home except my wife,  daughters  and  myself?”  A  National Golf Foundation poll of 520 golfers on the subject aligned by age: 67 percent from 18 to 34 said they should play, while among those 65 and over, 55 percent supported closures.

As of mid-April, 15 states had banned golf. That includes much of the Midwest and New England, where pent-up demand is extremely high after a long winter, and California, home to the second-most courses in the United States. The state with the most—Florida—has prohibited it in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The National Golf Foundation reported in the week of March 27 that 74 percent of the “inseason” golf courses in the country were open. But by mid-April, when the survey parameters were broadened to include all courses, the number had dropped to 48 percent.

Michigan, which has the fourth most courses in the country, banned the activity in March, much to the dismay of golfers waking up from a long winter. Their collective angst triggered this controversial Tweet from Michigan’s attorney general: “I just can’t hear about one more black healthcare worker, police officer or bus driver die while getting a barrage of complaints from white folks outraged because they can’t go golfing.” That itself brought immediate blowback, with a Detroit newspaper condemning her for turning a pandemic into a racial issue.

For those who are relying on golf to maintain health and sanity, its role can’t be overstated. “Golf might be our salvation in these confined times,” wrote a patron of Firestone’s Saddleback Golf Club on its Facebook page. “We’ve made it as safe here as walking on a trail,” adds Saddleback owner Lanna O’Malley.

DAILY-FEE IN-STATE

Most of the state’s municipal facilities, roughly  80 golf courses or a third of the total, closed in late March (or weren’t yet open). Of the remaining 156 courses that are private or daily fee, the vast majority that are “in-season” are open for business with considerable restrictions—and are often seeing full tee sheets. Most follow these guidelines: don’t play if you are sick; online tee times, payments and check-ins; no carts (or, in some cases, single riders with sanitization after each use); no pull carts; no range (or a hands-free process to pick and distribute); pro shops and clubhouses locked (but takeout available curbside); virtual scorecards; no water coolers, rakes or sand-seed bottles; and pins turned upside down or raised. Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen increased tee-time spacing to 15 minutes.

Locals have already petitioned cities such as in Longmont to re-open their courses, but those pleas have fallen on deaf ears to date. Government facilities have deeper pockets to survive the shutdown, want to allocate resources to “more essential city services” and also shoulder a higher potential liability.

At all-are-welcome Saddleback, the restaurant wait staff has been transformed into a cart-sanitization crew as owners Lanna and Whitey O’Malley attempt to keep their workers on the payroll. At the same time, course operators are working to stay afloat through the pandemic. April is typically the first profitable month after a long, slow winter for Colorado golf courses, when cash reserves are drained. Even by maintaining basic golf, owners are still losing the roughly 50 percent of revenue that would come from food and beverage, carts, retail, events and weddings. Ed Mate, the executive director of the Colorado Golf Association, is fond of saying that the shoulder months of April and October must click if a course is to have a great season.

Critical to long-term health, maintenance staffs will continue to maintain the roughly 20,000 acres of golf turf at the 240-plus state courses regardless of any tighter restrictions to come, thanks to the work of the Colorado Golf Coalition (composed of groups representing golfers, club managers, PGA professionals and greenskeepers). Grass that is not regularly cut presents a problem, and this maintenance exception has, in general, been approved nationwide. Savvy operators hope to take advantage of the Paycheck Protection Plan included in the initial $2.2 trillion relief package passed by Congress; it covers revenue shortfalls if owners can maintain their payrolls.

Saddleback has limited its practice range to tee-time holders only (who get free use), extended the width of bays to 20 feet, and is using a handless system to pick and then pyramid the balls, which guests don’t need to touch unless they tee one up. Amid the budgetary hits and the loss of the wedding business (some as late as September have been canceled, but the club still has a few bookings as early as June), O’Malley seems most bothered about being sterile 24/7.

“I don’t like telling my customers to hang up and go online to make a tee time,” she says of Saddleback, where the tagline is “We are not normal” and the entire business is based foremost on customer interaction.

There is a six-foot line around the starter’s shack at Erie’s Colorado National, one of five courses under the Southwest Greens banner. At CommonGround in Aurora, the course was closed for a week even after Gov. Polis’ order superseded local closures. Only after meticulous review did it reopen on April 4, with a request that players commute to the course alone, arrive no more than 15 minutes before their tee time, and walk only.

ON THE PRIVATE SIDE

Private clubs, with their finite memberships and established communication lines, were perhaps best equipped to adjust. “Ironically, in the long run I think it’s going be good for golf, and private clubs in particular,” says Michael Larson, the GM at Boulder Country Club. “Golf brings people together. They want to take care of the staff and each other. We’re in this together. Everyone realizes the value of a club membership in getting together. How do you put a value on that?”

In the days after the stay-at-home order, BCC became a mini-grocery store, even selling toilet paper (six-roll limit) to members, and it also donated meals to Boulder Community Hospital. Like others, BCC had closed in the wake of the local health department orders, but reconsidered after the governor’s order. The club held three board meetings in one day and decided to reopen. “The majority of members said, ‘Thank god.’

The mental part of golf is every bit as important as the physical,” Larson says. Meanwhile, golf tournaments that include a social component, like member-guests, will likely be postponed or canceled in the short term, but ladder bracket events might go on pending further positive developments in flattening the curve. Then again, statewide backsliding could put courses back in jeopardy of closing again.

A MOUNTAIN TAIL?

Colorado’s mountain courses, which typically begin to open in April, could have a longer tail in their return. Eagle County, home to Vail and a bounty of some 10 golf courses, was one of the state’s coronavirus hot spots due to its national and international visitation during the truncated spring ski season. The county closed all courses until April 30, pending further developments. Gypsum Creek (formerly Cotton Ranch) opened for three days in March but was closed by the town.

The private Country Club of the Rockies is planning to open May 1 with myriad restrictions, including no guests (not uncommon at private clubs). Courses with out-of-state members who travel in for the summer season also face possible quarantines; one club in the Upper Midwest has already requested that all incoming members shelter-in-place for two weeks upon arrival.

Alice Plain, the PGA director of golf for the municipal Vail Golf Club in East Vail, remains optimistic but she is already seeing impacts, including a hit to wedding business at the course’s scenic clubhouse/event center. She canceled 90 percent of the orders for the retail shop, but is hopeful the pandemic will be somewhat in the rearview mirror by July, when the Vail Valley courses are busiest.

WILL GOLF REBOUND?

The loss of green-grass demos delivered a devastating blow to the traditional spring release of new golf club technology. The big chains, like Golf Galaxy and PGA TOUR Superstore, are offering curbside, contactless service at their locations, and even interactive online opportunities for club selection. But pent-up demand is expected to soar when things return to normal, and the NGF is predicting golf will not be hit as hard and will recover more quickly than many other segments.

Destination golf travel is already seeing severe impacts and is bracing for more. Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast shut down voluntarily, as few people are thinking about flying, much less organizing a buddy trip in this climate.

To play or not to play is a personal choice, and either decision is valid. When the proper precautions are rigidly followed, with a few dozen people spread out over 100 acres, thousands of golfers are reporting that golf’s therapeutic benefits—health and sanity—far surpass those of any other activity. If you agree, check in regularly with your local course before heading out, hold your head high (except when addressing the ball), settle your Nassaus via Venmo, and be extra careful out there. And be prepared for the new normal.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever shake hands again,” says the CGA’s Mate.

Contributor Andy Bigford admits golf has provided him an invaluable outlet in social distancing and surviving this unprecedented pandemic.

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This article was also featured in the May 2020 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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