From greenkeepers to gatekeepers
Golf clubs have been warned to be on alert for players trying to get around the Government’s Covid-19 regulations when play resumes on the nation’s courses tomorrow.
Golf and tennis will be the first sports to emerge from level four lockdown, with stir-crazy golfers set to tee off early tomorrow morning.
But no longer will it simply be a matter of turn up and tee off. Clubs will be like a grassy Fort Knox under level three, with some using gate attendants to monitor who is arriving at their course.
Clubs must provide an on-line booking system that enables a track trace, gatekeepers will match arrivals with the booking sheet. They have been warned that the Government interpretation of what their playing ‘‘bubble’’ is, will rule.
In a letter to clubs in the capital, Wellington Golf operations manager Steve Weir has warned players would try to apply their own interpretations to what their bubble is.
The Government definition ‘‘keep
Wellington Golf
your bubble as small as possible. If you need to, you can expand your bubble a small amount to bring in close family, isolated people or caregivers’’, applied to golf.
Players could not create a ‘‘golf bubble’’, and clubs will have to monitor that. Minister of Sport Grant Robertson has said: ‘‘If you are looking for a loophole or to apply your own interpretation, then it’s not allowed’’.
NZ Golf chief executive Dean Murphy said he had checked the booking processes of several clubs, as reopening day loomed.
‘‘What I have seen from the booking sheets is they are following the guidelines, which is what we expected,’’ he told Stuff.
Wellington boss Weir said, as with the general lockdown, trust would be central to how well precautions worked.
‘‘Trust is everything, this [pandemic] is without precedence,’’ he said. ‘‘The trust is clearly with the individuals, and the clubs.’’
Clubs have been give a 20-point list of additional tasks and regulation.
There will be no scorecards, no score entry system, no flags. Clubrooms must remain closed, as will pro shops. Equipment hire is banned.
It will be golf, but not as we know it.
‘‘Trust is everything . . . the trust is clearly with the individuals, and the clubs.’’
Steve Weir