Final update: Let there be barebones golf

Writing from Chicago

Friday, April 24, 2020

Updated 6 p.m. 

The Year of the Pandemic took a slight turn for the better on Thursday, when the fine print in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest sheltering order included the lifting of the prohibition against golf, effective Friday, May 1.

In other words, you have a week to get your game in shape.

And to get yourself in shape. Riding a cart is out, though no reason was given in the guidelines issued Friday afternoon by the Illinois Department of Commerce.

There’s more. The 33-point guidelines include the expected prohibitions on clubhouse access, indoor dining – take-away food only, and no chairs or benches to sit down and eat – and using bunker rakes or removing the flagstick. (Who knew the USGA and R&A were ahead of their time when they brought back the flagstick-in rule last year?)

The big surprise is the limitation to twosomes. The prohibition on foursomes, coupled with tee times only every 15 minutes, will put a crimp in whatever revenue courses already crippled by closure for over a month will be able to bring in. Only eight players an hour instead of 20 – foursomes with 12-minute tee times, which was half-expected – and walking instead of riding may make some courses decide it isn’t worth opening at all.

In Wisconsin, where courses were allowed to reopen on Friday, and Indiana, where there was no closure, foursomes are allowed, as well as carts.

Play will be by advance reservation and payment only. At least in theory, you won’t be able to walk up and pay cash to play.

Other restrictions include:

• Closing of practice areas. No range balls, no practice green.

• Players will have to bring their own pull cart. Courses won’t be allowed to rent theirs, part of the limitation on contact points.

• There will be no bunker rakes or ball washers. Drinking fountains will be turned off.

• The cup will be elevated. Hit the raised liner, and you’ve holed out.

• Courses won’t be allowed to sell balls or tees. Or anything else but a green fee.

• Private clubs, and those few courses where they’re used, won’t be able to have caddies. If that lasts for more than a month or two, it’ll have large ramifications for private clubs – and the caddies who earn good money toting the bags of the well-off.

This will, at least at first, be barebones golf. But it will be golf.

“We just kept trying to point out that golf is an activity that can be played outdoors with natural social distancing, and it should be classified as an outdoor activity, not as a non-essential business,” said Robert Markionni, executive director of the Chicago District Golf Association, and one of the state’s golf leaders who lobbied the governor’s office to reopen courses, which were closed on March 19 after about two days of allowed play after the first stay-at-home order to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus was issued.

“That was the baseline argument,” Markionni added. “Then the ancillary arguments: It is exercise. It is a step back to normalcy for those who play the game. We all want to do stuff that we were doing before. If you can go out and play golf, I don’t care if it’s three holes or six holes or nine holes, you’re bringing something back in, giving people an opportunity to do something. And a million people in this state are golfers.

“We weren’t trying to say golf should be treated special. We were just trying to simply say golf should be part of the solution and really isn’t part of the problem.”

Carrie Williams, executive director of the Illinois PGA and co-leader with Markionni of the effort to restart the game, noted adherence to the guidelines will be critical.

“It is our hope that anyone violating the guidelines would be penalized on a facility-by-facility basis,” Williams said. “But it is our concern that if there are multiple violators or infractions, that golf could be taken off the table for all.”

In Indiana, where it’s supposed to be one to a motor cart unless it’s family members riding together, there’s been at least one report of that dictum being violated.

Williams said it was her understanding the twosome rule was crafted to match the twosome guideline for boating and hunting, two other outdoor recreation activities that will be allowed beginning May 1.

“We provided our thoughts, and we knew it would be vetted by their medical team,” Williams said.

Pritzker’s announcement on Thursday was coupled by the extension of the general stay-at-home order for another month, through the end of May.

“It’s monumental,” Williams said of the state allowing golf while the stay-at-home order was extended.

As yet unknown: Whether the municipal courses controlled by the Cook County Forest Preserve District and city of Chicago will open. On Friday, the websites associated with those courses still said “temporarily closed.”

In general, expect the privately-owned courses, including Cog Hill, Makray Memorial and Mistwood, to be open on May 1. The same will be true of Canal Shores, which had been operating before the shutdown.

The reopening will throw a lifeline to the private layouts, all of which depend on a steady revenue stream to stay alive. Losing play in March and April, typically poor weather months, was painful, but every day in May brings with it the prospect of better weather, and to be closes would mean revenue never to be recovered.

The CDGA and Illinois PGA, along with groups downstate, had been lobbying Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office to bring the game back, noting the social distancing part of the game would take care of itself. How much their argument carried weight with the decision-makers is unknown, but the continual drumbeat from the general public couldn’t have hurt. Golf was coming up in Pritzker’s news conferences in recent days.

The revised stay-at-home order announced Thursday carries with it a caveat. Should there be a spike in infections, everything being opened, golf courses and some state parks included, could be closed down. The same may be true if potential spot checks show courses or areas around clubhouses are overcrowded. Golfers are – as they are filling out their scorecards – on the honor system.

That sounds like something everyone can handle.

– Tim Cronin

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We’ll have a full report on the success of the argument to open golf courses in the season-opening May issue of Illinois Golfer, available on this website next week.