A Tweet from Caroline Lucas MP

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

It all about perception.
When this is over people living near to a golf club who took a snooty view of locals exercising during a major crisis will take a totally different view of the membership than clubs who do not but barriers in place.
This was witnessed in the 1976 drought when some golf clubs continued to water their greens whilst local residents had their water cut off for long parts of the day.
Clubs only stopped watering when they were threatened with having their greens dug up and resentment to some of those clubs continued for years.

Exactly! And from a golf club perspective a very important reason for us not continuing to enjoy our recreational pursuit when everyone else has had theirs stopped. It would be such bad optics and simply reinforce a view held by many non-golfers that golfers and members of private clubs are just privileged middle class t***s.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

I think you answered your own question in that post.
I am not saying that clubs should give permission, just that they do not stop people accessing their empty course for a short period of time during a national crisis.
They can post a notice as 'Do so at their own risk' sign if they wish. This applies to permissive footpaths in England and Wales.
I managed quite a lot of clubs in my time private and public and always tried to include the non golfing users in my plans. Work with the people not against them.
Aggressive attitudes towards neighbouring non golfers is never a good idea. Your club generally ends up with more insurance claims against the golfers that way.