Saturday Season Opener - Cancelled!

[Jacko_G]

Email tonight from the golf club saying that the season opener has been cancelled due to the Covid 19 virus.

They have decided that it is safer to cancel than risk spreading the infection.

Any other clubs done similar?

 

[Italian outcast]

No consolation - but ours in Italy have been cancelled for the past 3 weeks

Surprised about clubs in Scotland doing this so soon - especially as you can still go to the Old firm game

In Italy the guidance came from the Italian Golf Federation to all clubs in Lombardy initially - which clubs then had to follow
You could still play in bounce games - just not in organised competitions
Now all clubs seem to be closed (formally or informally)

It may run the same way in Scotland I guess on a case by case club by club basis

 

[KenL]

Email tonight from the golf club saying that the season opener has been cancelled due to the Covid 19 virus.

They have decided that it is safer to cancel than risk spreading the infection.

Any other clubs done similar?

Nightmare, where's the risk in an open air sport? Yes, ban hand shaking and even close the clubhouse but this is a step too far.

 

[Jacko_G]

Nightmare, where's the risk in an open air sport? Yes, ban hand shaking and even close the clubhouse but this is a step too far.

I'd suggest that the "risk" is within the clubhouse and changing areas. This is also a sit down meal affair after so close proximity contact would be inevitable. I suppose that they could just have cancelled the meal part but I assume that they suspect that golfers being golfers would still enter the bar and have a drink or bite to eat and risk spreading any germs onto others and more importantly staff who they rightly have a duty of care towards.

I'm not making excuses for the club but I do see their reasoning. Also we have shall we say a large proportion of "elderly" gentlemen who play.

We'll see how this develops over the next few weeks.

 

[Siolag]

Our committee (which I’m a member of) is currently having an email discussion. Cancelling our season opener in 2 weeks time hasn’t been mooted yet but I feel it’s inevitable.

 

[User20204]

This I don't get, fair enough shut the clubhouse down but the course seems a bit ott. Do they shut the course down totally, what happens if you just want 9 holes on your own, sorry closed !

 

[jamiet7682]

Madness, the government haven't felt the need to ban large gatherings on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer yet a golf club does it off its own back, based on nothing but media scaremongering.

 

[PJ87]

Madness, the government haven't felt the need to ban large gatherings on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer yet a golf club does it off its own back, based on nothing but media scaremongering.

To be fair. The golf world outside of the pro tour has a lot of people over 60 involved .. the at risk group so it has to think about possible deaths

 

[User20204]

Madness, the government haven't felt the need to ban large gatherings on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer yet a golf club does it off its own back, based on nothing but media scaremongering.

Personally I think the government have got things wrong, they should be closing schools etc and one thing is certain, it's NOT scaremongering

 

[jamiet7682]

If the media were reporting on the numbers of people who have recovered from it in equals measures to people who have died then i might agree with you but the reporting has been hugely focused on the negative (as usual), I suppose 121,000 people recover from coronavirus isnt as good a headline.

 

[PJ87]

If the media were reporting on the numbers of people who have recovered from it in equals measures to people who have died then i might agree with you but the reporting has been hugely focused on the negative (as usual), I suppose 121,000 people recover from coronavirus isnt as good a headline.

They are tho. They focusing very much on the death % being very low.

121,000 may not be a great headline but it also a bit pointless because it's not correct. So many have it. Recover and never know . Also it's not known yet if once you have it your immune. So it reality is they have to report this

It's an actual serious event not just a mild flu.

 

[jamiet7682]

I will be following the lead of the Chief Medical Officer, as everyone should. Cancelling a local golf competition does not fall in line with that guidance.

I would be keen to hear what they are basing that decision on? Do they have people on the committee more qualified than the Chief Medical Officer?

 

[ger147]

The 4 Chief Medical Officers in the UK are not politicians, they are scientists. I will continue to listen carefully to and follow their advice.

 

[Papas1982]

I will be following the lead of the Chief Medical Officer, as everyone should. Cancelling a local golf competition does not fall in line with that guidance.

I would be keen to hear what they are basing that decision on? Do they have people on the committee more qualified than the Chief Medical Officer?

Schools are full of healthy kids (low risk), golf clubs have large portions (no pun) of high risk members.
Maybe the club are best qualified to make a call on this scenario.

 

[jamiet7682]

The club have every right to make this decision, I am just questioning what it is based on? We have to assume that the Chief Medical Officer has access to the most up to date scientific findings on the outbreak and has issued the advice based on this. What information does a golf club committee have?

 

[RangeMonkey]

There is plenty of criticism of the governments response from the scientific community. The chief science advisor is a political appointment, so he isn’t completely scientifically independent. I think the chief medical officer is a medical appointment, not political.

I agree with the point that these people have better access to the latest scientific information than a golf club does, but there are plenty of scientists with access to the same information who are suggesting different courses of action, that the government are choosing not to take.

 

[GB72]

I was thinking about this only this morning. The number of people falling in to the high risk category has got to be higher than average at golf clubs and there is thus a far higher risk. Whilst I am not sure that closing the course is necessary (though closing the clubhouse may be an idea) I do feel that some of our more at risk members should consider whether their weekend round of golf is a necessary risk at the moment.

 

[RangeMonkey]

For example, the Chief Scientific Officer is on Sky News right this minute, saying that the advice is still that people with symptoms should self-isolate.

The problem with this is that symptoms don’t reach a point that they “worry” people until about 12 days after infection, and the disease is contagious for those full 12 days.

This is the approach that Italy took, and it’s not going well for them.

 

[larmen]

I don’t know. A 4ball walking down the fairway is not the same as 100 people gathering in a room. If you leave the course open then let the competition play out.

 

[RangeMonkey]

I don’t know. A 4ball walking down the fairway is not the same as 100 people gathering in a room. If you leave the course open then let the competition play out.

And if one of those four has the virus at the start, there’s a good chance that 2, 3 or 4 will have it at the end.

And they’ll take it home with them.