As everyone is surely aware, we are living in the middle of a global health pandemic. Covid19, a strain of Coronavirus has swept through the world, locking down countries, crippling economies and (at the time of writing this) killed over 120,000 people. It is easy to hear those numbers and think nothing of it but represented in that gigantic number are the individual lives of people. Mothers, Fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the list goes on and on and on deeply impacting the ones around each of those deaths. Our hearts and prayers go out to anyone impacted by this horrible disease.
Because there isn’t a vaccine for this virus and to prevent overcrowding of hospitals, experts and doctors everywhere have recommended that people start to social distance from each other. This means leaving 6 feet of space around you at all times when out in public. The idea is that if this 6 feet of space is maintained, then the disease cannot spread as easily. To encourage this behavior, governments have been limiting what businesses can be open and how large group gatherings can be. In Minnesota where I live, “all non-essential” businesses are closed and there is an issued shelter-in-place. Non-essential businesses, according to the State of Minnesota, include retail stores, restaurants, some manufacturing jobs, portions of the business world as well as outdoor workers. However recently, the governor of Minnesota has made some revisions to his stay at home order, scheduled to end May 4th. He recently allowed landscapers and other outside employees to go back to work.
This brings me to the topic of this post and something that turns out to be highly debatable. The topic of golfing during a global pandemic. This question was posed by the GOLF.com twitter account this past week and I replied with my genuine thoughts at the time. Little did I know that ensuing replies and messages that would come from it. Below is the pair of tweets that I fired off in reply to the question proposed by GOLF.com.
I didn’t think anything about it because I do genuinely feel torn by this very topic. Living in Minnesota, the season is about as short as they come in the United States. I of all people would LOVE to golf right now. However, the nasty realm of the “twitter-sphere” came out in response to these tweets and I was getting replies and DMs calling me “illogical” and accusing me of killing an already dead industry. One response even said that if “Golf Courses can’t be open, then why are grocery stores even open?” That is where I had to bite by tongue (or ummm twitter fingers) and not reply. If someone can’t mentally grasp the difference between golf courses and grocery stores when it comes to survival, it isn’t worth my time to try and reason with that person.
I believe whether or not courses should be open goes far beyond that. There are questions like what would doctors say about the matter, would they want golf courses open? What about the people that are working the course, how can we protect them from this disease? Sure we can make precautions that limit human interaction but you can NOT guarantee that someone will not transmit Covid19 on to another human being. My summarizing thought on these lines of questions is “if it isn’t helping and it isn’t a need, we should not be doing it.”
I love golf as much as the next guy but at the end of the day, golf is just a game. This virus is taking lives away and impacting living lives in severe ways both emotionally, economically and psychologically. People have given up A LOT and I mean A LOT during this battle with the virus. We have nurses risking their lives, doctors quarantining their families to keep them safe, and we have countless American’s without a job, the least I could do in response to these circumstances is put away the clubs for a couple weeks to help fight the virus. So as much as it pains me to say this, the nation should shut down all of its golf courses. To have some courses closed while allowing others to operate is like having a “pee section” in a swimming pool. That is great that you are limiting the areas where you can “pee” but at the end of the day, that metaphorical “pee” is going to infect the whole swimming pool.
Again, this is merely an opinion piece and as I write this more golf courses keep opening and last I saw, over 48% of the courses in America are open. That is fine, there is nothing I can do about it but do my part and respect the government of Minnesota who has closed golf courses until May 4th. I am not bitter about this either rather I genuinely praise the way Governor Walz has handled things in Minnesota. He is using the best information he has and exercising his authority to keep his state safe just as good leadership should do.
So again, I want to reiterate, I think all golf courses in the country should be shut down. I believe that anything that isn’t helping and isn’t required for living should be halted or closed immediately. I feel that it is my duty as a citizen to serve the community around me and one way that I can do that right now, is to not golf. Stay healthy, and stay safe out there everyone.
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-Mason
A Good Walk Spoiled 