Being a part of Golf history

This will be my only chance to be a part of Golf history

Well I hope it will be! Given my comfortably average game I can declare up front that I wont be making history through my play but through these extraordinary weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic I feel as if I will be telling stories about the time all golf was banned and then how we came back to golf under very different conditions.

Since the birth of the modern game of golf at St Andrews, Scotland in 1764 the list of pandemics is not that short.

1817: First Cholera Pandemic

1855: The Third Plague Pandemic

1875: Fiji Measles Pandemic

1889: Russian Flu

1918: Spanish Flu

1957: Asian flu

1981: HIV/AIDS

2003: SARS

2019: COVID-19

Of course, there have also been two world wars in amongst this timeline. Famously in 1918 whilst the US battled the Spanish Flu and battled in WWI their President ‘Wilson’ declared golf to be the best form of exercise for the soldiers. There has only been one other year in the past 100 where the professional tour was cancelled and that was in 1943 at the height of WWII.

So, to have Golf along with all other sports declared out of bounds for six weeks is now a part of golf history.

We live on the boundary of our Golf Club, Whangaparaoa Golf Club, in Auckland, New Zealand and those six weeks were filled with a mix of emotions. Frustration to be looking at the course daily with our beautiful Autumn weather and not being able to play, peacefulness because it was so quiet, worry because my husband is the course superintendent and was unable to work, joy because over this time the pitch marks and divots self-repaired.

The return to mine and my husband’s golf lives has been in stages. The first sign of a return was the allowance for Greens staff to return to maintaining the courses under strict rules. Those were to only have minimal staff, no contact and only minimal maintenance but never-the-less this was met in our household bubble with a sense of elation and freedom.

The second stage was the allowance for people to return to golf under extremely controlled circumstances.

We are now ten days into this new way of playing and more history is in the making…. every player I have asked about how they are going (from a social distance) has responded with happiness and lightness. “Who cares about the golf, we can’t put a card in anyway…it’s just great to be back out here” seems to be the most common refrain. Followed by “we love the cups being raised…. I feel like I can sink every putt”.

So, what is it really like?

Well you can only play in your bubble so it’s faster than usual as golfers in groups of one or two stride around the course with no long waits half-way down a fairway.

There are no flags, so you’ve got no need to lift your head early to see your ball hit the flag and drop into the hole.

For that matter there are no holes, just the raised rims of the cups and a ball clinking against the rim and peeling off at an angle doesn’t matter…. You hit the rim so that’s ‘in the hole’.

No rakes means bunkers are GUR, happy days! You just need stamina, all the seats are closed off, there are no toilets available and no refreshments so brace yourself for a round with no frills.

The summary – 50/50

This is my home club so I’m not entirely impartial, however I have noted in my comments the factors considered.