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How to protect yourself and others on the course

One Hop and Stop

Flop Shot

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Fairway Wood

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The new normal

STINGER

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Stinger

The good news is given all the restrictions in place because of the coronavirus crisis, the golf course presents relatively low risk. “Golf has got to be one of the safest sports under the current circumstances,” said Dr. Charles G. Prober, a professor of pediatrics (infectious diseases) and of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. But the circumstances are different, enough where our standard behavior at the golf course requires modifications. After consulting with Prober and other leading infectious disease specialists, here’s a new set of guidelines to follow that will help make golf safe without drastically altering the experience.

"One of the safest sportS"

Don't Be a Hero

You wake up and feel poorly or have a pretty good cough but you tough it out and play.

When arriving at the course, golfers typically check in at the pro shop (often paying their green fee at a public facility) and change their shoes in the locker room.

How to play golf safely

A user's guide for practicing social distancing on the golf course

NOW

SHOW UP AND GO

Since indoor environments invite more opportunity for close person-to-person contact, make your tee times and payments online (or over the phone) and change your shoes in the parking lot. As for bathroom visits, we recommend wiping down as much as you can and washing your hands thoroughly if you absolutely can’t avoid using one.

Come Prepared

Before heading out to play golfers often grab a few tees, along with a scorecard and a pencil.

Tees, scorecards and pencils are touchpoints you want to avoid. Bring your own tees, pencil and scorecard with you. No scorecard? You can easily print one out at home. If you’re really inventive, tape it to a cardboard backing to add some sturdiness to it. Better yet, download a golf app that, among other things, allows you to keep score on your phone.

BEFORE THE ROUND

WARMING UP

There’s less transmission risk outdoors than indoors,” says Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. “There’s more surfaces to touch indoors and people are more likely to congregate indoors, waiting in line and such.

“

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Unlike the vast expanse of a golf course, practice areas are often more concentrated. Consider having hitting areas spread 15 feet apart and try to limit the number of people at one time. Also, you want to avoid touching balls others have touched. On the putting clock, limit it to four people, preferably the group that is next to play.

The pre-round warm-up often involves crowded practice tees with several people waiting for a spot to open up. Players eagerly reach into the bucket of balls and tee them up to take a few swings with the driver. The putting green can get pretty cramped, too, with players picking holed putts out of the cup.

PRACTICE STRATEGICALLY

Of course, everyone is eager to get out on the course, so multiple groups often hover near the first tee.

GIVE EACH OTHER SPACE

8:15 am

8:00 am

8:45 am

8:30 am

DURING THE ROUND

Given the importance of hand hygiene, handshakes should be a non-starter and words of encouragement or a greeting need to be said from a distance. Similarly, players should only handle their own clubs.

Once it is a foursome’s turn to play, handshakes often accompany phrases such as “play well” or “good luck.” It’s also not uncommon for a player to grab a club out of another player’s bag to see what they’re hitting.

Hands to yourself

While safer to walk with a carry bag or pushcart— always while maintaining sufficient distance from others—carts, if needed, should be one person to a cart for a while (a possible exception might be for family members). Even having two bags on one cart risks people interacting too closely.

Golf carts with two bags and two riders have typically been the norm.

WALK IF YOU CAN

The objective is to minimize touching anything others might, which is why flagsticks should be kept in the hole, and rakes and ball washers should be avoided. Reaching into holes for your ball is not believed to be a high risk, but just to be safe, courses are adjusting their holes to allow players to easily fish balls out.

A golf course is adorned with bunker rakes, water coolers, trash bins and ball washers. You pick up stray tees and don’t think twice about grabbing a playing partner’s club or towel off the ground. Flagsticks are removed at player’s discretion.

Avoid shared touch points

Moving forward you need to give everyone some space. That means not heading to the first tee until the group in front of you has teed off. Courses can play a role in this by spacing out the tee times to 12- and 15-minutes. If your course is still using tee times at 10 minutes or less, consider playing at times that tend to be less crowded.

Modifications for safety mean the game itself needs to be altered somewhat. With no rakes, bunkers are an issue. Move the ball to a smooth area if in a footprint (this does not allow you to remove a ball from a furrow or buried lie). Also make sure you smooth your area in the bunker with your foot. On the greens, the USGA recommends five-foot gimmes. If that’s a little generous for your taste, make it a putter-length, broomsticks excluded.

Play it as it lies and ball goes in the hole (or reasonable gimmes) have been hallmarks of the game for decades.

LOOSEN UP ON SOME RULES

AFTER THE ROUND

No and no. Even the elbow bump is probably getting closer than you should. Some have taken to tapping putters, which is pretty safe according to our experts. As unsatisfactory as it might seem, an “air five” or some other acknowledgment of respect from a proper distance might be a better call. This goes for on-course celebrations of holed shots or well-played strokes.

A good day on the course ends with handshakes and hugs.

“Great round”

Need to post a score? Thankfully there’s an app for that or you can log on to ghin.com. To collect your winnings, have them send via Venmo or PayPal as you don’t want to be touching dollar bills your opponent just had their paws on. And as much as we love a cold brew on a warm day, for the immediate future that has to wait until you get home. Golf and go is the order of the day. But we’re OK with having a beer while recounting the round over a Zoom meeting. After all, bragging rights never get old.

You’ve had a great day and can’t wait to post your score in the locker room and grab a beer at the 19th hole while collecting some cold, hard cash from your opponents.

Until next time

WARMING UP

DURING THE ROUND

THEN

It’s important to take the safety of others into consideration. “We have a civic responsibility,” says Dr. J. Trees Ritter, DO and a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America. “If you’re not feeling well you should not be going to the golf course, period. People are sometimes in denial or are selfish.”

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