Page 6 - Summer2020GTP

GENERAL SECTION HEADER
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE GOLF INDUSTRY
AFTER COVID-19?
continued from page 02
professor of immunology and microbiology at
Stanford University, as saying, “[Handling the
flagstick] is an extraordinarily ineffective way of
getting the disease.” According to Dr. Prober, a
series of highly unlikely events would have to occur.
First, someone sick with the disease would have to
be playing. Second, that person would have to get
the virus on their hands through coughing, sneezing,
or otherwise transferring body fluids on their hands.
Third, they would then have to touch the flagstick
soon after. Fourth, the next person to touch the
flagstick would have to touch it in the same exact
place as the infected person – assuming the virus
was still on the flagstick (more on that later). Fifth,
that next person would then have to introduce the
virus into themselves by touching their eyes, nose, or
mouth within a few minutes of touching the flagstick.
In other words, as Dr. Prober pointed out, this highly
improbable.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, from Johns Hopkins University,
said on golfdigest.com that retrieving a ball from
a hole presents “very minimal risks in those types
of situations. You can dream up any kind of odd
situation where the virus transmits in these special
circumstances, but that wouldn’t be something I
would be worried about.”
And since Dr. Prober and Dr. Adalja made these
statements, new information has come out that the
coronavirus doesn’t fare well in sunlight. Willliam
Bryan of the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) said DHS research showed the virus having
a half-life of two minutes in sunlight. This means
that a maximum of 1/32 of the virus would be left
on an outdoor surface after 10 minutes of sunlight
exposure. Therefore, it would seem handling a
bunker rake is extremely safe, as well.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanual from the University of
Pennsylvania, speaking on the television show
Morning Joe, said that in order to get infected, “You
need to see a prolonged amount of virus over a
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Golf Teaching Pro
period of time. That happens indoors, not outdoors.”
He also pointed out that there have been “very
few” instances of people getting infected outdoors.
With all of that as the background, the headline
of this article asks what’s in store for the future
of the golf industry. Right now, signs are highly
encouraging. Courses that were under lockdown
have seen large waves of golfers. Even courses that
were never closed have reported a decent increase
in rounds played. Golf retail stores are also seeing
business return to near normal, and on many days,
exceed their corporate offices’ expectations. That’s
not only good news for the retail operations, but also
the club manufacturers and suppliers of these stores.
Demographically, golf is currently faring well.
Most golfers have either secure investment income
or job security that withstood the economic
shutdowns, so the majority of golfers should continue
to play. The wild card is how soon the tens of millions
of unemployed Americans return to the workforce,
as they represent a smaller but significant portion
of the golfing population. It would be foolish to
venture a guess at this early stage, but hopefully the
majority will not be without jobs for long.
The early models reporting that over a million
Americans would lose their lives were egregiously
wrong, as was the assumption the infection fatality
rate was over three percent. While current research
from a number of sources, including the Stanford
University School of Medicine, the University of
Southern California and the University of Bonn
in Germany, as well as antibody studies done in
Colorado, Massachusetts and New York all show
the actual infection fatality rate is likely to be under
one-half of one percent, the virus is still a very serious
matter. While, as the saying goes, “so far, so good,”
the golf industry needs to keep on its toes and
continue to promote the game and make people
feel confident that they can play without any
significant risk.
SUMMER 2020