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GENERAL SECTION HEADER
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM TOURNAMENT GOLF
FOR BOTH PLAYERS AND FANS?
continued from page 04
staying in the hotel for all meals and not going out allowed to return? That’s anyone’s guess. If we see
to a restaurant to eat. corporate hospitality tents, they almost certainly will
Frankly, while these guidelines seem be of limited capacity so the guests can maintain
reasonable to the extent that stopping the spread social distancing of six feet or more apart from
of the virus is the main focus, they ignore the each other. Bleachers may exist, but sections or
realities of human behavior. Expecting touring seats may be cordoned off so people aren’t sitting
professionals to never leave the hotel unless they less than six feet apart. But then again, we might
are going to the golf course might work for a week not see any hospitality tents or bleachers. We’ll just
or two, but undoubtedly most players will tire of this have to wait and see what happens with the first
forced routine of boredom. If their families are not few events where fans are allowed.
allowed to be with them at the course, you can When will things return completely to “normal”?
be sure that many players will skip the post-round Again, that’s anyone’s guess. Current reports at
practice routines that are prevalent and head the time of this writing say a vaccine is at least 18
straight back to the hotel to be with their families. months away (which would be late 2021), and
However, not being able to take the little ones to a maybe much longer than that. With the current
park, playground, etc., might weigh on the minds emphasis having shifted from “flattening the
of the players and their spouses, and we could see curve” so hospitals didn’t get overrun to “let’s
some players deciding to stay home until things keep the number of cases as low as possible for as
return more to normal. long as possible” until a vaccine is developed, it’s
Expecting players and caddies to sanitize their possible nothing resembling normalcy might not
hands and anything on the course they might happen for years.
touch seems a bit unreasonable, too. Golf is being That would be most unfortunate, but given the
played all across the country, and currently there vagaries of human behavior, combined with the
are no reports of players falling ill from being at fact that forcing people into artificial behaviors for
the course. Epidemiologists who have weighed an extended period of time are not likely to work,
in have said that golf is one of the safest possible we could well see a sea change in the way both
activities to engage in, and that’s even with our ordinary citizens and our authority figures want to
former way of doing things. And it’s seriously handle this. Also, with research from the Stanford
doubtful that any player will be playing with any University School of Medicine, the University
sort of mask or face covering, although it’s possible of Southern California/Los Angeles County
that you might see some of the more physically Department of Public Health, the University of
compromised caddies doing so. However, various Bonn in Germany and Oxford University in England,
health experts have said that contracting the among others, showing the infection fatality rate of
environment in an outdoor setting is extremely the virus isn’t nearly as severe as first thought, there
unlikely, so it will be interesting to see how many are some encouraging signs that not only golf, but
people on our television screens will be wearing life in general, may return to normal sooner than
them. we may think possible at present.
What will happen when fans are eventually
05
Golf Teaching Pro SUMMER 2020
