With the prospect of another month without golf courses, with another period of lockdown announced by the UK government running through the month of November, I can’t help but reflect on what’s different this time around. We’ve become conditioned to it all, and this time it doesn’t feel quite so severe as it did back in March.
I remember when golf courses re-opened back in May this year…. The excitement in seeing the update from England Golf that courses would finally be reopened…. Pacing round the house ringing everyone at the club, hatching a plan for the next 3 weeks golfing binge, limitations on tee bookings for 2-balls only with no refreshments or clubhouse was a fair trade off to be able to walk the fairways with your pals again.
Entering lockdown 2.0, what’s changed….
Yes, handicaps have been turned on their heads with the introduction of WHS (people are confused, and impending lockdown means people haven’t had time to do much with it). Golf steadily crept back to normality with clubs providing food and clubhouse facilities – we’ve even been able to get proper competitive golf back – but we knew it was a good run we were having, rather than a return to normal. Professional golf seems to be dominated by one story only (Bryson and distance), and we’ve become accustomed to watching the PGA at weekends without spectators. It even felt peculiar watching the event in Bermuda last week, where Brian Gay sealed the win on the playoff hole in front of a braying crowd….
I for one feel very sad. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t partly due to limitations on my own golf and impacts for me personally… visiting clubs, playing with friends and having somewhere outside of the home I could go and relax… but I also feel really sorry for the sport. It struggles with its image and despite the ‘grow the game’ rhetoric, getting new demographics and beginners into the game always feels like pushing water up a hill, yet that’s what has happened these past 5 months. The ‘27%’! More people who have got into golf since lockdown, with participation on the rise, responsible for increases in club memberships, people learning the game from scratch, or simply dusting off the clubs that have been stashed in the garage for years and reconnecting with the wonderful sport… where do they go now? I know friends at work who have found a passion for the game that has lay dormant for years, beating balls on the range till their hands bleed, watching it on TV and even investing in lessons! Is it naïve to expect that in a month’s time, with Christmas fast approaching, colder weather, no certainty on when clubs will be able to open again, and with many courses unable to open due to inclement weather, that people will just pick up where they left off? I think so…. What does the sport do to ensure that it keeps that same momentum, and be certain that it wasn’t a fleeting good news story buried amongst the Bryson vitriol or the endless series of articles about WHS that command the Twitter feed? Even hardened enthusiasts play less in the winter months and we know how fickle the world is in general, but I really hope the growth in people enjoying golf continues after Lockdown 2.0, in the same way it did in May!
What else has happened? CJG has flown this year, and given us all reams of enjoyment. We set out to chat about golf in February on a new podcast with little to no idea about what we were going to try and achieve, and from there it’s grown arms and legs, and it’s been amazing fun. Being involved in Cleeve Hill has been great, and seeing it go full circle since the news broke a few months ago is great to witness close hand.
Finding out about Cleeve Hill and its knee jerk decision by the council to fold golf on the hill was shocking. Driving up through the Cotswolds on a sunny Wednesday evening, running around capturing the beauty of the club was impossible – there was just too much to get on film. Having to tell Tom on every hole to ‘put the drone away’, conserving battery for the ‘money shots’ on the back 9. Not only was it an incredible afternoon golfing, but it reminded me of exactly what my golf as a junior felt like, and why clubs like Cleeve Hill are the lifeblood of golf in the UK. All of this while Dumbarnie links up in Scotland opens to the public, commanding extortionate green fees, met with rave reviews in an already rich part of the golfing world that will no doubt in time become reserved for the small 1% of golfers with the resources and inclination to travel to play there. Proof of the dichotomy of rich well-travelled golfers and the options available to them against those wanting to get into the game of golf and find somewhere accessible in every way, to enjoy on a regular basis.
The benefit of friends in the golfing community who pushed the story and made it go viral has had a big impact, generating some buzz and excitement which was perhaps a catalyst for Tewksbury Borough Council reversing its decision, and with Sir Nick Faldo recently visiting the site and now one of several interested parties registering a formal bid to take over operations, it’s nice to feel like we may have done something beneficial… or at least helped somehow.
Last time, we had no golf to watch and chipping in the garden was a national sport, but with the Masters coming up next week it gives us ample reason for excitement. I for one will be binge watching it. What will Augusta National look like in November? What will the 13th tee look like having extended the hole back as part of the need to keep Bryson under control and will Rory actually ‘get it done’?
The only thing is the endless cycle of debate via Twitter about distance, equipment, bifurcation and trees has grown tiresome. Playing Brora last week and understand how the club has been saved from the brink of financial disaster this year thanks to the kindness of the golfing community is proof that we all want to see the sport succeed, and puts these arguments into perspective.
I just want to be back out on the fairways, whether that’s with a persimmon head driver, and a balata ball, having to negotiate a tree that has encroached on the initial playing area of the hole… frankly I don’t care!
Sam