Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2021 - 26

EMBRACING
CHANGE
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM
SOCIALLY-DISTANT GOLF
* BY W.P. RYAN *
COVID-19 brought record rounds
last year while introducing new
components of play.
W
hether it chafed or not,
most golfers abided by
the COVID-19 social
distancing protocols
practiced on the golf course during the
2020 golf season, if, for no other reason
than to keep golf courses open by staying
safe and keeping other golfers healthy. And
golf we did: Minnesota witnessed record
rounds last year, up an average of 29.7%.
It turns out that navigating the links
without touching anything except our
own golf equipment had a signifi cant
impact on the way we played the game.
Remove the fl agstick to putt? Not an
option. Reach into the cup to retrieve the
ball? With hole inserts fashioned out of
foam fl oatation toys, aka " pool worms, "
or ingeniously designed contraptions
that ejected the ball out of the hole with
the fl ick of the putter, we no longer had
to reach to the bottom of the cup to
retrieve our ball.
Rake a bunker? Along with bunker
rakes, ball washers, waste baskets, water
stations and benches, nearly everything
extraneous to actually playing
golf except tee and yardage markers and
fl agsticks, was removed from the course.
There were no distractions to play golf
and get through the round quickly. For
anyone who has played the links courses
of Scotland or Ireland, there was an
uncanny sense of déjà vu.
Improving Pace of Play
According to Jeff May, the golf manager
at Baker National Golf Course, during
the pandemic golfers made their way
around the beautiful but challenging
18-hole layout adjacent to the Baker Park
Preserve area in record time.
" Rounds were consistently 15 minutes
better in 2020 versus 2019, " May says,
explaining that the average round went
from four hours and forty-fi ve minutes,
or longer, to an average of four hours
and thirty minutes-a better-than-5%
improvement in pace of play.
May points to the lack of bunker rakes
and the fl agstick left untouched in the
cup as the main reasons for the faster
rounds. For that reason, he prefers that
golfers continue to leave the fl agstick in
the hole.
" I'm hoping that will stick, " he says.
At Oak Marsh Golf Course, an 18-hole
public course in Woodbury, water stations
and seven-to-eight-minute tee
time intervals are a thing of the past.
" Water coolers may never come back, "
says Steve Whillock, the golf professional
and general manager. A combination of
touchless check-in and pre-paid green
fees for league play, Oak Marsh has 17
leagues, many with wait lists, and " The
Cup Lifter, " an ejector device attached to
the fl agstick, all contribute to better fl ow
around the golf course, says Whillock.
But the most signifi cant change forced
by COVID-19 on the popular daily-fee
located in the East Metro was a permanent
shift to 10-minute tee-time intervals
and the addition of a fulltime starter
on the fi rst tee.
26
MINNESOTAGOLFER Summer 2021
mngolf.org
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2021

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