Golf In A Plague Year June 1: Closer

Golf In A Plague Year June 1: Closer

We seem to be getting closer to something that resembles normality. Here in Michigan, we’re under stay-at-home orders until June 12, but most stores are able to open by appointment. Northern Michigan has restaurants and resort areas functioning in limited operation.

Across the state, golf courses are open, and carts are allowed as well. Unfortunately, the restriction that only family members should share carts is widely ignored. There’s no way all of those carts full of guys are brothers or lovers.

I continue to socially distance, playing either first thing in the morning, or in the evening hours when course traffic is at its lowest. I walk, as usual, pushing my own cart.

Even if I wasn’t a dedicated walker, I just can’t imagine riding a cart at this point — and especially sharing a cart. As well meaning as course ownership can be, there is just no way that they can sufficiently clean between uses.

We’re also getting closer to the return of professional tournaments. The PGA TOUR’s Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial is scheduled to return in two weeks. I’ll be glad to see that one. I played The Colonial a few years back in the tournament’s pro-am.

The European Tour is thinking about a late July restart with the British Masters. The LPGA likely also will restart in July.

This week on the PGA TOUR, we’re missing The Memorial. At this point, however, it’s scheduled to be played July 16 – 19.

The European Tour is missing the Trophee Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco. This tournament has been on my radar and a must-watch for me after I took a trip to play golf in Morocco. One of the courses we played was Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.

For the women, this week would have been the US Women’s Open. That event has been postponed until December.`

Elsewhere, courses and golf resorts are opening. Rumbling Bald, a resort I was scheduled to visit before the shut downs, is opening its 36 hole golf resort on Lake Lure in the highlands of North Carolina. The resort looks absolutely beautiful to me.

Even in this plague year, I’d like to visit. I just have to figure out what the landscape and restrictions are like between Ann Arbor and North Carolina. I’m getting closer to making the trip.