Woods, McIlroy, & World’s Top-Ranked Grounded As Palm Beach County Shut Down Golf Courses

4 years ago by Comments Off on Woods, McIlroy, & World’s Top-Ranked Grounded As Palm Beach County Shut Down Golf Courses

For the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Rory McIlroy, Dutsin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler and Open champ Shane Lowry there will be no more left-handed challenge matches nor no more friendly social rounds for the time being after Palm Beach Country ruled that all private golf courses in the county close.

This includes some of the more-exclusive courses in the U.S. including the Bear’s Club, National, Trump National, Seminole, Admirals Cove and the Medallist Club.

As well, there’s the host of courses lined-up along PGA Blvd now closed – PGA National, and venue for the recent Honda Classic,  Mirasol, Old Palm and Ballen Isles, and where Lowry and his family are in residence for four months.

Seminole GC – One of the most exclusive golf clubs in the U.S.

Another now closed is the public course, North Palm Beach that Nicklaus redesigned in 2006 for the princely sum of just $1.  The ‘Golden Bear’ signed note is on display in also the recently completely rebuilt clubhouse.

The local WPBF TV website says Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation officials were finding it impossible to keep golfers from getting too close to one another amid the fears of the COVID-19 virus.

“Even when we asked them to maintain that, they naturally want to gravitate,” said Eric Call, the County’s Director of Parks and ation.

In the end, the decision to protect employees also weighed heavily in the decision to shut down operations on Wednesday.

“With so many of our staff being 65 or over, we’re concerned about that,” Call said.

As executive director of the South Florida PGA, Geoff Lofstead works with more than 1,800 golf pros and associates. Just hours before the shutdown, he said his pros were following the lead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and exercising extreme caution at their courses.

“Golf is an incredible engine for good,” Lofstead said.

“While in the short term, there’s going to be some pain, and there’s going to be pain for everyone, golf is healthy sport. I think golf will be able to survive this and hopefully thrive in the future.”

FOOTNOTE – 

There was no such concern for this journalist who visited Heritage Ridge GC last Sunday afternoon.  Heritage Ridge is located in Martin County and the very next county north of Palm Beach County.

I declined a motorised buggy by choosing to walk the course at a very leisurely pace given the mid-80s temperature.

For the first seven holes I had the course to myself before allowing two seperate four-balls behind me riding in seven motorised carts to play through on the par-5 eighth hole and from thereon, I had no interaction with anyone else and only because there was no-one else out playing.

I did speak, albeit 20-feet apart, with a Boston-born chap walking past the 7th tee and who boasted of an Irish ancestry but like so many Americans has never travelled to Ireland.

The ball washers on each tee where covered and there was no rakes in the bunkers.

The flagsticks were in place as you would expect pre-Cornonavirus days but not once in the 18 times I holed out did I have occasion to actually touch the flagstick in putting out and then retrieving my golf ball.

There was also santizing items at the clubhouse while I also carried a plastic santifzer bottle that I had clipped to on my bag, and that had been a gift at the recent Players Championship.



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