By Beachcomber Staff
Under blue skies, golfers took to the links last week at Vashon Golf & Swim Club, despite a statewide ban on the sport enacted to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Under Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order issued last month, golf courses in Washington are deemed nonessential businesses and were ordered closed on March 23. They are to remain closed at least until May 4.
But on both Friday, April 17, and Sunday, April 19, several small golfing parties — some using the club’s golf carts and others on foot — dotted the club’s greens and were easily visible from the roads around the club.
And on Sunday afternoon, the club’s parking lot was filled with more than a dozen cars as well as at least three people seen loading clubs in or out of their vehicles.
One of those in the lot, a man dressed in golfing attire with two bags of clubs outside his car, declined to give his name but said he was aware that the club was closed. When asked if he was golfing that day, he said no. When asked why, then, was he in the course’s parking lot with two bags of clubs, he said that he had brought his clubs to the golf course to shine them.
A small “closed” sign, not mentioning COVID, is posted at the entry to the course near the restaurant. The entry is not roped off or blocked.
Callers to the club’s main telephone number hear a recorded message instructing them to dial various numbers to reach different departments of the club, including the pro shop, but the main message does not include any reference to the club’s closure. Nor is there any messaging about the closure on the club’s Facebook page.
In an email, General Manager Craig Wilcox said the golf shop, office and clubhouse have been closed and not staffed since last month, and equipment including ball washers and bunker rakes have been removed. Wilcox could not be reached for further comment before press time.
A worker at the Sandpiper Cafe — a restaurant currently open for take-out that sits on club property, overlooking the links — said, when reached by telephone, that he did not know whether or not the course was open.
According to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, an organization that is keeping track of coronavirus-related restrictions on golf, Washington is one of 14 states that have essentially banned golf being played by classifying golf courses as “non-essential businesses.”
Other states with golf bans include Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. This week, public health officials allowed some courses in California to reopen with restrictions in place after they were closed.
UPDATE: On April 27, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that Washington’s golf courses could reopen on May 5, though for now, golfers will now have to play in twosomes, not foursomes, unless all four golfers live in the same household. Courses and golfers must also adhere to other new rules involving touch. Flagsticks cannot be removed, and cups must be set in the ground in such a way as to prevent golf balls from going to the bottom of holes on putts.
