Golf courses in Kansas City area remain open. But not everyone is thrilled
If Ken O’Bryan could spend every weekend on the golf course, he would. The tough part, he says, is convincing his wife. Her preferred response as he walks out the door, bag of clubs in hand, is to playfully roll her eyes, a joke that’s been running for some 42 years.
So consider him surprised these days — his wife won’t stop asking to play a round of golf.
As the two recent retirees have been looking for excuses to get out of their Overland Park house and with so little open for business, they’ve found a mutual activity.
“She’s found it. I’ve been telling her all along,” O’Bryan said. “Golf is a great way to unwind, get a little bit of exercise and have a good time. And we need it now more than ever, right?”
Well, that depends you ask — although it’s a stress reliever, a mental boost or just a way to get out of the house for some, many others are frustrated it’s an option at all.
Essential businesses have closed on both sides of Kansas City’s state line as the country asks everyone to play their part in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, but most of the metro’s golf courses are open, albeit with a slew of added restrictions.
Open them, and they will come.
Courses told The Star they are booked solid for days, though that can be attributed at least in part to sparser tee times in order to spread out the groupings of players. That’s one of several measures they have taken in order to eliminate person-to-person contact yet allow golfers to keep swinging.
But it begs an important question: Should they be open? Are they really essential?
Two weeks ago, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District received clarification through Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s office that its courses can remain open with some new measures in place to ensure social distancing, according to Devin Wetzel, the organization’s assistant superintendent of park and golf courses. Wetzel points out they are abiding by CDC guidelines and also said the new measures were “reviewed and approved” by the director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. The Star’s attempts to contact that office for comment were unsuccessful.
A “touchless golf experience,” JCPRD calls it.
Some have other names for it. As JCPRD announced plans to re-open golf courses last week, commenters stormed the Facebook post with push back.
“We are now in the worst of times,” Angie Rogers Sherwood wrote. “We will never flatten this curve if the order is not followed. If people can’t leave without golf for a few months for the greater good, I give up.”
Not all courses have jumped on board, a few opting to close completely. A phone call to Fred Arbanas Golf Course, operated through Jackson County Parks and Rec, prompts this message: “The golf course is closed for play through May 15 in hopes of curtailing the spread of COVID-19. Your health and wellness is paramount at this time.”
That’s the exception. Most of the nearly four dozen courses in Kansas City have carried on with their business.
But it’s not business as usual.
The restrictions vary from course to course, but there are plenty. Tee times have been spread out to lessen the chances of one group of golfers catching another during the round. Carts are washed and sanitized after each usage and cannot be shared by members of separate households. Flag sticks are not to be touched. Bunker rakes are gone, as are golf-ball washing stations. Clubhouses are closed, with the exception of takeout food, which can be retrieved outside. At Grand Summit Golf and Country Club in Grandview, a sign on the restroom tells patrons only one person is permitted at a time.
And, oh, yeah, there’s the pin. Some have a raised cup. A simple ting, and the hole is completed. At Adams Pointe Golf Club in Blue Springs, there’s PVC piping inside the hole, allowing the ball to rest on top, preventing anyone from reaching to the bottom.
“It’s a lot different,” said Kiel Curdy, 37, who has played at four different courses over the last few weeks. “Every course I’ve been to has put as much into trying to be as safe as they can. You aren’t coming into contact with anyone at all.”
The effort is there.
Not good enough, some still say.
What about the employees asked to sanitize the carts? Aren’t they at a greater risk?
Others compared it to basketball, tennis and pickleball courts being closed. Why should golf receive any sort of special treatment?
To that, these who golf provide what they view as a key difference: The game naturally social distances its participants. You obviously get out of the way when someone takes a swing off the tee. You take other shots yards away from one another. You give someone space on the green. It’s not a big change, Curdy said.
He and Wilma Collado, of Kansas City, offered something else. They play regularly. It’s offered a sense of normalcy — a mental break — from a situation they both insist they’re taking seriously. The risk of being on the golf course is where they disagree with others.
Additionally, there’s exercise involved in a round of golf — safer exercise, perhaps, than what they’ve witnessed elsewhere. On many nights, Collado walks at Loose Park off the Country Club Plaza. But recently, she noticed an overflow of people made it impossible to maintain a six-foot radius on the paths.
Days later, she returned to golf. To avoid using a cart, she walked the course, never coming into close proximity with anyone, even those in her group.
More exercise — and at a safer distance.
“Golf is perfect for these types of conditions,” she said. “It’s the nature of it. It’s an individual game. There’s no reason to touch anything that anyone else is touching. You can talk to each other but not necessarily side by side. It’s totally easy.”
If the restrictions are followed.
The Star has found people breaking the social-distancing guidelines in a number of other circumstances, like gathering at parks. Keeping the courses open paves an avenue for rule-breakers. Will golfers really keep their space from friends as they navigate the entire 18-hole course?
Collado says she has. The only time she comes into contact with another golfer during even a normal round is the customary hand shakes when it’s complete.
No longer. In her last round at The Country Club at Loch Lloyd, Collado and her friends finished the final hole, maintained their six-foot radius, and reached out their putters, clicking them together.
“Great playing with you,” she said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 10:01 AM.