Those who love to have a round of golf from time to time have had their prayers answered.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has announced that golf courses can open and lovers of the sport wasted little time putting their clubs to use.
“It has been so full,” said Royal Oak Country Club manager Kenneth Dube.
“People appreciate what they haven’t had in so long.”
Even the extremely low temperatures, which are said to be the coldest in Gauteng in years, could not deter golf enthusiasts from having a hit out.
Dube, however, expects the number of people visiting the courses to decrease soon.
“It’s not really the season for golf,” he said.
While he is glad to have Royal Oak’s members back on the course, the manager does acknowledge that the last three months of inactivity has hit golf clubs around the country hard.
Golf courses were closed due to Covid-19.
Read: Golf clubs hoping to reopen soon
“The club took a big dip. I don’t think any club will recover from this,” said Dube.
While there is some activity at the golf clubs, there are rules that have to be followed.
“Covid-19 is still a problem,” said the manager.
“We still have to follow the rules of social distancing.
“Not everyone at the club is back at work.
“Some of the kitchen staff couldn’t come back because we only sell some snacks and sandwiches on the course.
“The bar remains closed as it is still only level three (of the lockdown).”
Dube pointed out that the club will have to wait until the lower levels to start working on most of the normal programmes.
At the moment tournaments are still a no-go area.
“There are still a lot of restrictions and we have to be very careful,” he said.
“We don’t want to put people’s lives at risk so there will be no tournaments at this stage.
“We are carrying people’s lives. Life is more important than money.”
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