Clarity required before we can dust off clubs and get back out on the course

Can I play with my brother or my mother? Or what about my neighbour, who I have stood on the end of the drive chatting with the last couple of weekends, never getting close enough to reach out and shake him by the hand.

Do I have to be a member of a golf club, or can I just pay on the door? And can my playing partner be a guest for the day?

If they are just some of the questions Yorkshire’s golfers are asking at the minute, then put yourselves in the Footjoys of the clubs themselves.

Because the questions they are left asking after Boris Johnson’s address on Sunday night, the subsequent email from England Golf and the follow-up statement from Government on Monday, are equally as important.

If you can come and play on our course, they would rightly begin, when can we earn any extra income from you that is vital to the future of our business, by opening our pro shop and our bar?

If we’re opening for members only, who is going to foot the bill when we have to bring staff back from furlough to prepare the greens, to mow the fairways and put the feed and fertiliser down on our 18 holes?

Confused? So is Yorkshire’s golfing fraternity, those that play the sport and those that make a living from it.

There are nearly 200 golf clubs across Yorkshire, a large percentage of which have a board and a membership in need of clarity.

The UK Government announced on Sunday night that golf is to resume on Wednesday, May 13, as part of the outdoor sport protocal decreeing that it must be ‘done alone or within a household group’. On the face of it, fair enough, let’s get on the tee and thin that first three-wood into the trees.

But then came further information on Monday afternoon that two-balls will be permitted, and the household criteria was removed from the language. Another grey area created.

The thing with golf is it is not just a form of exercise or a pastime. It is not akin to merely going for a run or hopping on the bike for your hour-long exercise, as some of us have done these last few weeks.

A good walk spoiled is also an industry. It is a business. It is a contract between supplier and customer – you pay your green fees and we give you the best possible experience. We pay our annual subscriptions, and you give us the best possible conditions.

As of now, when play resumes on the region’s golf courses Wednesday morning, neither party will be completely honouring their side of the bargain.

The members aren’t to blame, they want to play golf. The clubs aren’t to blame, they want to get people on their golf courses.

But each side of the transaction requires greater clarity.

The more information that comes out of the Government, the more England Golf – the governing body – has to make sense of it before filtering it down to its member unions, from where that information will be cascaded down to member clubs. And as has already been seen, the landscape is changing rapidly.

The Yorkshire Golf Union were contacted for comment but politely declined. Give us until Wednesday, they asked, when we have a clearer picture.

By which time, me and the guy from next door who I’ve struck up a camaraderie with these last few weeks, could be hacking it around fairways left overgrown, because greens staff were furloughed and haven’t had enough time to prepare their product for business hours.

Get people golfing by all means. But have clarity first, a clear message that benefits all parties, because livelihoods are at stake.

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James Mitchinson

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