WILMINGTON — The City of Wilmington as well as New Hanover County have made a concerted effort to limit travel deemed nonessential during the Covid-19 outbreak. This has been done, in part, by ordering the closure of stores, restaurants, and other ‘nonessential’ locations. From public docks and boat ramps to dog parks, beaches, and athletic fields the local governments have even closed recreation locations.
But if your recreational activity of choice is spending a day on the golf course there’s good news. In New Hanover County, golf courses are specifically exempt from closures.
“[The] Closure of all public amusement places (whether publicly or privately owned or operated) where people may gather, indoors or outdoors. This includes children’s play centers, recreation centers, country clubs, social clubs, and more. Golf courses are restricted to allowing walking golfers or one golfer per cart to maintain social distance requirements,” New Hanover County’s list of closures reads.
However, when asked for justification, not one county commissioner or city council member would explain why.
Both the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County have emphasized the need for residents to continue with recreational activities, provided they maintain social distancing guidelines. For sports that cannot limit distance, like basketball, the local governments have gone as far as removing nets from the hoops to ensure people aren’t playing ‘team sports.’
In Wilmington, dog parks, the UNCW track, tennis courts, basketball courts, the Dram Tree boat launch, playgrounds and more are all listed as closed. But Inland Greens Golf Course and the Municipal Course remain open.
In theory, it would seem that golf could lend itself to social distancing — but golfers have been observed not following these directions at public courses in Wilmington. Golfers queued in the parking lot at Inland Greens waiting on groups ahead of them to tee off and walked side-by-side
Golf is already a cost-prohibitive activity reserved for those who already have golf clubs and other equipment which means the limiting of recreational activities, like going to the beach or using a public track or dog park will impact more people than closing a golf course.
Yet, the courses remain open.
The two public golf courses are taking some extra precautions in response to the virus.
The following restrictions were put in place by the City of Wilmington — although it is worth noting that there was no mention of group sizes when hitting the links.
- The Municipal Golf Course will stay open under modified operations:
- Minimum tee times in 16-minute intervals.
- Bunker rakes have been removed. Please smooth sand with your foot. You may place the ball in the bunker into a preferred lie.
- The cups on the greens have been reversed. This will allow your ball to be removed from the cup without touching the flagstick or the cup. Leave the flagstick in the hole at all times.
- No golf carts are allowed – walking only.
- No more than 10 people in the pro shop.
- Inland Greens Golf Course will stay open under modified operations:
- Minimum tee times in 10 minutes intervals.
- No more than ten people in the pro shop at one time.
On Monday morning, Port City Daily reached out to every county commissioner as well as each member of Wilmington City Council and Mayor Bill Saffo for clarification and justification for leaving golf courses open but closing other recreational locations.
So far, no response has been received from any elected official.
Critics of the beach closures and other public area closures have made the point that residents could, in theory, go to the beach for recreational activities on their own while practicing social distancing — but they are now unable to do so. At the same time, the golf courses remain open for business.
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