Cameron Burechails
This has certainly been a year that no one expected. We went from a world where everyone was safe and free to live our lives together to one where everyone fears each other and lives in isolation.
What is new is not normal and most people have had a hard time accepting and adapting to the changes that we have all had to make in our lives.
The world of sports has been hard hit by the worldwide pandemic. Professional and amateur sports have all been put on hold, until we can figure out how to safely play and compete together.
The game of golf has been one of the few games that we have been able to participate in this year. The fact that golf is an individual sport rather than a team sport has allowed courses to open and people to play. To ensure that everyone is safe the golf industry has had to introduce some tough measures to ensure that people maintain their distances and practise new sanitation procedures. Golf clubhouses have had to limit access to their facilities, as well as restrict the use of power carts to family members only and no longer to friends and acquaintances.
Most people have been quite accepting of the way our golf courses have had to change the operation of their facilities. We are not used to standing in lines and having to wait our turns and we definitely have never had to be told to wash our hands and sanitize everything we touch. These are all short term pains for long term gains if we wish to get back to a world that is more normal.
Change is a hard thing for many people to accept. This year we have all had to change the way we live and interact with other people. Our freedom to go out and be part of a social society has been taken away and many people have become impatient and sometimes agitated. The hotter than normal temperatures have also made it difficult for some people to ‘keep their cool’.
I can only hope that all golfers will continue to respect each other and follow all the new rules for the remainder of the season. Let’s all continue to work and play safely together so that all of us can enjoy the game of golf!
Cameron Burechails (Teaching Professional), The Georgian Bay Golf Academy, baygolfacademy@bell.net, or www.baygolfacademy.com.
