Golf courses in Los Angeles County will reopen on May 9, but things will look a little different, based on operational plans sent to the county\u2019s 20 sites this week from the Department of Parks and Recreation.<\/p>\n
Under the plan, there will be only one golfer per cart without additional charge, flag sticks on greens must remain in the cup and driving range mats must be at least 12 feet apart or for ranges with fixed partitions will use every other stall.<\/p>\n
Each course will also be required to have a \u201csafety ambassador\u201d on site during business hours to ensure the staff and patrons practice required social distancing, staying at least six feet apart.<\/p>\n
Craig Kessler, governmental affairs director for the Southern California Golf Association, said among other plans throughout the state L.A. County\u2019s was \u201camong the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s prescriptive where it needs to be and it also allows things that have been subject of controversy,\u201d Kessler said.<\/p>\n
In Ventura County, for instance, golf courses reopened on April 21 but without golf carts. In San Diego and some other counties, private lessons are not allowed, which L.A. County will permit them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key thing is that recreational golf is coming back,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cIt\u2019s coming back because it is perfectly consistent with social distancing practices and you can operate a golf course by eliminating common touch points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other aspects of the plan include the following:<\/p>\n
Clubhouse, restaurant and pro shop remain closed though sales can be made to-go
\nPayment should be done outside, without cash
\nNo bunker rakes or ball washes will be available
\nGolf carts will be disinfected after each use and bathrooms every two hours
\nAll staff must wear face masks and gloves when interacting with people
\nPutting and chipping areas will stay closed
\nRange balls and baskets should be sanitized after each use
\nTee time intervals will be no less than 10 minutes apart
\nRental clubs will not be available
\nClub racks will be removed
\nFees for golf carts shall not exceed 50% of the two-rider rate
\nNo group play or tournaments allowed
\nAnd drinking fountains and coolers will be disabled or removed.<\/p>\n
Sign up for The Localist, our daily email newsletter with handpicked stories relevant to where you live. Subscribe here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golf courses in Los Angeles County will reopen on May 9, but things will look a little different,…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[165,166,4512,66,670,121,6741,3536,6742,6743,6744,6745,6746],"class_list":["post-10811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-golf","tag-coronavirus","tag-golf","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-breeze","tag-top-stories-ivdb","tag-top-stories-ladn","tag-top-stories-lbpt","tag-top-stories-psn","tag-top-stories-sgvt","tag-top-stories-wdn","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117364701566413975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}