Ohio Golf Journal May 2020

Post COVID-19: Golf Will Come Back O ne of the reasonable things to do, while watching my dog destroy the pillows on the couch, he’s bored too, or figuring out how much Worcestershire sauce to put in the pork chop marinade, is to think about what golf will look like after the stay-at-home and social distancing requirements are over. These predictions may seem entirely logical, but are really just speculation, since the country, the economy and our culture have never experienced anything like theCOVID-19pandemic.Historians drawing comparisons to the 1918 flu epidemic, the Great Depression, World War II, September 11 attacks, or even the subprime mortgage crisis, fail to recognize the immense differences of what is now, versus what was then. Let’s speculate together, keeping in mind historically the business of golf mirrors, but lags the health of the economy. How Long? Recreational golf has not gone away, it’s just been severely curtailed. Charts tracking the progress of COVID-19 are at best uncertain indicators but would seem to point at the earliest date for removing stay-at-home requirements might be Memorial Day. If that’s wishful thinking the worst case might be Labor Day but the Fourth of July seems reasonable. Parts of the country will be somewhat sooner and many longer reaching to the late fall. Number of Players? The National Golf Foundation (NGF) says the number of U.S. golfers at the end of 2018 was 24.2 million, but when stay-at-home transitions to go-out-and-play how many will come back? Howmany will have gotten out of the golf “habit” from job pressures or simply finding other ways By ED TRAVIS Ohio Golf Journal