what CoronaVirus precautions are your club taking?

HighLine

Greenkeepers told not to go to work by the GCSAI

https://mailchi.mp/152c61ec5de2/gcsai-covid-19-update

HighLine

HighLine wrote: »

Greenkeepers told not to go to work by the GCSAI

https://mailchi.mp/152c61ec5de2/gcsai-covid-19-update

Greens and fairways will go to ruin pretty quickly.

willabur

It's a recommendation which just covers their ass. Don't see that being in any way a directive

GreeBo

willabur wrote: »

It's a recommendation which just covers their ass. Don't see that being in any way a directive

Sure they can't direct anyone, only the gov can.

Many Dublin courses are still doing albeit reduced maintenance

GreeBo

GreeBo wrote: »

Sure they can't direct anyone, only the gov can.

Many Dublin courses are still doing albeit reduced maintenance

It's a recommendation as they haven't got proper clarification one way or another as of yet.

I would be in agreement that greenkeeping would be one of the safer jobs to be working in at the moment.

Hopefully courses are allowed keep up at least some level of maintenance during this period because if you let greens and fairways go for a prolonged time then good luck in trying to get them back right after this is over.

willabur

https://twitter.com/greenkeepingire

statement here that government says greenkeeping can continue

GolfNut33

willabur wrote: »

https://twitter.com/greenkeepingire

statement here that government says greenkeeping can continue

This is super news. Literally means the difference between the course going to ****e and years of maintenance going down the drain or being pristine for when we return.

Sultan_of_Ping

Maintenance still going on at our place, but no contractors - just the core greenkeeping crew.

In some ways, if they can keep some level of maintenance going it could mean a fine course to go back to at the end of the crisis if there's some growth.

Our club has also set up a panel of volunteers to look after the older members, if they need shopping done or any kind of errands run.

twounderpar

All the guidelines and work practises that are allowed are posted in irishgolfer.ie. It's pretty much full maintenance including irrigation and nutrition, except for bunkers,penalty areas,practise areas and rough that's considered out of play.
Our courses should be in pristine condition whenever we get on the first tee again.

blue note

Ah good. I was worried there I was after getting my club in trouble!

Right decision I reckon. Hard to see much risk to it. And at the end of all of this we'll need things like golf courses. And this could be the difference between survival or not for a few clubs.

ronnie3585

They're doing annual aeration works on our course this week, a good use of the down time. The course is looking absolutely lush, looking for a silver lining in all this - the course will be in brilliant condition when we're allow back out.

GreeBo

ronnie3585 wrote: »

They're doing annual aeration works on our course this week, a good use of the down time. The course is looking absolutely lush, looking for a silver lining in all this - the course will be in brilliant condition when we're allow back out.

That seems late enough in the year to be starting that...where abouts is your course?

It would be a great time to fill fairway divots, but thats usually done by the Artisans so wont be possible unfortunately

ronnie3585

GreeBo wrote: »

That seems late enough in the year to be starting that...where abouts is your course?

Galway.

Roger_007

I was speaking to one of our finance committee yesterday and he said that they are getting a lot of enquiries from members about refunds or partial refunds of annual subs already paid if this closure goes on for some months. He also said that about 30% of subs are paid monthly by direct debit and a few of these have already notified the club that, due to financial hardship, they may have to cancel.
As there is no income from competition charges or green fees/societies and all the staff are still being paid, he fears that the club will be in financial trouble long before the end of the year.
Our club was just about making ends meet as it was.
I fear for the future.

GreeBo

^
It could be a very different market when all this is over alright, every market in fact, not just golf.

Ollieboy

I think how we play golf will be different after this lock down is over, examples:

3 balls only
More time between each group
Less members in each club
A complete end to social events at clubs
No bunker rakes
Flags
Sand bags
Less pro shops

I personally think the cost of golf will increase a lot and membership of clubs will be the cheaper and better model going forward.

I also think the cost of a lot of things besides golf will increase!

RoadRunner

Ollieboy wrote: »

I think how we play golf will be different after this lock down is over, examples:

3 balls only
More time between each group
Less members in each club
A complete end to social events at clubs
No bunker rakes
Flags
Sand bags
Less pro shops

I personally think the cost of golf will increase a lot and membership of clubs will be the cheaper and better model going forward.

I also think the cost of a lot of things besides golf will increase!

Probably in the weeks and first few months back, but I don't see any of those happening longer term. We are facing a recession though. Courses will suffer. Some good came of the last recession. Food and eating out got much better in Ireland and stayed good!

gypsy79

Ollieboy wrote: »

I think how we play golf will be different after this lock down is over, examples:

3 balls only
More time between each group
Less members in each club
A complete end to social events at clubs
No bunker rakes
Flags
Sand bags
Less pro shops

I personally think the cost of golf will increase a lot and membership of clubs will be the cheaper and better model going forward.

I also think the cost of a lot of things besides golf will increase!

That's one of the outrageous things I have ever read

Do you think there is going to be pandemic after pandemic??

spacecoyote

Some interesting stats from the US posted to Golfwrx in relation to courses. The National Golf Foundation surveyed 1000 courses for updates there, and found:
74% of "in-season" courses are still open
Golf Rounds in February were up 15.2%
Around 35% of Independent/regional retailers were still open.

You'd have to think, if their numbers are up, and courses are still open, with Golf demographics, that this could really drag on over in the US (combined with Trumps half-a$$ed approach to dealing with it)

Ollieboy

gypsy79 wrote: »

That's one of the outrageous things I have ever read

Do you think there is going to be pandemic after pandemic??

I don’t understand how you don’t understand that social distancing is going to with us for at least a year. Even the biggest companies in the world reckon a vaccine is 12 months away!

prawnsambo

Ollieboy wrote: »

I don’t understand how you don’t understand that social distancing is going to with us for at least a year. Even the biggest companies in the world reckon a vaccine is 12 months away!

The 12 months away thing has been with us for at least three months. Are we in some kind of time warp where time stands still?

willabur

prawnsambo wrote: »

The 12 months away thing has been with us for at least three months. Are we in some kind of time warp where time stands still?

The thing is that no one knows. Its all best guess. I know Google are anticipating being impacted by Covid19 until spring 2021. My own company has best case, median and worst case projections of Aug, Sept and Dec before sales return to normal.

prawnsambo

willabur wrote: »

The thing is that no one knows. Its all best guess. I know Google are anticipating being impacted by Covid19 until spring 2021. My own company has best case, median and worst case projections of Aug, Sept and Dec before sales return to normal.

There are at least two vaccines in the works. One by a Canadian team was sent for testing early last month. The German one from CureVac is supposed to be at a more advanced stage of testing and could be ready in six months.

People keep talking about twelve months, which is the average length of time it takes to get a vaccine through testing and onto the market. As an example, the H1N1 vaccine took 14 months from the estimated time of the first cases developing. My point was that the twelve months has to start sometime. It can't keep being twelve months.

pakman

prawnsambo wrote: »

There are at least two vaccines in the works. One by a Canadian team was sent for testing early last month. The German one from CureVac is supposed to be at a more advanced stage of testing and could be ready in six months.

People keep talking about twelve months, which is the average length of time it takes to get a vaccine through testing and onto the market. As an example, the H1N1 vaccine took 14 months from the estimated time of the first cases developing. My point was that the twelve months has to start sometime. It can't keep being twelve months.

Also to consider is potential poor results, something like unexpected drug interactions causing delays in the results, or some statistical noise delaying it moving through the stages. Its less likely with vaccines than a new drug I think but it still has to happen.

Any timeline has to take into consideration lots of things. Herd immunity will have a big part to play too as we still don't even know what kind of period of immunity you get after fighting it off.

Roger_007

It’s very hard to know what to believe about this epidemic. Every time I listen to different experts about vaccines and treatment drugs the story seems to change. Nobody seems to know for sure. I don’t think there is an exit strategy from this lockdown and if there is, it won’t be anytime soon.
If some restrictions are removed and the infection rate increases, we will be back to square 1 again.
I’ve become resigned to not seeing the golf course again until September or October at the earliest. It’s not a pleasant prospect but I suppose in the grand scheme of things if we’re all alive and healthy at the end of it we shouldn’t complain too much.

Ollieboy

prawnsambo wrote: »

The 12 months away thing has been with us for at least three months. Are we in some kind of time warp where time stands still?

The CEO of the biggest Pharmaceutical company said yesterday it will be at least early 2021 before they will be able to mass produce the vaccine and that vaccine will go to certain groups first. Testing normally takes two years but he reckons they can get it done in 6 months. Creating the vaccine isn’t really the issue, it’s manufacturing it and tooling up to do that.

So to give it to 8 billion people and yes the herd affect means not everyone needs it, but I would say get yourself prepared!

Sultan_of_Ping

willabur wrote: »

The thing is that no one knows. Its all best guess. I knoxw Google are anticipating being impacted by Covid19 until spring 2021. My own company has best case, median and worst case projections of Aug, Sept and Dec before sales return to normal.

We were told today to plan on continued remote working for at least the next three months, and pretty much every significant project has had its start date pushed to 1 Sept and beyond, and we're spending most our time getting existing work to a point where it can be parked for the foreseeable future.

I think some form of golf may return in a few weeks but, imo, we're months off timesheets and competitions.

RoadRunner

Roger_007 wrote: »

I’ve become resigned to not seeing the golf course again until September or October at the earliest.

My guess (absolute non expert here!) is that hard lockdown conditions will start to be relaxed by the end of April start of May. We'll be playing golf under social distancing conditions by Early May.

Down9194

RoadRunner wrote: »

My guess (absolute non expert here!) is that hard lockdown conditions will start to be relaxed by the end of April start of May. We'll be playing golf under social distancing conditions by Early May.

Please God you are right.

gypsy79

RoadRunner wrote: »

My guess (absolute non expert here!) is that hard lockdown conditions will start to be relaxed by the end of April start of May. We'll be playing golf under social distancing conditions by Early May.

My guess would be the same. But there will be more non periods of golf after too

There are going to be peaks and troughs. First peak is predicted April 11

Some people need to get this thing as herd immunity needs to kick in to make the peaks lower!

Knowing who is immne would also be a huge help which is why WHO recommend TEST TEST TEST