Stay-at-home order increases golf traffic in Beaufort County
Published 5:38 pm Thursday, April 16, 2020
- GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE: Bath Elementary student Luke Alligood takes a shot off the tee. He and his family has spent a lot of time on the links during the stay-at-home orders issued by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. (Caleb Alligood)
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Folks around Beaufort County have taken to the links to provide an opportunity to stay active and get outside of the house.
Each of the golf courses in Beaufort County — Cypress Landing, Washington Yacht & Country Club and Bayview — all report an uptick in golfer traffic, while abiding by Centers for Disease Control recommendations and social-distancing regulations.
Claudia Alligood at Bayview Golf Course said staff is constantly sanitizing everything.
“People have come out for all the open air and have been social distancing — they’re still having a great time,” Alligood said. “We have a whole list (of precautions) posted on the door. We are asking golfers to practice social distancing; we’re limiting the clubhouse to two people at a time. We do not have an ATM right now, so we’re asking people to have correct change. We’re asking golfers not to remove flags from the holes; the carts are sanitized after each use; and we ask for people to use one cart per person, unless they’re a member of the same family.”
Alligood said counters, doors, doorknobs and commodes inside the clubhouse are being sanitized often during the day.
Jeremy Shadle, the head golf professional at Cypress Landing is taking similar precautions.
“The PGA of America guidelines that came out, we’ve adhered to those and the CDC,” Shadle said. “We’ve required players to take an individual golf cart or walk the course, they can’t share a golf cart unless that person is a family member that lives in the same home. We have begun sanitizing every golf cart before and after use on all the touch points. … We sanitize them again when the day is over and in the mornings. We also require new pencil and scorecards for each round somebody takes. As far as the clubhouse, we have limited it to 10 people. The clubhouse is being sanitized at all the touch points hourly, like the doors, knobs, handles, light switches, anything that golfers or our staff members touch.”
There are no flags currently present on the golf course, the holes were moved to the center of the greens and are now cups that sit about two inches above the green. The cup stops the ball from going in the hole, so a golfer doesn’t have to reach into the hole to retrieve it.
Washington Yacht & Country Club remains on normal business hours, and staff is sanitizing all touch points. The 19th Hole restaurant on site is doing take-out orders only at this time.