"Can you play golf amid coronavirus concerns? With proper precautions, yes"
/GolfDigest.com’s Mike Stachura offers a lengthy but sensible breakdown of what golfers can do and what should be avoided during COVD-19 “social distancing”.
The golf cart needs to be avoided. Sun is good. And uh, maybe no 19th hole time for now.
Though Dr. Troisi does think golf is a relatively safe activity in the current situation, she does advocate some changes in behavior from how people currently enjoy the game. Riding in a cart with a friend, for instance, puts you within the six-foot range, which is reason to consider walking or taking your own cart. We normally support taking caddies, but that dynamic poses new risk under the current circumstances.
As for the flagstick, despite our scientific evidence that leaving the flagstick in hurts your chances of putts being holed, it’s probably best to leave the flagsticks untouched for the entire day. That said, some important things to remember:
• Though the virus has been shown to stay contagious for two to three days on an inanimate object, those are largely in laboratory settings. “We haven’t done those experiments outside and in sunlight, so the odds are it would be a much shorter time,” Troisi said.
