Manitoba golfers thwarting COVID-19

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This article was published 05/06/2020 (2263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOST sports are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the OK to return to competitive play — but not golf.

Golf Manitoba’s championship season starts today as some of the top male and female players tee off at Winkler Golf Club in the Match Play Qualifier for spots at next week’s Match Play championship round at St. Charles Country Club.

Jordy Lutz, a 29-year-old out of Elmhurst Golf & Country Club who won the Match Play men’s title in 2018, said being able to compete during the pandemic is a huge win for the golf community.

“For a while there it did not look good. COVID has taken over and it’s scaring a lot of people,” Lutz said.

“We’re just so fortunate here. I just saw a tweet earlier today that Saskatchewan is cancelling events left, right and centre. We’re just very lucky and very blessed to be able to play competitive golf. It was looking like a writeoff here for us. It was kind of hard to get motivated to practise with such uncertainty, but I’m very happy that we’re getting a chance to play.”

Lutz isn’t the only happy golfer, and Golf Manitoba director of competitions Lisa Andersen has the numbers to prove it.

“The players have shown their excitement based on the number of players we have registered for the event, which is 110. It’s a very, very good number for us,” Andersen said. “Clearly, they’re excited to play the game and we’re happy that we have the ability and the provincial regulations backing us that we can host competitive golf.”

But it won’t exactly be business as usual on the links this season as there are several precautions in place to make play safer.

“Things may change as provincial regulations ease up but we may not. We may go the entire season with all the protocols and procedures we’re putting in place for this first tournament at Winkler,” Andersen said.

“The biggest thing is, like anywhere else, we have to maintain social distance. Obviously, in the game of golf, it’s a lot easier than pretty much all other sports to do that. There are situations on the course where the players and volunteers have to be mindful. On the green and on the tee that can get very congested, so people will have to be super mindful of that.”

Players can’t touch things such as flagsticks or any objects on the course including benches and garbage cans. To prevent players from reaching into the hole after sinking a putt, courses have added levers to their flagsticks so a putter can be used to pop the ball out. Some courses have placed liners insides the holes to keep the ball near the surface, making it easy to grab or poke out with a putter.

For the most part, Lutz doesn’t expect these things to mess up a golfer’s routine.

“When you’re playing competitive, it’s not like you’re walking down the fairway side by side with your playing partner. Not often, anyway,” Lutz said.

“You’ve got a goal and you’ve got to accomplish that goal and you can’t let other people get in your way. For me, personally, the biggest one is having to leave the pin in from inside 10 feet. I like to have it outside of 10 feet. It’s not a huge deal to me, but having to putt with the pin in probably weighs on a player more than anything else, I think.”

The Match Play Championship was delayed two weeks, but the rest of the Golf Manitoba calendar of events is going ahead as scheduled.

At this point, Andersen doesn’t anticipate any event to be postponed or cancelled.

With all the negativity in 2020, 24-year-old Hannah Diamond, the reigning two-time women’s Match Play winner, said it would be extra special to start this season off with a victory.

“It would definitely take my mind off of a couple other things,” Diamond said. “It would definitely be good and it would be nice to three-peat, I guess.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31