Residents of the Players Creek community voice their opinions on golfing and following social distancing guidelines.
Golfers in the Omaha, Nebraska community are struggling to find a balance between their love of golf, and practicing safe social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The official rules of social distancing have been changing for every state. States such as Georgia are working on reopening, while New York is still receiving a heavy amount of cases each day. The midwest is facing some in-between in these differing regulations. The city of Omaha, Nebraska, has gradually gotten stricter on its stay-at-home orders. Offices are still open, but no more than ten people are allowed to be inside at a time. Restaurants are still serving food, but no one is allowed to dine inside. Despite all city parks being closed, many members of the community are still seen out on the golf courses.
When Omaha released stay-at-home guidelines on March 19, members of the community went racing to the golf courses. Troy Jerkins, Champions Run golf course manager, sent out in a statement to the members that their golf course was booked two weeks in advance, something “unheard of’’ for their normal spring business. At the beginning of this golf craze, there were no specific instructions on how to practice safe social distancing on the golf courses. Jean Stolen, a community member living on Players Creek golf course, said, “I was angry at first when I saw people out on the course, they were packing their golf carts with friends while I was watching them out the window self-quarantining.”
After two weeks of golfing with no guidelines, Players Creek manager Robert Pakins realized there was a need to place restrictions on the manner of golfing they were allowing. Pakins said, “When case numbers in our state started to rise, we realized to protect the safety of our members we should enforce more social distancing rules.” On April 15, about four weeks after city officials in Omaha had released their social distancing guidelines, the golf courses did as well. Pakins explained some of the changes that took place in their facility to enforce social distancing. Each individual is required to take their own cart when they begin the course, the cup that the golf ball goes into has been filled to prevent the golfer from touching the flag to retrieve the ball, and golf clubs are sanitized after every use. Mike Hepin, a frequent golfer on the Player’s Creek course responded to the changes happily. Hepin said, “Golfing is keeping me out of the house, and with these guidelines I can do it salfey.”
There is still some fear among community members that these guidelines are not enough. Stolen said, “I see the golfers leave the club house all in separate carts, but when they are out on the courses they are not practicing social distancing,” Hepin added, “it seems pretty safe when everyone is out on the course, but I get concerned when I head back to the club house and see groups sitting down and having drinks.”
In response to these statements, the Pakins said, “We are definitely doing our best to enforce our guidelines, we can not watch everyone, but our number one priority is the safety of our members.”
With states looking to start reopening their businesses, Pakins says they do not have an official date set for when they will loosen their guidelines, but they are thinking the beginning of June. Until then, members of the community must continue practicing the new guidelines the golf course has set in place.
To read city official’s social distancing guidelines for Omaha, Nebraska click here:
https://www.cityofomaha.org/latest-news/618-new-covid-19-directed-health-measures-begin-may-4
To read more about civil official’s social distancing guidelines related to golf regulations click here:
https://parks.cityofomaha.org/golf
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