Hold the phone... golf's back on.
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Wentworth and DuntryLeague Golf Clubs will reopen their courses on Thursday after the NSW Office of Sport announced it had reconsidered its stance on the continuance of golf, suggesting play could go on if clubs complied with the social distancing laws.
Even though it's been an arduous couple of days, Wentworth Golf Club General Manager James Bale said the overall outcome is a good one, despite the back-and-forth nature of the process.
"Today we got advice from Golf NSW that there was an error with a couple of government departments," Bale said.
"In light of that, they've advised us that we can play golf again.
"We've made the decision that we'll have social play and competition play with a few changes happening from now on."
Most of the significant adjustments had already been made before Wednesday but these are the updated conditions of play at the Wentworth course:
- One tee hit-off.
- A mandatory ten-minute interval between hit offs.
- Everyone must play off the one tee to ensure all players are heading in the same direction.
- All players must abide by the social distancing laws (minimum `1.5m apart).
- One person per cart, one bag per cart.
- Only two people are allowed inside the pro shop at any one time.
There will also be no mingling allowed as all visitors must leave as soon as play concludes.
Bale knows this will reduce numbers drastically but also holds a safety-first position, suggesting it's the only way to go moving forward.
"It will limit our players from 190 down to about 80 on a day like Saturday," he said.
"We're happy we're back in business and we just want to make sure we do the right thing by the members, golfers and everyone else.
"Each club will have different sets of rules so what we do here won't necessarily be the same as Bathurst or Dubbo."
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