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Column: No good walks spoiled as golf courses shuttered
The Associated Press ^ | April 10, 2020 | By TIM DAHLBERG

Posted on 04/10/2020 4:59:37 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

It was probably just coincidence that Nevada’s governor issued an order closing golf courses just a few hours after a newspaper photographer tweeted a picture of O.J. Simpson playing 18 holes in Las Vegas.

Simpson himself seemed resigned to it, tweeting in a video later that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

“This is serious ... people are losing their lives,” he said.

Before Gov. Steve Sisolak acted on Wednesday, the idea of people playing golf during the pandemic was already being debated on social media. There was predictable outrage among some, who said golfers were flouting social distancing guidelines by playing in foursomes even if they weren’t allowed to share a golf cart.

Then again, it might have just been the optics of people out enjoying themselves on the golf course that set off people hearing about it from inside their homes.

So on the day the Masters was supposed to open, golf courses around the Silver State were being closed. Restrictions on other businesses were tightened and churches were being told not to allow people to gather on Easter Sunday as the state clamped down further on social distancing.

Golf courses were closed on the same day in hard hit New York, too, after golf was labeled a non-essential business. And in Texas, the governor told local leaders in a conference call that golf courses were not essential and would have to be shut down.

The recreation debate is one that is playing out across the nation. It’s not just golf, of course, with gyms closed everywhere and almost every activity or sport long since shut down.

Hikers complain so many people are flocking to trails that it is impossible to maintain distancing guidelines.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: china; golf; pandemic; virus
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To: Clutch Martin

“This is serious ... people are losing their lives,” (OJ Simpson)

OJ should know about people losing their lives!


21 posted on 04/10/2020 5:58:36 AM PDT by gbscott
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To: metmom

More like it set off the politicians who can’t stand the thought that someone might be enjoying themselves without their permission or approval.

They’re finding out there are people they can’t control that that sets them off.


I think there are enough tyrants-in-waiting out there that there’s a supply well beyond the sphere of politicians.


22 posted on 04/10/2020 6:01:04 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: Clutch Martin

How despicably ironic! sheesh!


23 posted on 04/10/2020 6:03:02 AM PDT by V V Camp Enari 67-68 (Viet Vet)
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To: proxy_user
Cups are up, so there is not putting out

I have no idea what that means.

24 posted on 04/10/2020 6:03:13 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

As long as they’re not all washing their balls at the same location, I don’t see why golf is a problem. Until they go into the 19th hole together and drink up.


25 posted on 04/10/2020 6:07:17 AM PDT by Old Yeller (Under construction)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Outside is closed until further notice.


26 posted on 04/10/2020 6:33:59 AM PDT by cdcdawg ("Americanism, not Globalism, will be our credo." DJT 2016)
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To: palmer

It means they raised the cups at the holes 1-2 inches. So the ball can’t go in the cup. You hit the cup it is considered holing out. Many people that 3 putt the green will love this.


27 posted on 04/10/2020 6:39:56 AM PDT by Bruce Kurtz
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To: palmer

They pull the cup liner up about an inch above the ground. When you putt, you just have to hit the cup and pick up your ball. Nobody touches the flag.


28 posted on 04/10/2020 6:42:18 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Here in Michigan where we have long winters, Spring is when we can finally get outside and unwind and recover from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) unlike folks who winter in the warm states and are outside every day down there.

For me, softball is my salvation, for others it's golf. Unfortunately we can't do that now due to the mandatory closure of the golf courses and the park where we would normally play softball.

So the relief we finally get when Spring arrives is not here this year and we don't know when it will get better. I'd like to see what the divorce rates and suicide rates will be throughout the country for the year 2020.......

29 posted on 04/10/2020 6:51:55 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (How did I survive the Swine flu and the killer flu of 2017-18 without govt. help?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So...if I head on down to my local “shuttered” golf course, can I slip onto the 10th hole and shoot me some golf, unnoticed? Or are their maintenance people still working the grounds? This time of year, the grasses are dormant so I don’t see a need for watering and cutting.


30 posted on 04/10/2020 6:55:31 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Gender-based outcomes donÂ’t matter if gender doesnÂ’t.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

And if it wasn’t clear...that was sarcasm.


31 posted on 04/10/2020 6:57:01 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Gender-based outcomes donÂ’t matter if gender doesnÂ’t.)
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To: proxy_user

Don’t touch the flag. And I don’t have to worry about this very often. Make sure that everything is sanitized Afterward if I accidentally go in the hole.


32 posted on 04/10/2020 7:14:34 AM PDT by bugman
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To: Dr. Pritchett
“ Hikers complain so many people are flocking to trails that it is impossible to maintain distancing guidelines.”

Anecdotal evidence rules the day!!

We live in a tourist trap area of hiking trails.

Very much the case.

We went to several local trail heads, plenty of cars parked, started out on one trail, encountered 2 gaggles of hikers going in opposite directions, brushing by one another on the narrow trail.

We went back to the car and went to an area of logging roads no suburban or urban hiker will ever know exists.

Nobody there, probably within 5 miles.

33 posted on 04/10/2020 7:57:34 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: Mogger

“2 gaggles of hikers going in opposite directions, brushing by one another on the narrow trail.”

Essentially, it’s civil disobedience because even the peasants know their govt is full of it. They are outdoors. and I bet none of them became ill.

My comment was originally about “Hikers complain...” typical of modern journalism. As if “Hikers complain…” is proof of anything.


34 posted on 04/10/2020 8:41:11 AM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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To: dennisw
WuhanV cannot infect in the great outdoors due to wind currents and sunlight. Golfers only need to keep a 4ft distance, then play as long as they like.

Depending on the wind, and who is or isn't a carrier of the virus (which you don't know usually), a foot can be fine, or 6 feet not enough.

Best is a crosswind between people.

35 posted on 04/10/2020 10:07:44 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Another example of the insane absolute herd mentality that has overcome many state and local governments.

In a sister’s area in Southern California they have closed all the cemeteries to anybody except the actual workers placing the urn or casket in the ground. She was planning on putting flowers on the graves of our parents and a sister in law this weekend, for Easter. The stupidity of government has blocked that.


36 posted on 04/10/2020 10:44:35 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: StoneRainbow68

FWIW, I don’t see anything wrong with Golf Courses remaining open and if not used as walking trails.

FWIW, if you do play golf, the 6 ft rule is obvious but far less risky that going to a supermarket.

The larger risk on a golf course is the irrigation water. Wastewater treatment IF it uses ultraviolet light and plenty of disinfectant (Chlorine) contact time in a contact chamber, then the tertiary reuse of water is probably OK.
Just remember, that secondary treatment of wastewater, which is what usually happens on a golf course, at best, doesn’t remove virus.

So the Irrigation water, if previously exposed to somebody infected, who say sneezes or spits on the ground, or wipes their ball with un-sanitized hands, might be contaminated with the virus.

Even if the golf course uses fresh water to irrigate, they typically are designed to drain towards the ponds, water hazards, where reeds and weirs provide primary treatment or irrigation water, and it is then recycled to waterfalls and to the irrigation system.

Even the spray from irrigation or water feature fountains might pose some degree of risk. Albeit rare, if there is risk in personal contact, then the risk also flows to recycled irrigation systems. If they tend to be safe, you should be able to smell the chlorine odor or mild bleach in the air around the ponds.


37 posted on 04/10/2020 10:58:41 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

This is how the Nazis got their people to send jews to the gas chamber. We act shocked, but look at how liberals in this country are ready to turn in their fellow americans just because of fear.

In Germany, it was ‘the jews will get you’. Now it’s “The golfers will give you COVID”.

In Virginia, we are allowed to golf.

Actually, we were going to be allowed to go to the drive-in theater as well. But some Nazi stormtroopers took to facebook, and attacked the poor people running the drive-in so horribly that the drive-in changed their mind and stayed closed, even after receiving permission from the government for their plans.

Because some people are like “if I am stuck inside, nobody can have ANY fun at all”. Like I said, Nazi stormtroopers have nothing on the liberals in america.


38 posted on 04/10/2020 12:09:47 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Clutch Martin

OJ Also chimed in to say he thought Carole Baskins killed her husband.


39 posted on 04/10/2020 12:10:59 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Cvengr

THey have been doing surveys of wastewater. They are finding a lot more COVID than they expect. It is a way to tell what the population of infected people are.

But even at elevated levels, the virus in water is not enough to be a danger.

I would not worry about wastewater being used for irrigation on a golf course. Assuming you are not showering in it, which is bad for obvious reasons.


40 posted on 04/10/2020 12:15:06 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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