Could This Pave The Way For Golf Re-Opening In England?

Golf’s chances of re-opening in England before the end of lockdown 3.0 may have received a couple of major boosts today.

The first was that the petition to allow golf to be played surpassed the 100,000 signatures it needed to prompt parliament to consider a debate.

Something else potentially positive is the fact that angling has been allowed to continue during lockdown after initially being banned.

That’s after the Angling Trust “promoted the huge benefits of fishing on individual health and wellbeing” and were “able to present a case to which the Government have listened.”

“Fishing is allowed as exercise so long as participants adhere to the rules on staying local, gathering limits, social distancing and limiting the time spent outdoors,” The Head of Sports Participation at DCMS confirmed.

This sounds very similar to what is going on with golf at the moment, with England Golf’s CEO Jeremy Tomlinson confirming that he, and the wider industry, are challenging the government to allow the sport to re-open.

“In excess of two million people could have been looked after here, certainly from a physical and mental wellbeing perspective and I just think it’s an opportunity missed,” Tomlinson told the BBC.

“The government can change that and certainly I, and other organisations within golf, are going to be trying to help them do that.”

Related: England Golf CEO – Closing courses “an opportunity missed”

If anglers are permitted to travel to a lake/river and exercise outdoors with one other, surely this paves the way for golfers to be able to do the same.

Let’s hope the government listen to the golf industry in the same way it listened to the Angling Trust.

Some golfers on social media were asking the same the same question…

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