Clubs lobbying province to allow golf sooner, not to include the sport if stay-at-home order is extended

With the stay-at-home order expected to end May 20, area golfers are waiting with bated breath as Ontario is considering extending the stay-at-home order into June.

Sam Yawney, president of Golf Sudbury, said his golf courses opened at the beginning of April for a few weeks, but he was forced to shut them down when the province issued the stay-at-home order. He said his golf courses are in great shape, and they are ready to go when golf courses get the green light to re-open.

Tom Arnott, general manager and chief operating officer of Idylwylde Golf and Country Club in Sudbury, is also the past-president of the Central Ontario chapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association, which represents 300 golf courses. It is lobbying the province to allow golf courses to reopen. 

Arnott said Idylwylde typically opens May 6 or May 7. Because Idylewylde is a members’ only golf course, its finances are faring well at the moment, but they are having to pay expenses with no revenue coming.

Like Yawney and every other golf course owner or employee in Ontario, Arnott, too, is baffled by the province’s decision to include outdoor sports like golf and tennis in the stricter measures.

More than 20 million rounds of golf were played in Ontario in 2020, even with a delayed opening due to the pandemic, and not one single case of COVID-19 was reported as a result, said Yawney.

Arnott said the association was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile, the Northern Golf Association told BayToday.com that lockdowns are jeopardizing the industry in Northern Ontario.

Northern Golf Association president Archie Berube penned a letter to the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities asking for support to remove the current restrictions on golf.

"We believe the restrictions should be removed because we believe we have proven that golf is a safe activity during this pandemic," writes Berube. "More importantly, the very survival of an industry that contributes greatly to the health and the economy of Northern Ontario may be at stake if golf courses remain shuttered."

The Ontario Science Table, a volunteer panel of doctors and epidemiologists that advise the province on its pandemic response, has said outdoor activities are safe, seeming to contradict the province’s restrictions on certain outdoor pastimes, like golf.

Solicitor General Sylvia Jones defended the provincial decision, saying shutting down activities like golf wasn’t done because they are unsafe, but because during the stay-at-home order, limiting people’s ability to move around regions and the province is important — she said the science table’s own advice was to limit people’s movements.

Both Yawney and Arnott said while the idea to shut down golf is illogical, they would not go as far as a Tillsonburg golf course that defied stay-at-home orders and opened during the lockdown. 

The Bridges at Tillsonburg faces fines of up to $10 million if convicted of charges laid by OPP under the Reopening Ontario Act. 

Yawney said he wouldn’t want those fines, nor to lose his licence as a result. 

Yawney said there’s no chance he will open up the courses before he gets the go ahead by the province to do so.