Three Island courses – at La Moye, Les Mielles and Wheatlands – have remained open throughout lockdown but all competitions are currently on hold until restrictions imposed to deal with Covid-19 are eased.
Government of Jersey guidelines state that casual golf is an accepted form of exercise within the permitted two-hour window of outdoor activity, although all three clubs are restricting play to nine holes. They have also adopted a raft of health measures to abide by social distancing regulations – including ‘household only’ golf for maximum groups of two.
JGU secretary Robert Newton admits that Islandwide tournaments are unlikely to return until at least July, although decisions will be made at four-week intervals.
The 2020 Seniors League and the Gothard Trophy – a junior qualifier for the Matchplay Championships – are due to take place in the next month, followed by Island and Channel Island Championships in June and July.
‘We just have to wait for the government to tell us what we can and can’t do,’ said Newton.
‘The problem is the social distancing. You can go into lockdown and stop everything but after that … in competitions the big problem is with the cards and recording your score, because obviously you’ve got to give your card in and people have got to check them. It’s not easy.
‘It’s fingers crossed at the moment.
‘We’re looking from the end of July onwards but that means the Island Championship won’t happen. That’s scheduled for June and it will probably be postponed, and we have the inter-insular finals in July too.
‘There is a chance we could play it in September, yes, but we also have the team inter-insular then and we’re also tied down with the travel. We can’t really make any decisions on those things until we know about travel.’
Newton added that the Jersey Ladies Golf Union has also put all events on hold.
‘We’ll all just be making decisions as we go, based on government guidelines,’ he said. ‘If there is the possibility of replaying events later in the year, we will try our best.’
