Some epochs stick out like a proverbial sore thumb. Each one has a year folded inside it, and some are best forgot, like 2020.
For most of us, it was the year of living dangerously, when a spiky headed serial killer that was invisible to the eye, carried a deadly payload and left in its wake sickness, death, and societal disruption. It also knee-capped the world economies.
How gruesome to watch loved ones die alone in care homes, or hooked up to ventilators, or wrapped in body bags, piled high in refrigerated trucks. The bad news feed ran on an endless loop.
Stalwart business sectors like restaurants, bars, travel and tourism fell like ten pins. The “retail apocalypse” even pushed iconic stores over the cliff.
Now the virus is riding a new wave, unnerving us because there are no guarantees we’ll get back to normal. We need guarantees. We need normal.
But enough of this danse macabre, my scary Stephen King plotline.
In the midst of all this, we found a lost love, and it was this past year’s saviour.
Golf is the hottest leisure pursuit on the planet. It’s the proverbial (I hate to use that word again) light at the end of our tunnel. When the provincial governments mandated “shelter in place” rules in the early days of the virus, the golf season was just springing back to life. But the directives were temporary, and once clubs did re-open, the “trampoline effect” (which gives elasticity to a driver’s clubface) came into being, propelling the game to untold new distances.
The explosion was like a DeChambeau bomb at Winged Foot.
But golf, the hottest participation sport on Earth?
Believe it. The game’s stakeholders are giddy, and eager to comment on this implausible turnaround.
Laurence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada: “Golf has been a silver lining, a bright light.”
Ottawa’s Jeff Calderwood, CEO of the National Golf Club Owners Association of Canada (NGCOA): “We’re tracking for record setting 2020 results! What is even more impressive is the 2020 year-to-date [July] increase of 9.3 per cent nationally, considering the late start to this season.”
Montreal’s Ted Fletcher, head of the Mint Green Group: “The pandemic has changed all our lifestyles, and golf is a safe haven – outdoors, already socially distanced. It has led us here, to a revival of our game.”
Calderwood again: “Rounds played reports for the month of July showed an increase of 25.5 per cent nationally year-over-year. All provinces were up by double digits.”
Ted Fletcher again: “The markets led us in the right direction. This has been a windfall for the golf business.”
Others were taking the pulse of the game and finding a patient on the mend.
Brian Decunha, long-time owner of Dragon’s Fire Golf Club near Hamilton: “We’ve had to turn away as many players as we’ve booked this year. It’s amazing. We’re 100 per cent ahead of last year. In a good year, you might see 10, maybe 20 per cent growth. Fifty is over the moon. One hundred? OMG!”
The final numbers aren’t in yet, but the anecdotes are flying, and anyone who has spent hours on their cell, or tried to book a tee-time on social media this past year, is unsurprised by this column.
Has the pandemic actually saved the game? The jury is still out, but industry bigwigs are clicking their heels. The worry now is that this season might be a one-off.
Decunha again: “I’d settle for 70 per cent of the business next year compared to what we did in 2020.”
Golf is at a tipping point. Owners have to keep the momentum going. The game is attracting younger players, the 20- and 30-year-olds. The industry can’t afford to gouge these new players, bumping up prices to make up for lost revenues.
Owners like Decunha think it’s crucial to keep the game affordable. The movement to more people working at home means they have flexible hours, giving them a chance to golf and then work, or work and then golf.
Golf Canada has tried almost everything to plump up dwindling participation numbers, but no one saw the pandemic as a catalyst to systemic change. This is all a little mystifying because Covid-19 initially wreaked havoc on the season, pushing it back, then opening under heavy restrictions.
Applebaum again: “Looking back, I’m proud of the way the entire industry came together… and the way the operators handled play. The golf clubs, the operators, and owners, did an exceptional job.”
A record number of recreational rounds were registered with Golf Canada, topping out at 1.5 million in August. The Golf Canada Foundation even set up a Covid-19 Golf Relief Fund, giving $400,000 to subsidize personal protective equipment for golf course employees, as well as sanitization, hygiene, and protective material expenses. It also subsidized rounds of golf for front-line workers, and juniors.
It wasn’t all great news, however: the RBC Canadian Open and CP Women’s Open were cancelled, and national amateur championships were shelved. Travel in Canada was also restricted. The great PEI courses were out of bounds.
The industry lost tons of ancillary business due to declines or elimination of food and beverage, corporate tournaments, weddings, and limited shopping in the pro shops.
I still recall my first round after being isolated in place. Standing on the first tee at Millcroft in Burlington, I felt disoriented, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and awaking in Wonderland. Everything seemed out of place, bigger, greener, freer.
Being cooped up had narrowed my focus, broken my bond with Mother Nature. My first drive felt as if I was throwing off my shackles, and my second shot to the green was an 8-iron, crisply hit, and landing softly, checking up quickly. I now recall the famous quote from the late English golfer Henry Cotton, who scored three Open titles. He said those shots were “moments of poetry.”
The round went by way too fast, but each shot was a liberating moment. I missed the big parts of the game, but also the subtle nuances, and the most enduring takeaway was the camaraderie with my playing partners.
I didn’t realize until afterwards how much the consolation of golf could ease the anxieties of the pandemic. But as another writer often said, “longing on a large scale is what makes history.”
That longing for golf during the shut-down, and the chance to play again, saved my spring, summer, and fall. It even changed my perception of 2020 – still awful, but livable.
I’m happy others have fallen in love with the game in 2020. I hope the game gets inside them, as it got inside me.
I won’t take the game for granted ever again.
Each round this past year was like taking a swig of elixir. Every shot, good or bad, moments of poetry.
