The National Golf Foundation reported Monday that only three states remained closed to golf with no announced plans of when courses might reopen in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic: Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Washington’s courses are allowed to reopen May 5, and New Hampshire’s tracks are clear to start play May 11. Alaska is closed because of seasonality. The rest of the 50 states are open, albeit a few with some restrictions still in place at the city or county level.
The NGF reported last week that 58 percent of the courses in the U.S. were open as of April 26, and that is expected to pass 80 percent this week when numbers are updated.
Eight states – Illinois, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – have cleared their courses to open in the past 10 days. There also has been significant easing of local restrictions in New York, Hawaii and California.
For example, in California most southern counties with the exception of Los Angeles County have cleared golf. Six San Francisco Bay-area counties cleared golf May 4, the NGF noted in its report.
The rest of the industry is coming back to life after the coronavirus pandemic also. Off-course golf retail shops are reopening in several states such as Florida, and several top resorts have announced plans to restart the game and reopen accommodations after having been shuttered for more than a month.
For example, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon plans to reopen May 11, Destination Kohler in Wisconsin has opened several of its options for accommodations to go along with the recent seasonal opening of Whistling Straits, and Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina will begin accepting hotel guests on May 22 to play its courses, which did not close during the pandemic.
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