Golf- a game played on a large open-air course, in which a small hard ball is struck with a club into a series of small holes in the ground, the object being to use the fewest possible strokes to complete the course.
Right now golf is at peak numbers since I’ve started my “career” working as a clubhouse attendant.
You read that right, courses are opening everywhere and people all over America are hitting the links to run away from their family or just to do something.
I happen to work for the City of Madison public golf courses in Madison, Wisconsin and let me tell you, this is pretty insane.
I work within that clubhouse right there!!
The phones are ringing off the hook and the tee sheet looks like a college students cheat sheet for an exam right now.
With the improvement of the weather in the Midwest as well, people are far to lazy to run, but going to a golf course with a few friends, drinking a nice cold brew, and shanking drives appeals to most.
I will quickly explain how it works for golfing at my workplace:
You have to pay before you come to the course, either online or over the phone, NEVER IN PERSON.
Carts must be reserved over the phone and sanitized after each round used. You also can only put 2 people in a cart if you live in the same house.
There is to be no congregating after rounds and we are not selling beer after, only before rounds to enhance this.
Tee times have been lengthened from 8 minutes apart to 12 minutes apart to promote social distancing.
The clubhouse is closed but we have portable restrooms and hand washing stations outside that get sanitized every 3-4 hours.
The flags are not to be removed and the cups are filled with cut up pool noodles to elevate the ball.
There are no rakes in the sand traps.
I am all for people getting outside, getting exercise and enjoying some time with some people (socially distanced of course)!
However, there are some serious issues with the system right now…
The “regulars” think the course is always open for them, when the case is that playing golf has a higher demand than ever.
Manually inserting credit card information into a system is brutal…
Imagine a person messing up 1 number and having to re-do that. Or having to over the phone tell somebody that their card was declined… awesome.
Every older person that calls when I ask for a card will politely ask me if I am ready for the number. Then, they will tell me that it is a Visa, or Mastercard, or etc. which frankly does not matter at all.
This isn’t really a hassle, it is just an observation and maybe a pet peeve of mine now (if you have ever watched “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Will Smith, he never hangs up the phone rather he just hits the button to save himself an extra 8 minutes each day and every second counts).
Every old person is fearless I swear. They have issues with our rules, they just want to come and have things be normal, and me- a 21 year old with minimal power in the clubhouse- is being given suggestions and told all of the things that I need to change with the current set of rules.
The first weekend in May the course has been extremely busy.
People are calling and making online reservations left and right.
Then somebody calls and asks if we take walk ons, or if at 3PM on a 70 degree sunny Saturday we have any openings (we don’t).
Then guess who the bad guy is for saying we are full, me.
No I can’t squeeze you in, THIS IS A PANDEMIC!
At the end of the day, i shouldn’t complain because I get paid and have a job at this time. In contrast, this is America, nobody can complain better than us, we are world champions!
If you want to go and golf, get exercise, or just get outside, I applaud it and support it fully.
Please stay socially distanced, continue to support local businesses, and treat people nicely over the phone, because everyone is confused right now.
-Jacobs, Noah
Fatstacks 
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