Although one of the four states that are still enforcing the statewide ban on golf, two Massachusetts golf courses are planning to reopen despite COVID-19 orders.
The owner of Kettle Brook Golf Club in Paxton and Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston announced that she will open her courses within the next few days. Both Kettle Brook Golf Club and Wachusett Country Clubs are public clubs.
Owner of both clubs, Cara Cullen, said her want to open does not derive from lack of believing in the severity of COVID-19 – in fact, her mother-in-law died as a result of a COVID-19. “I think it’s serious. And my four children never saw their grandmother again and haven’t been able to properly grieve. So I do recognize how real this virus is,” Cullen told FOX News. “At this point, unfortunately, if we don’t open in a few weeks, we’re done.”
However, more than a month has passed since she was forced to shut down her golf courses, which had been a financial burden. Between the two businesses, she oversees roughly 30 full-time employees and 60 part-time employees who work at the property restaurants and banquet halls. Cullen told Fox News she “pretty much let all of them go” and that it has been her two brothers who are maintaining the courses and upkeeping the grounds.
Although working hard to deem golf essential, the Alliance of Massachusetts Golf Organizations still has not heard whether golf can resume in the state of Massachusetts. Governor Baker’s initial target date for golf courses to reopen has been then delayed to May 18. However, it was the governor’s recent rollout of an “advisory board” for businesses and state officials to form a plan to reopen the local economy.
