Roll Call: Maryland

Imagine the tee sheet filled with single names from 8 to 6. 10 minutes apart that would be 6 golfers an hour or about 60 golfers per day.

I would be fine with 4somes because I would only be playing with people I’m usually around and not any randos. But I can see how 2somes would allow for more distancing.

Well, that’s a good point. I do worry whether our fellow members can practice proper social distancing. We shall see.

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He just said golf courses would be among the first businesses to reopen but didn’t give a date. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/04/23/coronavirus-dc-maryland-virginia-live-updates/

I think walking only would be a good way to open up. I would bet the first couple of days will be busy, so forcing everyone to walk would help keep the numbers a little lower. But if it’s anything like other things, I would bet they’re just going to open the floodgates…

The Post’s article states “Hogan has said Maryland needs to see declines for 14 consecutive days in deaths, hospitalizations and ICU bed use before he lifts social distancing restrictions.” The graphs for MD are not nearly as easy to analyze when compared to NY, but I don’t see how they will be at 14 consecutive days by May 1.

I was just talking to my wife about this. In PA my course is “open” but technically all courses in the state are shut down. I’m sure they will be opening soon, but I don’t see how opening two weeks from now is any different than two weeks ago? We don’t have widespread testing or a vaccine. Even if numbers go down for 14 consecutive days, aren’t they just going to start spiking back up as soon as we start loosening restrictions?

Reading the DC muni website, they seem to have a decent social distancing protocol in place for whenever they reopen. Ideally I would try a more remote course as well, but I don’t have a car. Is being in an Uber/Lyft en route to a more remote course safer than playing at a social distancing enforced Langston or East Potomac?

I know the easy answer is, “don’t put yourself in either situation”, but what is the point of message boards if not to debate hypothetical situations?! In the mean-time, a new practice chipping net arrived today which should satisfy a little of the golf craving this weekend.

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My hesitance with DC munis is that they’re already some of the busiest courses in the country when there are other things for people to do—I have a feeling they’re going to be extremely crowded whenever they reopen. No idea what uber/lyft are doing regarding social distancing but personally I’d be way more comfortable with that option as long as you’re masked up and there’s a way for you to wipe down your clubs/clean your hands once you get out of the car.

Hogan presser at 3pm to announce reopening plans

Update: Golf is in phase 1 of the reopen. But he stated we need 14 days of plateau before that starts

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So when did/does the 14 days of counting start?

I’m not sure, but this quote from Gov. Hogan this afternoon in the Washington Post does not make me hopeful we will be playing golf in MD soon.

“Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday that he’s waiting for hospitalizations to plateau before he sets a date to reopen the state but that the numbers keep rising.“

“We’re still kind of climbing that curve in Maryland,” Hogan ® said during a Washington Post Live interview with Robert Costa. “We’re a couple of weeks behind some of the other states because of some of the early and aggressive action we took.”

Does this not make sense to anyone else?? Wouldn’t you be ahead of everyone else if you took early and aggressive action?

As I understand it, the idea of social distancing and staying home was and is to lengthen the amount of time the population is infected so the healthcare system is not inundated and overwhelmed with cases. The quote makes sense to me, in that respect.

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Didn’t make sense to me at first, but I guess he’s saying the MD peak is delayed and is not as high or as steep as other regions, due to the quarantine measures taken early on.

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That makes sense. Wasn’t thinking about it that way. I’m really curious as to how the numbers are affected as soon as things open back up. PA is still climbing at a pretty good rate, but seem to be on the backside of the curve. However we’re opening golf courses tomorrow morning. I’m hopeful we don’t see a spike when things are back open.

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You can use the data to say whatever you want

You can say that A) the social distancing worked so therefore the cases never got too high and therefore we should be able to open or B) you can say that we’re still on the climb because we haven’t reached our peak so therefore we need to stay home.

Not surprisingly, very limited tee times available at courses just over the PA border near access points from MD

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It’s a great political statement and use of data hah. Malleable to whatever your argument is for sure.

Yep. And that’s where I live. I want to go play golf, but I have no interest in going to a packed golf course right now.

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