Here’s some amazing stories emanating from golf clubs during COVID-19

From a golf club that’s inspiring the industry to raise money for the NHS to ones that have been distributing food, the coronavirus has brought out the best in many golf clubs.

For example, several golf clubs have been running a takeaway service for members so that they can eat while socially distancing during the pandemic.

Royal Jersey Golf Club posted this image on Twitter to show its kitchen staff were still able to work despite the club being closed.

Other clubs have opened their courses to members of the public so they can walk across them for their daily exercise.

Reading Golf Club in Oxfordshire, for example, said walkers can enter the private site.

This also applies to its land at Caversham Heath Golf Club where it is to relocate.

Walkers are asked to stay away from closely mown areas of the fairways, tees, bunkers and greens, and dogs are allowed on condition that owners clean up their mess.

Club chairman Colin Reed said: “These are unprecedented times and we would like to make our land available to residents for essential exercise.

“We will continue to offer this facility during our closure as long as we can and as long as our instructions are fully observed.

Reading Golf Club

“The ability to get some fresh air and exercise will be the salvation for many and our board and members are keen to do what we can to support everybody.”

However, the manager of Reading Golf Club, Gary Stangoe, said that while this policy works for his club, it won’t for most.

“Every club must be left to make their own choice and for most it won’t be appropriate,” he said.

In other news, Tiverton Golf Club has said anyone who buys an annual membership subscription today will get the full 12 months ‘from the day the first ball is struck at the end of the crisis’.

And Duddingston Golf Club in Scotland has said it will run a fundraiser for the NHS when the pandemic is over.

In a post on Twitter, the club said: “Perhaps to our shame, it is maybe only in unprecedented times like this that we all begin to fully appreciate the truly amazing and selfless service that our NHS staff provide for us all.

“In recognition of this and by way of a small thank you, Duddingston Golf Club have nominated our medal on Sunday 27th September to be a fundraiser for NHS.

“We will ask all competing players to pay an entry fee of a minimum of £3 (with absolutely no maximum!) and all monies collected will be donated to the NHS.

“We will make our donation to the Emergency Department at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

“How good would it be if we could get every one of Scotland’s 550 clubs to join us? Perhaps we could even get every club in Britain and Ireland to join us as well.”

Other clubs have said they will follow suit.

Steven Brand, the match secretary at Aberdour Golf Club said: “Great idea. Aberdour would be happy to follow suit and once our revised fixture list is decided, we will similarly nominate a specific medal.”

Meanwhile, one of Spain’s leading golf resorts, La Manga Club, has donated different types of food to three local charities to support the work they are doing during this global crisis, and The Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club has offered all 30 of its bedrooms to the NHS until the coronavirus pandemic subsides.