A freedom of information request by a solicitor about coronavirus risks from participating in golf has found that the UK government does not know what risks specifically playing golf actually carries.
Amid a backdrop of research emerging that Covid-19 transmission risks from playing golf are likely to be extremely low, Ian Hodgkinson from Hodgkinson Legal submitted a freedom of information request to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) at the end of January.
He asked: ‘What advice and guidance has been given in relation to the playing of golf? Does the government have any evidence of the playing of golf outside causing the transmission of any virus? Please exclude any cases of transmission within clubhouses.’
The government replied stating: ‘I can confirm that DCMS does not have information within scope of your request. Please note that this department does not produce guidance for every sport. For advice on guidance for specific sports, you would again be best advised to refer to the relevant national governing body.’
However, in almost ironic timing, that national body – England Golf – has written to the government to say that ‘golf can be played safely during any stage of a pandemic’. England Golf also said the November lockdown was ‘counter-productive’ and that it was “extremely disappointed with the news, having made a strong case in recent months to keep golf open during national lockdowns,” regarding the current lockdown.
Ian Hodgkinson said: “The government’s reluctance to act quicker in opening golf courses should not be allowed to go unchallenged and certainly not on the spurious grounds that they are following advice and guidance.
“The idea that children should not be able to play sport in the open air but could sit together in enclosed spaces [at school] never did stand up to scrutiny. Nor that two people from different households can go for a walk together (in my case along a very congested canal towpath) whereas two members of the same household cannot play socially distanced golf together in the wide open spaces of a golf course.”
New research has also fount that the chance of being infected with Covid while outdoors is ‘massively reduced’.
Furthermore, scientists have found that the risks are particularly low in fully open spaces such as golf courses.
Researchers found that fresh air disperses and dilutes the virus, and it helps to evaporate the liquid droplets in which it is carried.
On top of that, ultraviolet light from the sun should kill any virus that’s out in the open.
Even so, there are a handful of cases where it’s believed that infections did happen outside.
One study found that two men in China talking face-to-face for at least 15 minutes was enough to spread the virus – so the advice is to avoid being face-to-face if you’re outside with somebody else and less than two metres apart.
As for the virus being on outdoor surfaces such as flagpoles, researchers in the US found the virus on the handles of rubbish bins and the buttons at pedestrian crossings.
They reckon this may have led to infections in the area, though at a relatively low level compared with other ways of spreading the virus.
Many scientists now think that the amount of virus likely to be left on a surface would be minimal, and would disperse within an hour or two.
“The chance of transmission through inanimate surfaces [outdoors] is very small,” says Prof Emmanuel Goldman of Rutgers University.
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