ST. LOUIS —
Golf courses across the St. Louis area are implementing safety guidelines to protect golfers and staff members while keeping courses open.
The Legends Country Club, a private golf course in Eureka, MO, has nearly 500 members and is taking safety seriously to ensure all golfers remain healthy.
“Single cart riders,” Legends Country Club Head Golf Professional Brian Schmersahl said. “We have closed our clubhouse. We’re just doing takeout that we deliver to the curb to the members. Encouraging a lot of walking. We are sanitizing golf carts before, after. We have GPS on the carts. So, we’re using GPS for scoring so we don’t have scorecards, pencils, things of that nature going to and from people.”
On Thursday, The Legends accounted for 111 rounds of golf, which has encouraged them to continue speaking with local and national resources on the best-updated methods for safety moving forward.
“You know obviously utilizing our resources with PGA of America, Metropolitan, our local association,” Schmersahl said. “This is a tight-knit group of people, and we lean on each other for a lot of this stuff to happen.”
Schmersahl said the Legends has also held regular executive board meetings to make sure all staff members are sanitizing regularly, and only coming to work if they’re healthy.
This comes into play in ensuring all members who order curbside service are doing so safely. The country club is providing takeout five days a week.
“People are calling,” Schmersahl said. “Ya know, we had a record number last night for fish specials on takeout. We’ve actually seen our revenue grow.”
“Since we are situated within The Legends subdivision, and 200 of the homeowners are members, our curbside service has been stellar,” Legends clubhouse director Rob Stewart said. “Our revenue has pretty much equaled what we would do when we were fully open for a la carte dining. The members have been very supportive.”
Public golf courses, like Forest Park Golf Course, have implemented similar safety guidelines.
According to ForestParkGC.com, the course requires that all golfers reserve a tee time online, and pay by credit card only to follow social distancing protocol.
Forest Park is also modifying the course’s putting greens in which golfers will be able to retrieve the ball without touching surfaces.
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