Ready to get outside? Try golfing, but keep your distance

In these uncertain and trying times, it’s nice to know there are still some things to rely on.

Such as golf.

All Tri-City area golf courses are still open as of Thursday afternoon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this week announced measures to keep groups of people from congregating, as the battle to stem the rise of COVID-19 continues.

A lot of those banned situations involve indoor activities.

But outside activities, such as hiking, walking, exercising, are good as long as people use their common sense when it comes to social distancing.

Golf is one of those outside activities.

“The best thing about golf is that it’s wide open outside,” said Mike Lundgren, general manager of Canyon Lakes Golf Course in Kennewick.

As long as we practice social distancing:

• Don’t share a cart with another golfer. Some courses are just charging for one person carts (normally two pay for a cart). Many people are walking to get in some exercise.

• Stay at least 6 feet away from each other on the tee boxes.

• Don’t pick up another golfer’s clubs.

• Leave the flagstick in on the green. Don’t touch a common surface.

• Some courses are saying if your ball lands in a sand bunker, play it as ground under repair, pull the ball out so no ones uses the rake.

• Do not congregate in what is considered the gimme-putt zone, which is anywhere the golf ball is from a few inches to 3 feet from the cup.

• At the end of the round, on the 18th hole, don’t shake hands. Do something else that doesn’t involve touching.

As of Thursday morning, all public Tri-City courses — Canyon Lakes, Columbia Park Golf Tri-Plex, Columbia Point, Horn Rapids, Sun Willows, West Richland, and Zintel Creek — are still open. So is Wine Valley in Walla Walla, a course that considers Tri-Citians as locals.

Every one of them has either their restaurant or snack bar open for business — but only for to-go orders.

No sitting in the restaurant area.

Safety on the course

All golf course proprietors have been following stringent policies when it comes to safety.

Lundgren said Canyon Lakes has canceled two golf tournaments already, due to the nature of tournaments causing too many people in groupings.

“Some of our charity events have hopefully just been postponed and can be played later this year,” said Lundgren.

Brad Rew, who owns Horn Rapids, sent out an email to the public, reminding them what his course is doing — such as disinfecting door handles and common surfaces every two hours in the clubhouse.

The course has disconnected the GHIN computer — where players post their scores to adjust their handicaps — and has recommended posting scores to the GHIN app instead.

All courses have taken to cleaning golf carts after each use, so that they’re clean before the next round.

Tom Bugbee is the chief operating officer of Course Co, a golf course management company in the San Francisco bay area which manages 38 golf courses — including Richland’s Columbia Point, Pasco’s Sun Willows, and Kennewick’s Columbia Park Golf Tri-Plex, as well as Pullman’s Palouse Ridge.

“We have golf courses in six different states, and we work with a whole variety of agencies,” said Bugbee. “Our standards are follow the guidelines of the appropriate agencies.”

That includes the Bay Area, which has a shelter in place order from the governor of California. So a number of Course Co’s Northern California courses are closed for a few weeks.

“We’re doing everything we can,” said Bugbee. “We’ve added intense training and cleaning standards at all of our courses since the beginning of March.”

Bugbee was asked to give one piece of advice to anyone wanting to play golf right now, and each golf course proprietor also said the same thing: “Maintain your social distance.”

Notes

• A Tweet on Tuesday from the Tri-Cities Alliance soccer club: “Tri-Cities Alliance FC will be postponing the tryouts for the 2020 season until further notice. More information will be announced after the first week of April concerning the 2020 season. The league has not canceled the season yet, but is delayed, so watch for updates.

The Alliance plays in the Evergreen Premier League.

• Kennewick High grad Ryen Mullaly-Hawkins, a redshirt freshman, got to see her first action of her collegiate softball career while playing for Hawaii Pacific.

Mullaly-Hawkins, a catcher, played in 12 games for the 14-13 Sharks, going 1-for-12 with an RBI.

• In the Ed Boitano Invitational track meet at the University of Puget Sound on March 7, Pacific Lutheran University’s Andraya Conger (Chiawana) finished fifth in the women’s 200 meters with a time of 27.89 seconds.

The PLU senior also placed seventh in the women’s 100 meters in 13.25 seconds.

Hanford High grad Porter McMichael placed fifth in the men’s 1500 meters. McMichael, who competes for Western Washington University, ran the event in 4 minutes, 6.24 seconds.

• The University of Jamestown baseball team had a 17-5 record when the season was stopped last week.

The North Dakota university baseball team, which plays in the NAIA, has three Mid-Columbians on its roster: junior pitcher Cameron Jenkins (Richland), junior pitcher Gavin Petterson (CBC), and junior infielder Luke Shekeryk (CBC) play for the Jimmies.

Jenkins had 9 relief appearances, had a 2-0 record and one save. With 12.1 innings, he had 14 strikeouts.

Shekeryk was hitting .421, going 16 for 38, with 10 RBIs; and Petterson had two relief appearances.

• The WIAA announced in the past week that a tournament worker at the WIAA 4A and 3A state basketball tournaments in the Tacoma Dome had tested positive for COVID-19. That was announced on March 13.

On Tuesday, the WIAA announced that a spectator at the WIAA 2A and 1A state basketball tournaments in Yakima tested positive for COVID-19.

The spectator was there from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 7.

The WIAA notified all schools and those who were in close contact of the individuals in both cases.

• Kamiakin grad Trystan Vrieling had five relief pitching appearances this spring for Gonzaga’s baseball team.

Vrieling pitched in 8.1 innings, striking out 5 batters. He had an outstanding earned run average of 1.08, and opposing batters hit just a combined .241 against him.

The Bulldogs were off to a 6-10 start this season.

This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 2:47 PM.