imago images / Sportfoto pack
Works even with a face mask: a hobby golfer on a course in Baden-Württemberg
As long as there is no snow lying around, low temperatures do not necessarily deter golfers from their sport – and neither does Corona. In any case, you can continue to play where the total of 845 clubs on their 722 facilities in Germany allow it in compliance with hygiene requirements and where the corona regulations of the states have no objection to the traffic pattern. “Despite the shutdown, golf is still allowed in twelve countries,” reports Oliver Tzschaschel, press spokesman for the German Golf Association (DGV) jW. Only in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein is there currently a strict no in politics for outdoor sports, which you could otherwise call the winner of the pandemic.
“Corona is the best marketing campaign for us,” says Stefan Quirmbach, President of the German branch of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) jW. Two factors in particular caused a real boom: On the one hand, the occasionally significantly limited travel options in the previous year meant that already active golfers, who otherwise like to putt under the southern sun, increasingly and more often discovered the facilities in their home regions. In addition, the urge of people plagued by the pandemic to take part in risk-free exercise in the fresh air brought many new fans to golf. The upswing is reflected in the latest statistics: “We have never had so many members before,” says Tzschaschel, referring to the history of the association founded in 1907.
In his annual report for 2020, DGV President Claus M. Kobold announced an increase of almost 9,000 memberships. This increased the number of golfers organized between Flensburg and Garmisch to a total of 642,000. A jump of around 1.4 percent, the highest since 2012. Around 25,000 DGV members are listed as “club-free golfers”. In this cheaper option, you save the sometimes hefty annual fee for a special club, instead transfer 200 euros annually to the DGV and prefer to invest in daily flat rates, the so-called green fee, in order to pursue your hobby on as different facilities as possible.
For example, tee times could easily be booked through the clubs’ websites. It is also easy to find out there whether a system is open or whether a winter break is being taken there. Where it is still allowed to play, the “professionals”, or “pro” for short, are happy to give lessons in some form or another – there are 1,300 to 1,400 of them nationwide, two thirds of them are “solo self-employed”. The employment opportunities for coaches or trainers are otherwise rare because of the shutdown in hobby sport.
It is quite possible that, as soon as the sun rises a little higher again, conditions will quickly return to the scene as the national PGA President Quirmbach had observed in the fall: “If new start times are offered on the Internet at midnight, then they will be in a few minutes completely booked. “
