SCGA Public Affairs

MEMO TO LA COUNTY GOLFERS, GOLF CLUBS AND HIGH SCHOOLS (Exceptions:  Long Beach & Pasadena)

Saturday, March 13, 2021

You are no doubt aware that high school sports, including contact sports like football, have been resumed across the county in which you live. You are no doubt aware that LA County moves from the “Purple Tier” to the “Red Tier” Monday. The chart below explains in real-life terms what that means for life in general and in some respects such as indoor dining and indoor shopping, what it means for certain activities at your local golf course or club.


Southern California Counties Prepare to Enter State's Less Restrictive Red Tier – NBC Los Angeles

For golf, two health orders apply, the massive “Safer at Home” order just revised to reflect the county’s move from the “Purple Tier” to the “Red Tier” and the “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order issued February 26 and updated yesterday (effective Monday).

The chart above details the key elements of the revised “Safer at Home” order. Click here to read the 3/15 “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order as it has been slightly amended effective Monday. Among those “slight” amendments is the following language:

“Youth and Adult Recreational Sports operators, coaches, and participants for golf and tennis must also refer to the County’s Golf Course and Tennis Courts protocols, which are specific to those Recreational Sports.”

Why golf and tennis and only golf and tennis? That’s a good question with multiple possible answers. LA County Public Health has for two weeks been informing SCGA, LA County Parks & Recreation, media, and inquiring individual golfers that an update of the “Golf Appendix” to align it with the “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order is “imminent” – an order that would necessarily enable a whole host of previously proscribed activities such as high school golf team competitions, club events, and putting/chipping greens. So, we are going to assume that the most likely answer is that DPH had intended to have already performed that update, but has been so overburdened with the work associated with moving from the “Purple” to the “Red” Tier that they just haven’t been able to get around to it.

Remember, precisely because golf and tennis are such safe activities and thus long permitted, they have long had their own separate enabling “Appendices,” and while San Diego and other large Southern California counties have simply jettisoned their separate appendices in favor of having golf hew to the generic state and local orders, for whatever reason Los Angeles County has elected not to do that. Long Beach has also kept its separate golf appendix, albeit Long Beach did manage to update it in a timely manner. We shared that document with you a couple of days ago but click here if you’d like to review its contents again. Long Beach did a good job with it.

So, if you’re flummoxed by the disconnect between the ability to dine, shop, or even use a gym indoors at your golf club/course and the inability to putt, chip, play in consecutive tee times, or host high school golf matches – you are not alone. Updating the “Golf Appendix” to bring it into alignment with all other active health orders is not a particularly complicated task. Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation long ago developed the required language. Long Beach just adopted a solid protocol. With any luck, and a little cooperation from Los Angeles County Public Health, we won’t be flummoxed much longer.

For those of you who may think that SCGA has not been all over this since the moment the 2/26 “Youth/Adult Sports Leagues” order was issued, please know otherwise. For those of you who may think that SCGA has not directly contacted LA County Public Health and LA County Board Offices on multiple occasions about all of this, please know otherwise.

It is our fondest hope that our next update will be along the lines of the Long Beach update we put out a couple of days ago – the report of a solid effort to align LA County golf with the spirit and letter of all other extant health orders. But as “hope” is not a strategy, we’ll persist until reality matches the promises of LA County Public Health and the expectations of a golf community that amount to nothing more than a plea for equitable consideration.

Archived Updates

Opposition to Assembly Bill 1910

Read More →

CGCOA Golf is Good Ambassador Program

Are you interested in becoming an advocate for golf in California? The CGCOA is seeking amateur golfers who are passionate about protecting the game of golf and promoting public policies that enable golf to flourish in California. Take the next step to becoming an advocate for golf by completing the attached Golf is Good Ambassador Application.

Read More →

FORE - Public Affairs

FORE - The magazine of the SCGA. Find archived Public Affairs articles on the website of the SCGA's award winning quarterly publication.

Read More →

TEE TIME BROKERS: THERE’S MORE

Here's the difference this last week made, and it’s a difference not just in terms of the alacrity with which we can expect the major municipal golf systems to begin implementing mitigations, but also in terms of what the week means in terms of disabusing all notions of golf somehow being underutilized and golfers not as passionate about the object of their affection as others are about theirs.

Read More →

TEE TIME BROKERS

With respect to the furor over tee time brokers making it nearly impossible for Los Angeles Basin’s public golfers to secure tee times at almost any time of the day or week, let’s just say that we’ve seen this picture before.

Read More →

SWRCB REVERSES COURSE WITH REVISED RULE TO EFFECTUATE GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER

Our 1st Public Affairs Update of 2024 reported that the State Legislative Analyst’s (LAO) official take on the State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB) Proposed Rule to effectuate the Governor’s “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” Executive Order was aligned with the criticisms issued by the state’s water agencies/providers.

Read More →

OF BILLS AND SNOWPACKS

Today we update you on two (2) topics of ongoing interest: 1) 2024 legislation, and 2) the two snowpacks (Sierra Nevada & Colorado Rockies) that determine Southern California’s import allocations.

Read More →

AB 3192 [Muratsuchi; D-Torrance]

Read More →

MOTHER NATURE & THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE MAY BE GIVING US AN OPPORTUNITY TO FOCUS ON THE LONG TERM

Last Friday was the deadline for the filing of 2024 bills. Because 2024 is the second year of California’s two-year legislative session as well as a presidential election year, there were fewer bills filed this year than last. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t a lot of filings.

Read More →

Of Water, State Budgets, and “Entertainment” Golf

It’s that time of year when we start to pay close heed to the status of the Sierra snowpack upon which so much of Southern California’s water needs continue to depend – a dependence that the region is busy working to reduce in favor of local supplies – e.g., storm water capture, aquifer replenishment, traditional recycling (non-potable), potable reuse, and desalination.

Read More →