Late this afternoon Los Angeles County Public Health reconsidered the language governing “individual” golf under the terms of the State “Stay at Home” order and that County’s separate “Safer at Home” overlay.
Per that reconsideration, Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation has informed the operators of its 20 municipally owned golf courses that “tee times are limited to no more than 4 players who need not be from the same household. Additionally, both group and private golf instruction are permitted based on the required protocols.”
Those “required protocols” and the protocols governing all else about golf in Los Angeles County, both public and private, under the terms of all extant health orders are contained in the last revision of Los Angeles County’s “Re-opening Golf Courses” order (December 2). We provided it in our last Update, but you can click here to access it again.
We would be remiss (or more accurately, colossally ungrateful) were we not to publicly acknowledge just how hard Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation worked to persuade Public Health of the need to craft language capable of effectuating every safety component of the state stay at home order in a manner consistent with how golf is actually played in the wide open spaces of its 100 plus acres. A big “thank you” on behalf of not just the golfers of Los Angeles County, but the golfers of Southern California’s other 9 counties as well. From the start of the pandemic Los Angeles County, mostly due to its sheer size, has been the most cautious and dilatory among the counties. What it has just done will reverberate with the others in ways that can only inure to golfers’ benefit as we slog through some very difficult days.
# # # # # # #
We have been collecting information from around the Southland about the ways in which different jurisdictions and golf facilities have navigated the opaque language contained in the state as well as various county golf health orders in an effort to discern some sort of consensus or set of best practices. We will share that with you next week as part of a greater report that shares information about some of the other pressing public policy concerns we’re looking at as we finish 2020 and get ready to tackle 2021.
But for today – let’s soak in the good news from the state’s largest county.
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 - The magazine of the SCGA. Find archived Public Affairs articles on the website of the SCGA's award winning quarterly publication.
Read More →In light of the Lower Basin states’ conservation proposal, the Biden Administration has announced that it is temporarily withdrawing the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) published last month so that it can fully analyze the effects of the proposal under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Read More →We had the joy of participating in a meeting of the Duarte City Council a couple of weeks ago in which a very preliminary proposal to repurpose a daily fee 9-hole executive golf course cum driving range as an RV Park / storage facility was all but killed by a City Council that made clear that the rezoning necessary to repurpose the property would not be in the offing.
Read More →Yesterday was National Golf Day. Three hundred (300) golf course superintendents, PGA golf professionals, golf course owners, and leaders of the game’s national organizations descended on Capitol Hill to share 1) the game’s national legislative agenda with Senators and Representatives, and 2) the social, philanthropic, and environmental value golf courses provide for communities across the nation.
Read More →The “suspense” round of legislative Appropriations hearings is scheduled for next week. That is when the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees speed through hundreds of bills that have cleared their committees of reference to see which among them move to their respective floors and which are put on “suspense,” otherwise known as all but dead for the year.
Read More →To live in Southern California is not only to understand how it is possible to be on flood watch and drought watch at the same time, it is to understand also how it is possible to live during the greatest growth period in the game’s history in the most golf starved market in the United States while losing golf courses of all types and sizes.
Read More →Introduced as a spot or placeholder bill on the final day to file bills in this year’s session (February 17), AB 1590 was populated with substantive content subsequent thereto that among many other things would “prohibit the use of any nonorganic pesticide, as defined, or fertilizing material, as defined, at a major coastal resort.”
Read More →A glance at the front page of Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about where California stands with respect to water.
Read More →