Under the latest guidelines issued by Scottish Golf today, Wednesday 10th March 2021, following the First Minister's statement earlier this week, fourballs will be allowed again at golf courses across Scotland from Friday 12th March with certain conditions.
Members who live within the local authority area where the club is located will be permitted to play in fourballs with no restriction on the number of households involved, if the club have a designated COVID officer.
Clubs with no COVID officer will be subject to the household limits of four people from two households.
Where members are required to travel 5 miles beyond the boundary of a local authority area to play at their club, the informal exercise rules of a maximum of four from two households will apply.
The full statement issued today by Scottish Golf is reproduced below.:-
Following the First Minister’s latest update on COVID-19 restrictions, Scottish Golf welcomes the news that we are continuing to progress through the road map out of lockdown.
Within an hour of the First Minister’s update, Scottish Golf submitted updated guidance to our partners at sportscotland and the Scottish Government. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, this final check can take some time as further details are considered and legislation published.
These checks remain ongoing and must be complete before we can share a full updated version of our guidance to affiliated golf clubs for implementation across the country. However, we do appreciate that clubs require time to make operational changes ahead of any changes coming into place so we have provided this update until such time as we are given the green light to publish a full updated guidance grid.
Guidance previously allowed golfers to travel up to five miles outside their local authority area to take part in informal exercise using household rules.
Yesterday’s announcement to allow organised sport will allow four-ball play with no restrictions on the number of households; however, this is only applicable to members who live within the golf club’s local authority area.
Where golfers are required to travel up to five miles across a local authority boundary, players will be required to adhere to informal exercise guidance which is subject to household limits of 4 players from 2 households.
Therefore, changes announced yesterday mean that from Friday 12 March:
- Golf courses with a designated COVID Officer can permit organised golf for members who live within the local authority area. Play can take place in four-balls with no restrictions on the number of households.
- Golf courses without a designated COVID Officer, or where members are crossing a local authority boundary to play, can remain open for play with a maximum of four players from two households.
- For groups over the age of 12, coaching should not exceed group sizes of 15.
- For groups under the age of 12, coaching should not exceed group sizes of 30.
We anticipate further guidance from our partners at sportscotland and the Scottish Government relating to children and young people. We will communicate these updates to all clubs as soon as possible.
We also look forward to a more substantive update from the First Minister next week relating to the return to a protection levels approach. That update is likely to include more details for clubhouses, retail and travel and will again be subject to the same sign-off process as outlined above.
In the meantime, it is important to remind all golfers that they must remain close to home, travelling only for essential purposes in line with the current travel legislation.
Keep up to date on all the latest COVID-19 updates by visiting the Scottish Golf website.
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