Staff Reporter – The Zimbabwe Daily
Harare, Zimbabwe – The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous effects towards the country’s golfing fraternity.
Local and international tournaments have either been cancelled or postponed which has left many golfers without an income.
“COVID-19 has disrupted the sport in a huge way. Firstly, there was no golfing activity for almost 2 months which left the golf clubs without any significant revenue in that period yet the costs of maintaining the golf courses remained the same.
Furthermore, professionals who earn their money from coaching where also severely affected. All the tournaments have been indefinitely postponed amongst them the prestigious Zimbabwe Open which usually attracts a lot of foreign players into the country.
However, the government and other stakeholders have been very supportive during this pandemic, what is important to understand and appreciate is that this is a unique situation which nobody anticipated and in the whole process some mistakes will be made.
I believe we are all working towards one goal which is to ensure that the sport can be played with minimal risk to participants and support staff. The process might be viewed as taking long by others but eventually things will return to some form of normalcy when it is safe to do so.
On the issue of resuming the sport, currently the safety and health of everyone is the number one priority, that being said, golf is one of the safer sports that can be played in this pandemic as it allows for social distancing. Currently it has been classified as low risk and has been allowed to resume for training purposes only.
However, the association will be guided by the government and medical experts on the next steps forward,” said Mufaro Chivonivoni, president of the Zimbabwe Golf Association.
