Golf courses offer ‘therapeutic’ opportunities


by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi

Dan Sanders gets in his cart at Golden Eagle Golf Course, where golfers are now urged to walk or have only one player per cart unless they live in the same household. Photo by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi

Who’d have ever thought in a pandemic that playing a round of golf would be a need not a want? So says Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and governors of other states where golf courses are allowed to remain open despite stay-at-home mandates.

Golf courses are an essential business in that they offer exercise and some sanity for a lot of folks struggling with this new norm of working from and being confined at home.

“We are not recreation, we are therapy,” said Don Nelson, PGA golf pro at Golden Eagle Golf Course in Irvington. “I say that jokingly, but really, in all seriousness, it is therapeutic. And people need that right now.”

Except for in the confines of home, golf courses are among the safest places to be at…[to-view-more]