The definitive explosion of golf in times of pandemic: "We are not all 'Cayetano'

• Report: Expanding the courses or limiting the technology in clubs and balls: How can golf go back to being golf?

Only a few minutes pass from 10.30 am in the middle

week

.

Beyond the echo of

adventures

in the

, Fernando pedals smoothly, under the clink of the head of his irons as he passes through Ventisquero de la Condesa.

Park your bike at the

(Madrid) and check that all the material on your back is intact.

Perhaps it is one of the last spring mornings that fall has left, he walks quickly with his little bowl

sa towards him

from hole one.

It is a working Thursday and the golf course car park, created by the

(RFEFG) 15 years ago, it is crowded.

they push their carts across the asphalt, they apologize for not being able to answer my questions, they are also late for their golf class.

About two thousand students take classes in the school of the center. Golf is fashionable in times of world pandemic.

The last four months has seen the highest player growth in the last 10 years.

Since the

they found their refuge in what is considered the safest sport.

The average growth of new players in recent months represents 41% compared to the same period last year.

“Golf is a healthy sport, with security protocols for Covid-19 that are working.

It is a sport that has many more virtues and people are discovering it ", he confesses

from across the spectacular greenery of the golf course.

He is the Marketing Director of RFEG and the person in charge of trying to channel all the flood of new players. Recently, several reports were published on the virtues that golf, one of the most important is endorsed by the

and published by the

argues that the life expectancy of a golf player compared to another who is not, is five years longer.

“If a safe activity against Covid had to be invented,

“This is how resounding Javier Insula, vice president of the Spanish Association of Golf Courses, is.

This sport maintains safe distances and is practiced in an open and healthy environment, and to this we must add that the protocol approved by the fields is being applied effectively.

"There are people who have not been able to continue practicing their usual sports, since they do not give them confidence and end up coming to golf," explains Guilebalde as one of the arguments for growth.

«

», Insula indicates:« It is a new situation that favors that people can better manage their time ».

Although not everyone who plays golf has the same luck;

David worked behind a bar and continues to be punished by ERTE, while the situation is resolved, he has returned to the golf courses.

«I started playing years ago and with work and family I had to quit, but now I have decided to go back and come to play with my friends,

", it states.

Playing at the National Golf Center costs from 17 to 40 euros.

No matter how hard certain political parties strive, golf is no longer elitist.

"You don't see many 'cayetanos' around here, we are normal people", concludes David. The transfer of bags and golf carts continues on this working Thursday in the capital of Spain.

It is paradoxical that not even the Jon Rahm effect has managed to drag in as many new golfers as the Covid-19 effect.

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