More than 6,000 new licensees in one year: health restrictions and various confinements have an unexpected effect on a sport, golf, which is practiced outdoors and without social distancing.

Report in the South-West, where attendance at the Bordeaux-Lac club is increasing in unexpected proportions. 

REPORTAGE

"I've been thinking about it for a long time and now I have a little more time, working at home", testifies a new lover of the little white ball interviewed by Europe 1 at the Bordeaux-Lac club, in the South -Where is.

This neo-golfer is one of the 6,000 new licensees identified in one year for this activity, one of the few authorized despite social restrictions and various confinements against Covid-19.

And for good reason: it is practiced outdoors, without necessary distancing. 

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"I am on partial unemployment, this is the opportunity"

"There are a lot of young people, and this is very recent, there was not that before the Covid", notes Hubert, teacher of the club, who continues the lessons with these beginners of the swing.

There are children of the country who usually work in Paris, returned for confinement, but also locals.

"I've only been playing for a fortnight" smiles a student, praising "the possibility of being outdoors." 

At the club level, this enthusiasm is reflected in the figures.

"In three months, we already have 80 new players while at the end of March we were hoping for about twenty. So we are four times above our expectations", enthuses Aurélien Hochart, director of golf in Bordeaux. -Lake.

"Young people or at least young, people in a couple, people who tell us: 'I am on short-time working, this is the opportunity to do it now….'"

"It's a sport without a mask"

Regarding health protocol, the rules are few and simple.

"We ask the players to wear the mask as much as possible in the parking lot, the mask is compulsory in the club house area," explains the manager.

"And by the time they get to the start, they can take the mask off. It's a sport, so it's maskless."

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No question for the players to touch the flags on the greens, and not to rake in the bunkers, those sand pits which mark out the courses.

On the other hand, distributors of hydroalcoholic gel have been placed all over the place.