Our of the rough

by Michael J. DeCicco

Golfing around the South Coast on public courses won’t be exactly the same as last year, and it definitely won’t be the same as two years ago, before the era of COVID-19 restrictions changed everything.

This year at the Whaling City Golf Course at 581 Hathaway Road in New Bedford, “Conditions are as good or better than last year,” director Sue Carlson said. But last year was not its best year. The 6780-yard 18-hole Donald Ross Championship golf course closed from April until mid-May because of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Whaling City did not open the bar side of the lounge facility, only the restaurant.

This year, the golf course offers better news. The restaurant and the clubhouse will be opening sometime this spring. The COVID safety protocols instituted in May remain in place as the course prepares to open up the parts that are still closed.

“We are reopening slowly as we work with the precautions in place,” Carlson said. “We are still requiring masks. We’ve opened the pro shop but are still taking precautions.”

We have made this place the gem of New Bedford - we have improved the fairway, the greens, the irrigation.

This year, protective partitions are being placed in each golf cart upon the golfer’s request, and everything is being sanitized between uses, even more than before.

Meanwhile, membership is neither dipping too low nor climbing too high. It has stayed about the same as last year’s. “It’s still around 65 members. There have been losses and gains,” Carlson said.

“Someone goes and another person joins. The membership has balanced itself out.”

She doesn’t even expect the current highprofile plans for the golf course’s future reconfiguration to change the Whaling City Golf Course’s operations any time soon. The New Bedford Economic Development Council’s current proposal to re-develop a portion of the golf course for a new commercial development may have deterred some golfers from becoming members, Carlson admitted. But she is confident that the development plan won’t see its first shovel in the ground until after this spring.

While it’s noteworthy that the current plan includes the “preference” to preserve the 18-hole course and construct a new clubhouse and parking area, potential patrons should not hesitate to become a member now. She has confidence Whaling City’s improvements of the course should attract golfers for years to come and that the Council will keep the course informed all the way through the planning process.

“We have been here three years,” Carlson said of her current management of the course. “We have made this place the gem of New Bedford. In three years, we have improved the fairway, the greens, the irrigation. We have all the confidence in the city that it will keep us informed. It’s kept us in the loop and will continue to do so. We will still be here.”

Finding fresh air

At the other end of the South Coast sits the Swansea Country Club, a championship par-72 course at 299 Market Street. Its general manager, Robb Martin, has a different perspective on what 2020 did to his industry. He believes the era of COVID-19 helped boost public participation in golf.

Membership has seen a resurgence, Martin said, bigger than he’s ever seen in his career as a manager of golf courses. “The biggest boom since Tiger Woods caused the last boom,” he said

Both booms, he explained, attracted younger people to the game. Now, because of COVID-era restrictions on socially-compact forms of recreation, people trying to do something social yet safe have found playing the sociallydistancing game of golf is the way to do that.

In Swansea, 2020 was a hit once we reopened in June. 2021 is the same but on steroids

“In Swansea, 2020 was a hit once we reopened in June, after the March shut-down,” he said. “2021 is the same but on steroids.”

Approximately 57,000 people visited the Swansea courses last year, he said. This year, tee times get booked up for an entire day quickly. On one recent Saturday when the temperature was 42 degrees and wind gusts were high, the course hosted a high of 222 rounds of golf. “And we expect that trend to continue for the entire year,” he said.

The Swansea Country Club actually boasts two courses, a Par-3 course and a Championship-size course.

Martin said he wishes he could build a third course. But he’s content to host the size he has now, even with the increased precautions that must be taken. Everything is sanitized between uses. Partitions are available for two-passenger golf carts. The clubhouse is open, but the grill room, which features a lot of outdoor seating, won’t open until April.

There was always daily cleaning everywhere at the Swansea Country Club, Martin said, “but this year we are taking it to new heights. That describes our attendance too.” Visit whalingcitygolfcourse.com for more information on the Whaling City Golf Course. To contact the Swansea Country Club, go to swanseacountryclub.com.

Michael J. DeCicco has worked as a writer for over 30 years. He is also the author of two award-winning young adult novels, Kaurlin’s Disciples and The Kid Mobster. He lives with his wife Cynthia in New Bedford.