I had a disturbing round of golf Friday. Oh not about my golf game, I describe myself as a Dr. Hyde / Mr. Jekyll golfer. I never know who is coming out, and sometimes I see both these sides in a single round of golf. I figured out last millennium that I was never going to play golf professionally, or even at a stellar amateur level. I am good with that. I still enjoy the game. My discomfort on this round of golf centered around attitudes about corona virus.
Let me describe where I golf most frequently. It is across the Rio Mississippi in the small town of Columbia, IL. This is southern Illinois and it is hoosier land. If your breed is more southern, substitute redneck for hoosier. It is the same concept, different words. I go to this particular golf course as the rates are more reasonable than in Missouri, it is usually easy to get a tee time and the course is generally in good shape. The greens always are. While not the cow pasture golf of some courses in Oklahoma, it runs to a redneck, or hoosier, clientele. I’m okay with that. My great grandparents came out of the hills of Arkansas for a better opportunity share cropping in Oklahoma.
I went there Friday by myself. I teed off and by hole 2 I realized there was a single behind me. The course was a little crowded and it was a tad slow. I invited him to play through or join me. Since there really was not anywhere to go, he joined me. There was a third single behind him, and by hole 5 we were a threesome. The first gentleman to join me was perhaps fiftyish. Selling furniture, I learned it is not a good idea to judge a book by its cover, but I would guess this gentleman to be in some sort of construction related trade, electrician, plumber, HVAC, who knows. The second gentleman was closer to my age and retired.
Illinois has been one of the hot spots for corona virus, but this has been centered around the Chicago area. Southern Illinois has not been affected much, except a couple counties around metro St. Louis. Illinois has opened up the golf courses, but has several restrictions in place. One being that you cannot take the flag stick out of the hole as this would have multiple people touching it with no sanitizing between times. There is a piece of foam around the bottom of the stick to keep the ball from going all the way into the hole. This facilitates the no touching of the flag stick, but it obviously does alter your putting style.
On the 11th hole, I mentioned that I was having a hard time getting used to putting with the flag stick in. The other two concurred. The 50 something then mentioned something I had not noticed. The foursome of twenty somethings in front of us had been taking the flag stick out on every green. He then went on tell us that he was not a conspiracy theorist (generally they are when they deny it), but he believed the corona virus to be in a large part, a hoax.
Normally I do not like to engage folks with these opinions, it is fruitless, but I violated my own rule. I told him about my wife’s brother’s family. I told him how her sister-in-law had been on a ventilator for 8 days, her brother in ICU for a week. How both their adult sons had been very sick with corona virus as well as one of their wives. He replied that I was the first person he had met that had known someone with corona virus. I then mentioned that the numbers were increasing in 40 of our United States. His comment on that was, of course if you test, the numbers are going to increase. It was at that point that I sincerely and whole-heartedly wished I had adhered to my personal rule. I certainly was not going to ask him who he supported for President. It was uncomfortable for a few holes, but we got back to 3 strangers playing golf together.
As icing on the cake as I left I passed Top Shooters Bar. This is a business owned by Hooters, Inc., but not with their well known theme. It tends to cater to working class / hoosier clientele. When you pass there the parking lot contains pickups and work trucks. Sometimes the parking lot is filled with motorcycles. It is a nice place to grab a cold one and bite to eat before heading home. This particularly evening the lot was absolutely crammed full. I cannot imagine a lot of social distancing going on inside. I was not going to inspect the situation.
My friends that is my discomfort, that is why my round of golf disturbed me so. With attitudes that believe the corona virus is a hoax, with 20 somethings ignoring the regulations put in place for their own protection, with the lack of social distancing in bars and restaurants, how are we ever going to climb out of this pandemic? How?
Keep well.
I think this virus is and will continue to “thin the herd” as the saying goes. I just hope we wake up before Nov 3rd.
When enough people die around these nuts they will finally see the light if it is not too late.