Portugal’s golfing federation is appealing for the green-light to reopen, stressing not one case of Covid-19 blighted the sector from May last year to January this, whether in official competitions, clubs or on national courses.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, president of the Portuguese Golf Federation Miguel Franco de Sousa claims the golfing world is “exemplarily prepared” to pick up where it left off when the country shut down nearly five weeks ago.
“Conscious of the times” we are all living through, he stated the obvious: “recovery has to happen”. Businesses will have to be allowed to function – and in his opinion, strategies to reopen sporting activities “should happen as quickly as possible, within the safety parameters required in the context of the control of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Notwithstanding “the drastic measures” necessary for “the alarming numbers” of the past, it’s important to be “conscious that the impact the inhibition of sports practice on the population in general, and on young people in particularly, will without doubt have serious consequences on physical and mental health in the medium and long-term”.
Beyond pointing out that “golf is an individual sport practised in the open air, the technical demands of which require physical distancing”, there is the fact that no golfing events or practices appear have been linked to the transmission of Covid-19.
The federation’s appeal was simple and irrefutable.
Explained reports during Portugal’s first lockdown, the golfing sector is worth a billion euros in terms of direct impact on the Portuguese economy. 2020 however saw that revenue drop by 70%.
