Column | The Greenkeeper Writes
Published on May 4, 2020The Day After Part 6
Balan was restless. He got the call from Roslan “to be at green 1 in 10 minutes”, but he was already there in 5. Perhaps Roslan wasn’t to be blamed, after all, he mused, I was just impatient. Well, maybe if he stopped pandering to Nina and just focused on his work, he could do many other things faster.
Balan was lost in his thoughts when Chong came by on his motorbike. Both Chong and Balan preferred to go on their rounds on a motorbike than on a buggy. “It is faster,” agreed Roslan years ago when they discussed this option. “Also cheaper. A buggy is easily four or five times more expensive than a motorbike.” That’s how Balan and Chong got their motorbikes, and Roslan kept the buggy.
“Hoi Chong,” said Balan.
“Hoi,” smiled Chong. They were good friends. Good friends who know their work and were equally hardworking. Chong joined the club earlier than Balan by a few months and had been assisting the previous superintendent managing the South Course while Balan, the North.
In the beginning, there was a friendly rivalry between the two courses as they had the same resources and budget. As budgets became smaller, more of the money was siphoned to South Course as it was considered the tournament course and serious players preferred it to North Course.
“Nice green,” Balan told Chong, looking at South Course’s green number 1.
“Thanks. How’s yours?”
“Struggling” admitted Balan. “The grass is too long and on a few greens I have got dry spots, disease and insects.”
“Give it time. You know what to do. Why did the boss ask us to come here?”
“Don’t know. Something about discussing the opening.”
“I heard the management wants to recover back the money lost during the lockdown soon. The members can’t wait to play too.”
Balan sighed, “It will have to be your course bro. Mine will need another extra week of conditioning and rehabilitation.”
They were in the middle of the conversation when Nina drove up with Roslan in his buggy. She drove right up to the edge of the green. On any other given day, Roslan would be furious, but today, because of his injured back, he would probably forgive the driver especially if the said driver was Nina.
Roslan got off the buggy and walked over to them. No handshakes and everyone standing at a respectful one metre apart from everyone else; the new normal to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Hi, guys. Thanks for meeting me here. The club wants at least one of the courses’ to be open next Monday and I have chosen the South course to open first.”
No surprise there thought Balan.
“Some procedures will have to be in place to prevent any infection taking place on the course. I need to brainstorm with you guys.”
“Well, since the virus is spread through touch and droplets, we need to figure out how to minimise that,” said Balan, always the first one to have an idea “What do golfers touch most? Buggies, pin flags, bunker rakes, maybe some railings…”
“Wait!” interrupted Roslan “Nina,” he called to the woman still seated in the buggy. Balan tried very hard not to roll his eyes instead exchanged glances with Chong. “Nina, can you take some notes please?” Roslan asked Nina as she came up.
Balan expected her to say she didn’t have any paper or pen, but then saw her take out her phone that had a stylus. The expensive kind of phone, thought Balan. Her pen and paper were worth more than his computer? Who was this woman?
“Balan” Roslan interrupted his thoughts “you were saying?”
“Since the virus is transmitted via droplets and touch, we need to minimise what the golfers’ touch; the pin, the bunker rake, the buggies, the railings at the stairs at tee 5 and from buggy park to changing room, the ball-washers, shoe wash… what else?”
“The buggies are not under our department so we can leave that out,” Chong chimed in. “We can take back all the bunker rakes in one day. The pin… I’ve got no idea. Remove the pin? Or…or… or we remove the hole! Anyone who putts and the ball touches the pin is considered in the hole.”
Roslan shook his head “We can’t be making up our own rules.”
Balan spoke up “We can make the hole shallower so that they can just pull out with their putter and we jam the pin into the hole”
“That could work. How do we make the hole shallower?”
“We cut the hole less deep.”
“But the cup is still deep.” Three inches deep, thought Roslan. It has to be set one inch below the surface of the hole making it the regulation four inches – 100mm! Damn the Americans and their resistance to the metric system.
Balan thought for a moment, then walked to the pin, and pulled out the flag and the cup. He turned the cup upside down in the hole, put the pin back into the cup and pulled a golf ball from his pocket and rolled it into the hole. The ball went into the hole with a satisfying clink.
“Make the cup one inch deep and that’ll do for the time being. I’m afraid the ball will bounce out with a hard putt,” said Roslan. He added, “But we’ll think of something else later. Tell your staff what to do; remove the bunker rakes and turn the cup upside down. In the meantime, tell the staff to have NO contact with golfers whatsoever unless it’s an emergency that can cause injury. If there is a need to talk to others, use a face mask but no need to use a face mask when working alone.”
Roslan turned to go.
“What about the railings?” asked Balan. “On the staircase at hole 5 with the raised tee and at the buggy park.”
“They’re called bannisters my friend. For now, we will disinfect them twice a day. Use our knapsack sprayer and get the chemicals from Nina. I’ll speak to management about the signages. Signages about what we do are important to show that we are taking action and they will give our customers confidence.”
Nina raised her hand timidly. All eyes turned to her. “What chemicals?”
“Disinfectant.” said Roslan “Ministry of Health approved disinfectant. We won’t be using diluted alcohol-based hand sanitisers.”
Roslan turned and walked to the buggy. “I’ll talk to you guys again later. Nina, let’s go.”
Balan watched as they drove away. He could see that Nina was driving extra slowly and extra carefully. Wait… were they holding hands? Balan shook his head wondering if Chong saw it too. He glanced at Chong and realised that Chong had a mischievous smile on his face. He saw.
