Members rush to book their slots as golf clubs scramble to be ready for Wednesday resumption

"The busiest day we’ve ever had here but also one of the most exciting as well.” That was the verdict of Tim Barnes, the owner/director of golf at Hartford Golf Club in Cheshire.

“The phone has been ringing off the wall all day,” Barnes said on Monday night. “We have booked about 100 tee-times when we are allowed to reopen on Wednesday, with our members desperate to get back on the course.

“Yes there has been a bit of confusion, as first we were limited to one-balls, unless you played with a member of your household, but then the news suddenly changed in the afternoon so you can play two-balls with a player from a different household. And everybody started phoning again to change their bookings. It has been mental, but fun.”

Together with his brother Richard, Barnes founded the Northwich complex on the family farm in the Eighties, first as a driving range, and then adding the nine-hole course a decade or so later. The brothers have been successful enough to purchase the award-winning 18-holer of Pryors Hayes Golf Club in nearby Chester.

As well as the golf and the restaurants and bars, both clubs double as popular wedding venues.

“The wedding side has obviously had to stop and will do for a while, I guess,” Tim said. “The golf side has been shut down for two months and after the wettest winter on record, these happened to be our key two months, with members renewing their subscriptions, visitors taking advantage of the better weather and the pro shop being packed with all the new equipment models, that are traditionally unveiled in March. That is why we were anticipating Boris Johnson’s speech on Sunday so expectantly.”

The brothers were shocked by the announcement. “We were expecting that we could reopen in the last week of May and England Golf sort of said ‘don’t worry, you’ll have two weeks to get everything in order’,” Tim said. “We had furloughed our greenskeeping staff and had been doing the mowing ourselves. But we got the head greenskeeper back in and knew we were in for a busy one this morning. We have a system that people can book online or they can phone us up. It is about 50-50, I suppose.

“Our first tee-time on Wednesday is at 6am and the last at 7.24pm, and it is packed, so it is going to be hectic, with groups going off every eight minutes. A normal Wednesday would be about a third of that. We have about 350 members who have had priority, but we are getting plenty of visitors out there, as well. Maybe 20 per cent of Wednesday tee-times will be pay as you play.

“We are confident that it will all go to plan with social distancing, with no bunkers, rakes, and the other social-distancing guidelines from England Golf. For us, income will be down because of the absence of bar and restaurant takings, but we’ll get through. We are just thrilled to be back and playing again.”