LAFAYETTE, La. — Lafayette Consolidated Government officials provided updates on the on-going COVID-19 public health emergency on Friday.
Lafayette Mayor-President announced during the conference that effective Saturday, April 25, LCG would reopen its three golf courses to the public.
The three golf courses managed by LCG Parks and Recreation are:
- Les Vieux Chenes Golf Course
- Wetlands Golf Course
- Jay & Lionel Hebert Municipal Golf Course
The reopened golf courses will be subject to a series of social distancing and sanitation measures to ensure safe play.
Guillory said that best practice protocols will be enforced. Those include extensive guidance from the Professional Golfers Association.
A designated golf course ranger will ride around the course every two hours to enforce social distancing measures and other rules, Guillory said.
Other protocols include limiting golf cart use to one person, whether they are rented or owned by the golfer; supervised golf cart sanitation after each use; limited access in and out of the clubhouse and other additional measures.
"We are committed to insuring that the reopening of these facilities takes place in a manner consistent with public health and safety," said Guillory.
LCG released information for the use of the golf course's clubhouse:
- No groups of more than 4 golfers in the Golf Shop at any one time.
- Suggested minimum of 6 feet spacing between each golfer.
- Only the Golf Shop entrance door and the Main Clubhouse entrance doors will be available to enter the facility. All other access points will be locked and unavailable.
- There will be no seating available in the golf shop or outside until further notice.
- Touch points throughout the clubhouse and golf course will be kept to a minimum.
- All touch points, counter tops, entrance doors will be sanitized by the staff throughout each day.
- Snack Bar will remain closed until further notice.
- Golfers are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages onto the golf course.
LCG offered information on how golfers can check in at the course's golf shop:
- Golf Carts will be cleaned and sanitized after each round.
- Tee times will be moved to 10 minute increments to encourage additional spacing between groups of golfers on the course and for checking in for play.
- Golfers will be responsible for emptying their own trash, all personal items and their own golf clubs out of the golf cart after each round.
- No rental golf clubs are available.
- Walking is encouraged for all golfers.
- Golf Cart Usage: Each group will be limited to a maximum of 4 golf carts per group (one rider only per golf cart) to insure carts are available for tee times
LCG also offered additional information about being on-course for golfers:
- Flagsticks are to be left in the hole. Please do not touch flag sticks.
- Please refrain from handshakes, high fives, etc. while playing and/or in the clubhouse.
- Golf lessons and tournaments will not be available until further notice.
LCG also said the following will be eliminated around the golf course:
- Water coolers
- Ball washers
- Bunker rakes
- Sand bottle will be removed off of all golf carts
LCG officials also said that its reusable masks are available at city hall for the elderly if they are not able to obtain a mask on their own.
LCG said that those masks are intended for Safe Shop businesses, which will be given top priority as their employees are required to wear them to operate.
LCG said that meals will not be distributed at the Robicheaux Center this weekend, but will resume on Monday, April 27, starting at 10:45 a.m.
On April 24, Lafayette Parish was reporting 440 cases of coronavirus with 17 deaths since March 18. That's an increase of 1 case from Thursday. LCG said those numbers are based on 17,734 reported tests. No new deaths have been reported in the parish for the last seven days.
Click here to read more about Thursday's briefing.
Across Louisiana, 26,140 cases of COVID-19 were being reported with 1,601 deaths.
The Louisiana Department of Health is now reporting the number of coronavirus patients in the state that are "presumed recovered." On Friday, that number was at 14,927.
To see a breakdown of cases by parish and other details provided by LDH, click here.
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