Sir, – I exercise every day on our local roads, parks and walkways. I pass hundreds of men, women, children and cyclists in the process of my 90-minute routine. In most cases it is not possible to achieve two-metre distancing due to the width of the walkways. This is happening all over the country. Meanwhile my local golf course, covering over a hundred acres, lies empty and bereft of activity.
I wish I could bring the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health to our course so they could see for themselves how safe, in terms of distancing, golfing is relative to other outside exercise. Also players can be drip-fed onto the course at 10-minutes intervals. A far cry from the bedlam of public walkways.
I and thousands of golfers fully subscribe to the isolation required to combat the virus. However, we are extremely frustrated at measures that do nothing to suppress it and instead push us to more risky behaviour. Thousands of acres of golf-course land remain unused while our parks are cramped. – Yours, etc,
JAMES O’MAHONY,
Carrigaline,
Co Cork.