- April 25, 2024
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The golf courses at Longboat Key Club have remained open and have provided some sense of normalcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Golf Director Terry O’Hara said he’s seen an increased demand with the winter season approaching and snowbirds beginning their months-long stay on the island.
“With all the new members we’ve had, a lot of people coming back, a lot of people never left, it just was like, ‘I gotta do something,’ ” O’Hara said.
O’Hara and Club managing director Rick Konsavage decided to install see-through plastic dividers on 110 of the Key Club’s golf carts to make sure golfers are adhering to social distancing guidelines. If the Key Club needs more dividers, O’Hara said he would order more.
The dividers attach to the golf carts using bungee cords and a little bit of power tool work.
Because many of the Key Club members have their own golf carts, O’Hara said he didn’t have to worry about installing the barriers earlier this summer or fall. He’s slowly seen an increase in the demand for carts as more people want to golf.
The typical protocol for golfers has been solo carts for groups that don't share a household, like spouses playing together or children with parents. Where a foursome might normally ride four carts, golfers of late have been riding solo in a total of four.
“We were still running out of carts, and we had a lot of frustrated members because they would come over here, and they couldn’t get a golf cart, so we had to come up with something because we’re not even in season yet, and we had a problem,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara ordered the dividers from Illinois-based Wittek Golf Supply. He said the order cost between $7,000 and $10,000. Wittek lists two sizes of shield cart dividers on its website for $45 each.
“It’s not really a thing about making money,” O’Hara said. “It’s a cost of keeping people safe. That’s all it really comes down to.”
Last week, O’Hara and Key Club employees installed most of the dividers. Not all of the club’s golf carts will have the dividers with a total of 115 golf carts available on the Harbourside course and 85 on the Links course.
The Key Club offers golfers three cart options:
“I always tell everybody here, ‘You have to do what you think is right for you,’” O’Hara said.
The Key Club tried the dividers for the first time on Saturday, installing 10 dividers to carts. O’Hara was pleased to receive positive feedback.
“Hey Terry, thank you for your courtesy earlier today and providing Rodney and I with a plastic separation shield between the seats of our golf riding cart,” the Key Club golfer wrote in a review. “It served effectively as another arrow in the club hygiene protocol, and I must say gave both of us comfort that our safety is on your mind.”
Many country clubs and golf courses throughout the country have installed similar dividers on their carts to limit people’s physical contact.
The Key Club is set to get a new fleet of golf carts on Dec. 15. O’Hara said it would take Key Club workers about a day to take the plastic dividers from the old fleet to install them on the new one.
The decision for the Key Club to install the dividers comes after town of Longboat Key staff received “several complaints from residents about the lack of precautions at the Key Club properties,” according to Town Manager Tom Harmer.
“I did follow up earlier today with Rick Konsavage, the Managing Director of the Key Club to discuss some of the concerns,” Harmer wrote in a Nov. 20 email to town commissioners. “He said he is aware of the Town’s mask ordinance and social distancing requirements. He said he has the mandatory mask notice posted at all Club facilities.”
Ahead of season, Konsavage wrote a Nov. 20 newsletter about the importance of COVID-19 precautions to ensure safety among members and staff.
“Physical distancing, wearing a mask, washing your hands are still a mandatory practice,” Konsavage wrote. “We do not want to let our guard down for any reason. Our island has not experienced any serious cases in over 3 months, and we would all like to keep it that way!”
Town commissioners have expressed their concerns as more people arrive on the island with season getting underway. The Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 data uses a person’s permanent address. It means someone who has a permanent address outside of Florida wouldn’t be reflected in the state’s data.
As of Wednesday morning, the state data shows Longboat Key’s 34228 ZIP code has fewer than five positive cases of COVID-19 on the Sarasota County side of the island and 80 on the Manatee County side.
