Wednesday morning brought a sense of normality to golfers as Manteca Park Golf Course re-opened for business.
“We got the okay Monday night at 9 p.m. and we were ready to go on Wednesday,” said Jeff DeBenedetti, the Director of Golf at Manteca Park. “Here’s the thing, we were pretty ready to go as we had been doing everything to get ready. Our Superintendent did an amazing job keeping the course ready. It’s beautiful and immaculate.”
Original discussion centered around allowing only residents of Manteca to play the municipal course, but finally the decision was made to allow for outside residents to play.
Ultimately that led to a lot of interested golfers at the course on Wednesday.
“I have seen probably 40 people today than I saw regularly at Las Positas,” said DeBenedetti, who oversaw the Livermore course for years.
Manteca Park is following basic guidelines for courses to re-open. Here are a few:
*Single riders in a cart unless the golfers are roommates
*Tee times are staggered by 10 minutes as opposed to the regular seven
*The putting green is closed, and the driving range spots are set 10 yards apart
*The cups have been raised on the greens
*There are no rakes in the bunker
*There no starting on the 10th tee – all groups must go off No.1
By making it single riders in a cart, the number of carts being utilized has grown.
“We began to run low on carts, but more people are beginning to walk,” said DeBenedetti. “They just want to get out and walk.”
It has only been one day of being open, but DeBenedetti is already seeing a change in the golfers. When asked about golfers being notorious for fudging some rules of conduct around a course, DeBenedetti chuckled and answered.
“Basically, we are looking at it like, you’ve got to help us not screw this thing up,” said DeBenedetti. “They way the golfers are listening to the rules is making our job a lot easier.”
For more information or to contact Manteca Park Golf Couse please go to www.mantecaparkgolf.com.
By Dennis Miller