Golf courses will reopen next week under the Government’s new lockdown rules.
The Department of Sport has recommended to the Government that it is safe for golfers to hit the fairways again.
The Cabinet is expected to okay this uncontroversial concession at their crunch lockdown lift meeting this afternoon.
Other sports where contact can clearly be avoided and social distancing maintained, like tennis, are also expected to get the all-clear again.
Golfers were seriously putt out when the Government took the decision to rule golf out of bounds for the six weeks duration of Level 5.
There was a considerable backlash with golfing and non-golfing politicians arguing that it was a step too far.
Golf is typically played on a course that measures an average of 200 acres where social distancing is easily practised.
It is understood that the public outcry over Golfgate in the summer made Government ministers wary of being seen to give golf any special treatment in the last lockdown.
Golfgate saw 81 senior politicians, bankers, lobbyists and businessmen gather for a dinner in the Station House Hotel in Clifden following an Oireachtas golf society event in August.
