Golfers practice on the putting green and the driving range at Blackthorn Golf Club in South Bend Wednesday afternoon. Some local golf courses are keeping busy during the coronavirus pandemic. Staff photo by Robert Franklin
For more than three decades, John Niespodziany has poured his heart and soul into Whispering Pines Golf Course, an 18-hole public facility he owns just west of North Liberty.
Twenty-five miles to the north, Joe Thomas has done the same thing for almost three decades at Brookwood Golf Course, an 18-hole public facility just north of the South Berrien County Landfill that parallels U.S. 12 in Michigan.
But on Wednesday — with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s — their work days looked very different.
Niespodziany, wearing protective plastic gloves, was busy running credit cards and sending a steady stream of golfers out for their rounds. Thomas, meanwhile, was overseeing a small staff of course workers, wondering how much longer he could afford to pay them after Brookwood was closed on March 26 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb is allowing golf courses to stay open as long as patrons practice proper social distancing while playing. Still, many courses have chosen to remain closed. In Michigan, however, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all golf courses closed in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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