ZPGA president goes off course with Covid-19 remarks

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
MANY readers might have been left shell shocked by Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association president Gary Thompson’s utterances that it was unfair for golfers to be placed on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thompson, who said he wasn’t speaking in his capacity as ZPGA president, said it boggled the mind how the pandemic has had such an effect on golf in Zimbabwe, arguing that there have been no cases at Royal Harare and no caddies had fallen ill at Chapman Golf Club.

He said even at Hillside or any courses, there has been no one who had fallen ill.

“No golfer is dying or coughing out their lungs down at the fairways or on the rough, just maybe disappointed that they can’t watch that little white ball go into the hole. This is a pandemic of fear, it’s something that started outside our borders and I laud the government for taking responsible actions to ensure that they protect their people, golfers or otherwise. However, while we respect that certain measures had to be taken to ensure that we stay safe, when you put a good golfer on lockdown, that is unfair,” Thompson told our sister publication The Sunday Mail.

Thompson seems to strangely and wrongly insinuate that since no golfer or caddy had contracted the virus then the lockdown shouldn’t cover golfers.

No, Gary, this can’t be right. It’s not about players being infected, but about preventing your players from the risk of contracting the disease.

Golfers don’t operate in a vacuum and a golf course has many other support staff other than caddies.

The attitude exhibited by Thompson is similar to that of world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic, who recently tested positive for the novel virus after going against advice and organising an exhibition tennis tournament in Serbia and Croatia.

Besides Djokovic and his wife, three other tennis players that took part in the exhibition matches also tested positive, yet this could have been prevented had Djokovic heeded advice. Djokovic and his wife tested positive on June 23 but 10 days later they both tested negative for coronavirus.

It is against this background that the ZPGA president, never mind that he was speaking in his personal capacity, surely went off course with his unfortunate and extremely dangerous views.