A cheap and easy way to achieve social distancing on the golf course

There won’t be rakes in the bunkers at Garforth Golf Club. 

There will be rakes in the bags at Garforth Golf Club.  

As golf courses open up during the coronavirus pandemic, each has taken steps to keep players safe. Social-distancing guidelines. Raised cups or E-Z Lyft ball retrievers to prevent touching the flagstick. No community bunker rakes. 

Or at Garforth, personal bunker rakes. 

“One of our provisions to protect and #playsafestaysafe when golf returns , players can be provided with personal bunker rake #golf #safeguardtheplayer,” the English club tweeted Wednesday.

The rake takes two steps.

Purchased at the Fairway Products company for about $6.50 apiece, the rake is clicked to the shaft of the club. The rake is moved toward the grip. The sand wedge is now a sand rake.  

“Play your shot, wherever it might be,” said John Dexter, Gaforth’s managing secretary, on the club’s social media accounts. “Take your stance, you click it onto the shaft of the club down towards the handle, the grip, come back out, give it a rake. Within seconds, job done, simple.”

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

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