Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has been reluctant to take aggressive action to try to get his residents to stay at home, but on April, she enacted a stay-at-home order that is in effect from April 4 at 5 p.m. through April 30.
Alabama citizens are asked to remain at home unless they have to leave to get food, seek medical treatment, get outdoor exercise or go to work at an essential business or perform essential services.
In announcing the stay-at-home order, Governor Ivey has allowed golf courses to remain open throughout the duration of the order.
My fellow Alabamians, effective at 5 p.m. TOMORROW, I am mandating a #StayAtHome order for our entire state. Read the order here: https://t.co/V7o5ck5HGd. #alpolitics #TogetherAL
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) April 3, 2020
Specifically, golf courses can remain open if the activity can maintain a 6-foot distance from others and be done with fewer than 10 people. Golf can be played that way.
Like many governors' orders, the Alabama stay-at-home order allows residents to leave their homes for outdoor exercise provided proper precautions are taken and social distancing is observed. That's become a new normal at golf courses around the United States that are able to remain open, with modified cups to prevent touching common surfaces, as well removing shared surfaces like bunker rakes, ball washers and water coolers.
Of course, courses could close voluntarily, and they could be ordered closed by a more specific ordinance at a local level. That has happened in some Alabama jurisdictions.
