Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak was one of the governors out in front of the current crisis, issuing an initial order to close non-essential businesses on March 20, enhancing it to become a stay-at-home order on April 1.
Nevada citizens have been 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. All businesses deemed non-essential had to close their physical locations.
In announcing the stay-at-home order, Governor Sisolak initially had required courses to close. However, after some thought, courses were allowed to remain open throughout the duration of the order, provided Nevada golfers were following the rules.
Like many governors' orders, the Nevada 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.
Unfortunately, golfers were not following the rules. On April 8, Governor Sisolak issued further orders closing golf courses after seeing photos and reports of golfers not socially distancing while playing golf.
"What has changed since then is I had a multitude of pictures sent to me that showed people were not practicing good social distancing," he said, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. "Some folks again chose not to follow the rules and as a result we are closing the golf courses."
