More than golf

At a time when people are locked up in their homes, the prospect of clear blue skies, the deep breath of fresh air and feel of grass under our feet seems like an impossibility.

And at such times, the long green expanses of a golf course comes to mind. We might not have too many of these in our overcrowded cities but neither do we have too many parks and open spaces. Thus it was mighty heartening to read that San Francisco (SF) is turning golf courses into public spaces which all can enjoy. With city parks bring crowded or closed, this currently seems like the best thing to do.

SF closed the 9 golf courses in the city & turned them into parks for social distance recreation. 150 acres of some of most gorgeous land on the peninsula: cypress groves, rolling hills and patches of nasturtium ... all usually too dangerous to walk through as a pedestrian is now officially a park.

At the Guardian, writer George Monbiot parallels the inaccessibility of golf courses to centuries of land ownership by the wealthy. “When the lockdown ends, let’s celebrate by demanding a right to roam on open land in both cities and the countryside. Let’s have a legal definition of public space, in which peaceful use and assembly is established as a universal right.”