Various golf courses spread across Spain are doing their bit to overcome the health crisis by offering their machinery and human resources to collaborate in the cleaning and disinfection of streets and public spaces within their respective municipalities.

The initiative initially came from the Andalusian golf sector, an action replicated in other parts of Spain, such as Castilla y León and Castilla La Mancha.

Contribution of Andalusian golf courses

Various staff members from the golf courses of Benahavís have begun cleaning the streets of their municipality in an initiative that originated with Rafael Cruz-Conde and was immediately embraced by Atalaya Golf & Country Club and, subsequently, by the other courses in the area: Los Arqueros Golf & Country Club, Club de Campo La Zagaleta, Villa Padierna Golf Club, Marbella Club and La Quinta Golf & Country Club.

Thus, Andrés Sánchez –director of Atalaya Golf & Country Club– explains that, from his course, they will work with two fumigation machines and two operators to clean and disinfect the streets of the urbanizations near the golf course.

The golf course is using one of its sprayers and an operator, and the machinery company Agronimer has also provided a second sprayer and another operator for disinfecting these areas. The City Council, for its part, is supplying the cleaning products and diesel fuel needed for these tasks.

This same initiative is being developed in other Andalusian provinces, such as Huelva, where Islantilla Golf Resort has made its machinery and staff available to the Lepe City Council and has been assembling work teams with colleagues from the agricultural sector for the cleaning of public roads for several days.

Meanwhile, the Almerimar golf course, on the Almería coast, is already using its fumigation machine to disinfect the area around the golf course and the marina.

In Marbella, this aid project is also already underway in collaboration with the Real Club de Golf Guadalmina for the disinfection of public roads in the urbanizations of Guadalmina Alta, Guadalmina Baja and El Viso.

It should be noted that many more golf courses have made their resources available to their local councils to carry out these tasks, but in some cases, the municipalities already had the machinery and human resources necessary to perform them.

According to the World Health Organization, the main routes of transmission for this new coronavirus are respiratory and contact with contaminated surfaces. Therefore, just as it is recommended to practice strict personal hygiene, handwashing, and disinfection of household surfaces, it is vitally important to make an effort in cleaning and disinfecting public spaces to reduce citizens' exposure to the virus.

Thus, now that the state of emergency forces the closure of all sports facilities in the country, the Andalusian golf sector demonstrates that it is everyone's responsibility to take very seriously the very difficult situation we are going through and that – if we see ourselves as a team, in which we all think about the common good – we will emerge stronger from this.

Similar actions in other parts of Spain

Similar actions are being carried out by golf courses in other areas of Spain, some of them of a rural nature, which offer their machinery for the disinfection of streets and various public spaces.

This is the case in Villarrín de Campos (Zamora), Navaluenga (Ávila) or Talayuela (Cáceres), where golf course staff, together with the State Security Forces and Corps and City Hall staff, are in charge of the disinfection work.

It is important to emphasize that these are modest fields, with very limited resources, which have not hesitated for a moment to assume this responsibility, taking time away from field maintenance to be able to face the daily disinfections required to control this situation.

The Villarrín de Campos golf course is located in the province of Zamora. It's a public, 9-hole course with basic maintenance in line with its budget and resources, and it employs two workers. One of them is responsible for this task every morning.

Navaluenga Golf, in the province of Ávila, is a 9-hole course managed by the town council with three employees. It's a modest club accustomed to making the most of its available resources. One of the employees is currently helping with disinfection efforts and delivering food to elderly people who are unable to shop for themselves, working 12-hour shifts.

In the case of Talayuela Golf, in the province of Cáceres, the treatment tank has been provided so that City Council staff can carry out these tasks daily.

Palomarejos Golf joins the fight against coronavirus

The same is happening in Talavera de la Reina, where Beatriz Hesse, the director of Palomarejos Golf, has offered her staff and equipment to the City Council to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Specifically, the team of greenkeepers is using their sprayer to disinfect the area from the Palomarejos Roundabout to the Los Alfares Shopping Center, including public areas (streets and avenues), access points and public parking areas of Palomarejos Golf, the Talavera Vehicle Inspection Station (ITV), the entire El Golf Retail Park, and the access points and outdoor parking area of the Los Alfares Shopping Center.

Hesse explained that it is about "doing our bit to overcome this situation by offering our resources to the City Council" and stressed that Palomarejos Golf is working with a fumigator and the necessary operators to clean and disinfect the areas determined by the Talavera council.

Hesse explained that “it is everyone’s responsibility to take the very difficult situation we are going through very seriously and to think about the common good” and thanked the staff of Palomarejos Golf for their willingness to help in these tasks.

The Talavera de la Reina City Council, for its part, provides the necessary cleaning product for these tasks.

SOURCE: Royal Andalusian Golf Federation, Villarrín de Campos, Navaluenga, Talayuela and Palomarejos Golf