Golf courses one of the few businesses thriving during COVID

Many businesses were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, but there are some places where it had the opposite effect.

The Lonnie Poole Golf Course on North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus was teed up to do well during the pandemic.

Scott Clagg, head golf professional at Lonnie Poole, says the outdoor nature of the game led to big business.

"We had a huge year last year," Clagg said.

The spreading virus limited what you could do outside the home and golf was a pastime that was safe. The social distancing of the sport made for a great escape.

"They are just grateful to be out here," Clagg said. "They are happy to be able to get out of the house, get away from the work calls, the Zoom calls, everything that this year brought along with the pandemic."

Lonnie Poole's scorecard is impressive. More than 44,000 rounds were played in the last year, a 15% increase from the previous year.

Clagg believes those numbers could dip a bit as we get a better handle on the pandemic, but the virus has done some good for the sport.

"We got a lot of new golfers, a lot of relapsed golfers, people that used to play and picked it up again," he said.

The challenge now – keep them on the fairway.

Clagg says the course implemented a number of safety measures, but only closed for bad weather.