“Since 8 hours, it does not stop ringing! Mélodie breathes after hanging up the phone. Authorized to reopen this Saturday morning, the Mont Griffon golf course in Luzarches has already filled up with reservations. “People are calling to reserve a slot today but also tomorrow and next week,” stories this receptionist. They had been solely ready for the reopening. We noticed it on the messages posted on social networks. “
A course divided into two
From 8 a.m., while the rays of the sun were struggling to pierce the thick fog covering the 18-hole course, separated into two nine-hole courses due to the health situation, the first players therefore presented themselves on holes n ° 1 and n ° 10, not resisting “the pleasure of hitting the ball”. “Normally, we have fewer people on a foggy day like today but now they all want to play,” smiles Mélodie. “A normal day, we turn around 150 players. Today, we will be around 210 ”, adds Christophe Fouquet, general manager of the golf hotel.
The climate circumstances didn’t decelerate Victoire, Olivier and Franck. “We have ants in our legs. As soon as we knew it was reopening, we booked. Nine holes is better than nothing. “
“We do not see why the golf courses were closed”
Daniel and Florence, a couple of members, would also not have missed this recovery for the world. “We live again, exclaims Florence. We feel an immense pleasure to take the air, to see the staff, the other members and especially to resume golf. It will take away all the stress that we accumulate during the week. “” It’s been a month that we have not moved, so we have to get back on the road, engages her husband, who has already reserved slots for the following days. I play normally everyday. We are happy to bring out the clubs. We like to hit the ball. We missed that feeling. “
Deprived of their passion since October 30, none of the practitioners understood the government’s decision to close the golf courses. “We are in a large space, in the open air and not indoors”, objects Thibault. “We are not the most to be pitied but we do not see why the golf courses have been closed, confide Rachid and Jean-Paul, two friends who come two to three times a week. Coming here is very important to us. “
Smiles and happy faces are also required by the staff of this 122 ha golf course, which has 540 members and 15,000 visitors a year. “We took advantage of the confinement and that there were no players on the course to carry out work. We kept the whole garden team so that he was on top of the game for the reopening. “
25 of the 40 employees still partially unemployed
As in other sectors of activity, the two successive confinements and administrative closures will indeed have had serious financial and human consequences on the establishment, awarded the golf trophy of the year 2018 among the 733 golf courses in France. Of the 40 permanent jobs on the site (plus 20 seasonal jobs), 25 are still on partial unemployment. “On an economic level, it is dramatic, does not hide Christophe Fouquet. From December 26, 2019, we lost the Chinese tour operators. Then in February, it continued with seminars for large companies. We made -77% of turnover in the hotel industry this year. Catering represents 60% of our turnover. There, we drank violently. We had over a hundred weddings scheduled, we were only able to do 56. ”
