‘The car park is full and there’s lots of smiley faces’ – golf clubs delighted to reopen for first time in 2021

Cams Hall Golf Club men's captain Ed Woodhouse, right, and ladies captain Sue Reynolds getting ready to tee off on the course again this morning.

Another stage of the Government s roadmap to easing lockdown restrictions came into force today with some sports able to restart.Golf has been given a huge boost with courses permitted to welcome players back out onto greens.Courses were forced to endure another three-month period where they had to remain closed - the third time in the space of a year they'd had to do so - but the hope is the sport is back for good with no further interruptions.Both Cams Hall Golf Club and Portsmouth Golf Centre are back open for business - and delighted to see members and players returning to the respective local courses.The News caught up with both clubs to see just how good it is to see people out on the greens again:Cams Hall Golf Club general manager Heather Tubb‘It’s been a really, really long time and it’s absolutely brilliant today because looking out the window the car park is full and there are lots and lots of smiley faces - it’s totally tremendous.‘All our members are coming up and having a nice long chat with us and telling us what they’ve been up to and they’ve all been desperate to get back on the golf course.‘The weather is absolutely phenomenal, we were really concerned because it wasn’t particularly great over the weekend, but it’s really lovely out there today.‘It’s nice to see members, some of them haven’t even got jackets on, I think they’re just so pleased to be outside.‘We’re looking forward to the golfing season ahead.

‘Obviously last year was so disrupted it’s really nice for the members here to look forward to a relatively normal calendar of events - it can’t be completely normal - but we’re really excited for the golfing calendar.'Portsmouth Golf Centre PGA professional Terry Healy‘It’s just nice to see smiling faces, happy people, lots of activity - that’s what we’re in this game for.‘Instead of an empty car park and the atmosphere of a morgue, we’ve got lots of people, car park full, booking sheets full, the sun shining. It’s all good and so nice to be back.‘With the sun shining and the grass growing, the courses are starting to really improve in our country with our climate. It’s a very exciting time for golf and I guess a lot of other sports too.'