Just minutes after ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced on Tuesday that golfers were allowed back on course this weekend, Anthony Sinclair's phone started ringing.
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And it hasn't stopped since.
"It's been a tsunami of demand; it's been pretty crazy from moment the news came through," Mr Sinclair, the general manager of the Federal Golf Club, said.
The Federal, together with Canberra's other golf clubs, has been lobbying the government to allow members and public back on their links through the lockdown period.
That wish was finally granted on Tuesday, with golf and tennis permitted to restart this weekend, but no coaching or training permitted.
'We are still waiting on the detail but it's fantastic news nonetheless," he said.
"We know how much pent-up demand there is from players so we're going to have to manage that side of it carefully, given that we are a public course and we have to look after the public and the members equally."
Federal Golf Club in Red Hill is fully subscribed with 1230 members and like all other courses in the territory, has been closed since the August 12 lockdown was announced.
Local residents and members of the public have been strolling the fairways for weeks for their allotted lockdown exercise time, blissfully free from the possibility of being clobbered by a stray ball.
But from about 6.30am on Saturday, the courses will be busier than ever and given a lack for practice time available for all, players' warning shouts of "fore!" from wayward shots are certain to echo regularly down the links.
"People have been crying out to get back playing again; it's a huge relief valve from a mental health perspective and it will help a lot of people feel good just to get out on the course," he said.
"It's no secret that our club, as I'm sure all the others are too, have been bleeding financially so the income will be a welcome boost, too," Mr Sinclair said.
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How clubs will manage the demand is going to be a challenge. Some clubs, like Federal, have an online tee booking time but the club only plans to open the daily tee times progressively so the web-based system doesn't crash under the load.
"The key to this will be ensuring that players strictly stick to the COVID protocols that are in place and we will be making that pretty clear to everyone," he said.
"Now we have the green light, what we don't want is to open and then have to close again."
Paul Netting at the Belconnen Magpies Golf Club in Holt, which has about 500 members, said that for most players, the two-hour time limit per game flagged by the government should fit in nine holes quite comfortably.
"We understand that separate playing groups of four will be permitted but we're still waiting on that to be confirmed," Mr Netting said.
"It will be a bit of a logistics exercise to keep the playing groups well separated and pushing them through at their allotted tee times but depending on your playing level, two hours should give you plenty of time for nine holes."
He said that the passion of the golfing fraternity for their sport was evident by the huge volume of calls he had been getting and the callers' eagerness to get back on course.
"We're not taking bookings just yet because we're going to figure out how to best manage it fairly for everyone; we'll likely open up the booking sheets on Friday at the pro shop and prepare for the phone to ring non-stop," he said.
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