Golfers greet easing of lockdown by teeing off a minute after midnight

29 March 2021, 06:30 | Updated: 29 March 2021, 08:20

By Nick Hardinges

@NHardinges

A group of golfers have greeted the easing of England's lockdown measures by hitting the fairways shortly after midnight.

Seven teams teed off at around 12:01am at the Morley Hayes Golf Club, near Derby.

They used luminous golf ball and floodlit greens to help them on their opening drives.

Golf is among the outdoor activities which can now take place in England after some coronavirus restrictions were lifted on Monday morning.

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Courses are now free to reopen along with football and cricket pitches, tennis and basketball courts, and outdoor swimming pools.

The seven-hole tournament was held to raise funds for the Nottingham Breast Cancer Research Centre

Andrew Allsop, managing director of Morley Hayes Golf Club, said the decision to go ahead with the nocturnal tee-off was made "on a whim".

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He said: "It filled instantly, there was so much interest because I don't think there are any places in England that do night golf and we obviously want to try and get in the records that we're the first ones to reopen on 29 March.

"I think the buzz has been made even buzzier because it's such great weather forecast this week. All the fair-weather golfers, everyone's out and the tees booked from Monday morning first light, 6:30am, right through... and it's like that all week.

"We've been shut six months out of 12 so it's been very difficult but we'll survive and good times are ahead and like Captain Tom (Moore) said, tomorrow's another day, so I'm looking forward to it."