Melbourne, Australia: Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s reputation for leading the way on being Covid-safe on the fairways has been firmly reinforced.

In what is believed to be a first in golf, Royal Melbourne, a two-time Presidents Cup venue and former host to the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, has confirmed a ‘no jab, no play’ policy.

The club’s 2,000 members and staff have been told that players will need to show proof of at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccination to take to the course, whenever the state government’s on-going golf ban is lifted.

In a report in Golf Industry Central, club captain Andrew Kirby made it clear there would be exemptions for those whose medical conditions ruled out a jab, but declared zero tolerance for anti-vaxxers.

“A legitimate medical reason will not be: I am waiting for Pfizer; I could not get a vaccination appointment yet; I don’t trust the vaccines, the vaccines are a conspiracy to embed us with 5G network tracking devices etc,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that like last year’s Covid-safe stance, the policy has been a winner with the rank-and-file at Royal Melbourne where anti-vaxxers don’t appear to be an issue.

He said: “We got incredibly strong support from the members, an amazing number of notes and passionate support from staff and from other clubs.

“We’ve got lots of rules in golf and here’s another one. If you want to play, you’ll have to be vaccinated. At least one jab, then two and of course there’ll be a system of registration.”