Non smoking rules have polarised the business community, but it is the golf course where the laws have caused the greatest concern
QUEENSLAND Golf Clubs and their members have found themselves in a bunker over the smoking laws that were introduced into Queensland on July 1.
Under the laws, golf clubs wanting to cater to smokers while also allowing them to have an alcoholic drink, must establish a designated outdoor smoking area (DOSA).
To accommodate the DOSA provision, golf clubs have been forced to come up with some unusual solutions that include designating alternate holes for smoking. These include making the fairway a DOSA, and the tee, green and rough no smoking, or dividing the course down the middle and making the front nine holes no smoking and the back nine smoking.
Helensvale Golf Club has opted to make even tee and fairways smoking areas, and odd tee and fairways no smoking. These new restrictions will be communicated via stickers on tees, score cards and on maps of the course.
Sanctuary Cove has a policy implemented by several clubs on the Coast, which allows smoking at the tee boxes only at each hole.
Director of golf at Sanctuary Cove, Scott Taylor, says the rules have divided opinion among golfers at the popular course.
"Comment so far has been fairly predictable," he says. "Obviously non-smokers are happy and the smokers are not that happy about it, but that's the way it is. It's a government decision and we have to adhere to the laws while trying to keep it fair for our members. "We will trial our policies over the next few months and take it from there. Everyone is doing something different, but our policies seem to be working."
At another club, non-smoking golfers are in a tizz because they cannot eat in DOSA's on the course, labelling the inconsistency as 'madness'. "It's legislation gone mad," says avid golfer and Media Hunt Communications director, Steve Hunt. "How do clubs get to dictate where I can eat or drink when I'm outside, just because it's in area where other golfers are smoking? I'm all for designated smoking areas, but designated eating areas? It doesn't make sense." Clubs Queensland CEO Penny Wilson concurs that the situation facing golf clubs is a challenging one - perhaps not as challenging as the front nine at Arundel, but a slog all the same. Ms Wilson poses the logical question, 'how do you manage smoking over 60-100 hectares?'
The golf club situation, she says, is unnecessarily complex because each time a smoker visits a golf course they will have to scour for information on signs and score cards to determine when and where they can legally spark up.
"While non-smokers may be affected by smokers in a confined outdoor space, it is questionable how anyone would be affected by a smoker lighting up on the vast open plains that is a golf course," she says. "The reality is that golf clubs must enforce the laws or risk severe penalties, even when they know the law is impractical in their situation." Ms Wilson added. While smokers may have marked July 1 as doomsday, non-smokers are coming out en masse to enjoy the new smoke-free environment of clubs, pubs and restaurants.
Ms Wilson says non-smokers will be able to enjoy a meal or drink at their local club or pub without being surrounded by a cloud of smoke.
"Many families and non-smokers have avoided venues such as clubs because they have been perceived as 'too smoky'. "Now they can join their local clubs, make new friends, have a meal and a drink and enjoy the entertainment on offer," said Ms Wilson. The new laws are part of the final stage of Queensland's strict new smoking restrictions which according to Ms Wilson are intended to make smoking difficult for Queenslanders in a social situation.
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