While many sports clubs have been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, golf club membership is booming, and 25,000 people have taken up the sport since May, when clubs were opened again.

‘The numbers have been stable for years, but now we are seeing a clear increase,’ a spokesman for the Dutch Golf Federation told broadcaster NOS at the weekend. ‘We are now nearing 400,000 members.’

The sport is played in small groups, with plenty of social distancing and takes place outside, making it the perfect coronavirus-proof exercise, club managers say. No longer a sport for pensioners, around one third of the new members are under the age of 40 and one in five, under the age of 30, NOS reported.

To play golf at a club in the Netherlands you need a special certificate, known as a GVB, which proves you understand the rules of the game and have reached a certain basic degree of skill.