Nearly two centuries after Ohio and Michigan went to a war over a border dispute, Toledo is drawing another line in the sand, this time in the bunker.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz announced last week that the city’s three muni golf courses will open for business after all, but with a headline-grabbing catch.
No Michigan residents allowed.
The Second Toledo War was on.
Worried, mayor?
“I’m not, though I can say given the way the Ohio State-Michigan football rivalry has gone in recent years, I know Michigan is probably anxious to find a battle it can win,” said Kapszukiewicz, lightly jabbing his grad-school alma mater. “It certainly hasn't done so on the football field."
Oh boy, here we go.
Naturally, the invisible golfing fence led to plenty of rivalry banter, most of it similarly easygoing — what could lend a greater sense of normalcy in these distressed times than taunting thy football neighbor? — some of it not so much.
With courses in Michigan closed to help halt the spread of the coronavirus, many border-crossing golfers saw the keep-out sign as a personal attack.
Bill Simonson, a popular sports radio personality in Michigan, asked his 16,000-plus followers on Twitter if anyone else was “concerned Ohio is banning Michigan residents from playing golf in their state.”
“I’m sure Ohio is still welcoming Michigan money for their other open businesses,” he said. “This isn’t just about golf, it’s about the abuse of political power.”
Sure, great point.
Or perhaps — and we’re just spitballing here — it’s because Michigan has the third-most reported coronavirus cases in the country, nearby Detroit is a scalding hot zone, and Ohio is worried about golfers from high-risk areas crowding the courses just across the state line.
Further, Lucas County Health Commissioner Eric Zgodzinski on Friday sent a letter to all courses in the county asking them to keep out anyone from out of state who has not self-quarantined for 14 days. All Ohio courses are asked to do the same.
These are the smart moves, and, contrary to any suspicions, made only with our safety in mind. If it were about the usual con$ideration$, hell, courses would run shuttle buses into Michigan. You couldn’t count the number of out-of-state license plates at some local clubs last week. (As an aside, what would the ruling have been for the old Tamaron Country Club, where the front nine is in Toledo, the back nine in Michigan?)
Truth is, the ban does right by Ohio and Michigan.
I can take or leave courses in Ohio remaining open, but I see little issue with a round at your neighborhood track if proper distancing precautions are taken. You don’t have to be an epidemiologist to see one in encouraging interstate leisure trips from residents now under strict stay-at-home orders.
With respect to the “#InThisTogetherOhio” rallying cry — and, truly, thank you to our take-charge leaders — we’re all in this battle together.
That includes Ohio and Michigan, of course, and even their flagship universities, especially in times like this.
I go back to 2016, when two days after the Buckeyes beat Michigan in a fiercely contested — and disputed — game, a madman with a butcher knife terrorized the Ohio State campus.
Remember which school flooded Ohio State with well wishes? Yep, Michigan. Just as Ohio State held bottled water drives for the residents of Flint, Mich., earlier that year, humanity transcended the rivalry, with one Michigan player after another expressing their support on Twitter.
Quarterback Wilton Speight: “Thoughts and prayers to the Ohio State community.”
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis: “Sorry, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
As Ohio State AD Gene Smith told me at the time, “You find out who your real friends are in times like this.”
Michigan is one of them, a frenemy to the end. As much as the schools want to beat the daylights out of each other, their game is defined not by hatred but a grudging respect. Think of Woody and Bo. They poured their lives into winning a single game because the opponent was one truly worth beating.
The rivalry means everything.
Until it doesn’t.
This is one of those times.
Let us stop bickering about golf and let our friends and neighbors know we’re thinking about them, on both sides of the states’ line of scrimmage.
First Published April 12, 2020, 10:12 p.m.
