Golf courses and bowling greens will be able to have essential maintenance done during lockdown after concerns that leaving them lie could lead to sub-par conditions.

Turf maintenance had not been considered an essential service, meaning golf courses and other sports turfs have been abandoned during lockdown.

Golfing organisations voiced concerns that this could lead to irrevocable damage to courses, with many smaller clubs not having the resources necessary to restore courses to par.

ROBYN EDIE/STUFF Golf clubs will remain closed under the Level 4 restrictions.

"Our greens are our babies and if we stay away from those for too long there will be repercussions down the other end with job losses and probably club closures," New Zealand Golf Course Superintendents Association president Steve Hodson said before the exemption was announced.

Care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will also be able to go ahead under the new rules.

Sports and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson said the Government had allowed urgent maintenance to go ahead but only after new guidelines were issued. This would happen after Easer.

"The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead after the Easter Weekend.

"This includes non-plantation nurseries, stadia turf, and golf and bowling club turf maintenance," he said.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Grant Robertson says greenkeepers will be able to do vital maintenance work after Easter.

Robertson said he understood "the implications if the maintenance does not occur regularly, including for community organisations, which is why we have moved quickly on these decisions".

Golf greens, which are the finely mown patches of grass at the end of every golf hole, require near constant maintenance.

Greens are mowed at a 3mm height and need to be trimmed five times per week, although stuff has been told that this could be reduce to every third or fourth day during lockdown.

"Grass keeps growing and that's the biggest thing. The grass doesn't know there's Covid-19 around, it just keeps going," Hodson said.

Golf greens will be allowed to have essential maintenance performed during lockdown.

New Zealand Golf (NZG), with the support of Sport New Zealand, applied to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for exemption late last month. Bowls New Zealand had similar concerns and has also made a submission.

Before the decision was announced, Spencer Cooper, course superintendent at Auckland's Remuera golf club, said that watching the Auckland Council maintain the public reserve next door while his course deteriorates has been tough to swallow.

"It's been a major frustration with us... and a bit of a double standard," Cooper told Stuff.

"We're not trying to dob them in because I hear anecdotally that council has got special permission to do that maintenance. But why they have permission to do maintenance on parks on sports fields that are less sensitive, compared to golf greens which are highly sensitive and highly labour-intensive, to keep them alive makes no sense."

New Zealand Golf chief executive Dean Murphy said the cost of locking out greenkeepers at the 390 golf clubs across the country would have cost up to $10 million.

"Let's say 200 clubs have reasonable damage and they require between $20,000 and $50,000 each. That's between $4 and $10 million up front," he said. "That doesn't take into account the lost business and the damage in some cases could be far worse than that.

"It's certainly significant and we think we can avoid that by having single greenkeepers doing solo critical maintenance work where required. "