Quiet on the tee: local golf courses ready for play

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This article was published 08/04/2024 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The golf season will tee off at select courses around the province this week, while most tracks are asking players to check their swing for a few more weeks.

On Monday, the city announced its three courses — Crescent Drive, Kildonan Park and Windsor Park — will open Friday.

Earlier in the day, Shooters Family Golf Centre, near the north perimeter, opened but did not allow players to ride power carts. Shooters and Southside Golf Course, in Grand Pointe, opened their respective driving ranges last week.

Outside of Winnipeg, golfers can tee it up at Lorette on Friday and as early as Saturday at Oakwood (Ste. Anne’s).

Winnipeg’s city-owned courses will open 15 days ahead of the 2023 season. It’s the earliest start since 2021 when they welcomed players on April 1. The three courses typically open around April 20.

Mild temperatures and limited snowfall throughout the winter paved the way for an early opening, said Ben Fey, general manager of golf services. As of Monday afternoon, nearly all the snow on the courses had melted after temperatures climbed into double digits over the weekend.

“We kind of suspected late last week that Friday (April 12) was going to be in play and we just wanted to see how things progressed over the weekend, and we were happy with that, so we’re good to go,” Fey told the Free Press Monday.

“At Kildonan (Park), for example, there’s not a lot of tree cover, the course is generally pretty flat and it has really good drainage. It’s actually really dry.”

Fey cautioned there is some standing water that will need to be pumped out ahead of Friday and golfers will need to navigate some saturated areas and softer grounds, which will be clearly roped off.

“We’re ready to open, we don’t want to hold them back,” he said. “We’ll be offering spring rates as sort of a gesture toward what the conditions are.”

It’s a different story in other parts of the city. Most tracks are still frozen solid and are a few steps away from welcoming players.

“We’re a ways away from that,” said Scott Parker, general manager at Rossmere Country Club, in northeast Winnipeg. “We’re not projecting anytime soon.”

Rossmere typically opens the last week of April, though, the last two years winters have produced later starts in May.

Parker said he needs to see some consistency in the weather forecast before preparing the course.

“You need staff, you need to see some warm weather in the future when you do open,” he said. “If it’s opening one day because it’s plus-20 degrees and then two days later it’s a high of seven degrees and rain … there’s no sense bringing all your staff in and sitting around just in case some people decide to show up.”

Beyond the city, Grand Pines still has substantial snow around the course and is shooting for the first week of May. Maplewood Golf Club in St Pierre-Jolys is looking at April 27.

Each course abides by a different philosophy when looking to open for the year, said Alex Edney, GM at Maplewood. He wants the snow gone completely, but more importantly, the fairways to be dry in order to withstand the power-cart traffic.

“If it’s wet out there and you put power carts out there, you’re doing irreparable damage for your whole season,” he said.

Bel Acres, about 15 minutes north of Winnipeg, could open as early as April 20 but a later date is more likely.

GM Robin Henderson said the grounds crew likes to cut the grass at least once before the season begins and needs dry grass in order to do so.

“You need heat. You need lots of heat to get the grass growing. Also, you don’t want to put people out there when there’s still frost on the ground,” Henderson said. “You really want to get some nice hot days and not go below zero at night. That gets the frost out of the ground and everything starts to grow.

While the mild winter boded well for courses, Henderson warned the thick layer of ice produced in March may have set some courses back.

“I think everyone in the industry was a little concerned with the ice. Even in the winter time, grass still needs to have oxygen and if you get a solid layer of ice, it’s not getting that oxygen and that causes snow mould and desiccation,” he said.

“This was kind of a recipe for disaster but so far from what we’ve seen, everything looks really good.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam