Optimism Runs High Over Early Openings For Northern Alberta Golf Courses
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2021-04-01
By GORD MONTGOMERY, Inside Golf
SPRUCE GROVE, Alberta — If you live in the Edmonton area, or anywhere north of the capital city in Alberta, then your 2021 golf season most likely falls into one of three categories at this time of year: 1) It’s already started and then stopped; 2) It’s close to starting, or; 3) It’s not going to start for a few more weeks.
Such are the inconsistent and unpredictable weather patterns in this part of Wild Rose Country, where one day it can be 15°C with sunshine and light breezes and the next, minus-20°C with the windchill and a blanket of snow covering fairways and greens. But, when you’ve lived here long enough, you get used to it.
In a random telephone survey of nine golf courses either close to Edmonton or scattered further north and west, the opening dates for golf playgrounds were as scattered as the tee shots of a +30-handicapper on a tight, narrow course. Those dates ranged anywhere from opening in a day or two to a month or so, leaving Northern Albertans looking longingly at their southern cousins who have been out chasing birds for the past few weeks (although their play was halted by a massive winter storm in late March).
Near Edmonton, at The Ranch Golf & Country Club, Murray McCourt noted they were open for business earlier than ever before. “The earliest we’d ever opened prior... was April 2nd,” he commented. And as the first course in this part of the province to welcome the public back for another season, it didn’t take long to turn the available tee times into cash.
“It was under five minutes,” the executive pro proclaimed about selling off two days of times, 90 slots in total, in less time than it takes to complete one hole of golf. “We’re not starting until 11 a.m. because of the cool weather (at night). We’re being cautious with that.”
While The Ranch did jump off to an early start, that was quickly halted when Mother Nature decided to tee up what’s hoped is her last big drive of the year. On Opening Day, snow delayed tee times by an hour, but everyone who’d booked a slot was able to get their round in. Then, after a full day of fun the next day, things turned ugly and forced the closure of the course for at least two days.
Despite that stoppage they were the lucky ones. As you moved around the province, even at courses close to The Ranch, things are in a holding pattern for the time being.
At the Stony Plain Golf Course, they're being especially cautious about jumping the gun to uncover their newly replaced putting surfaces, executive professional Jeff Cuthbertson explained. That being said, it’s hoped they can swing into action a bit earlier than usual given the nice weather — at least up until recently — Alberta had experienced.
“You know what, at the moment we haven’t,” he said of setting an opening date. “We’re normally somewhere between seven and 10 days behind The Ranch. I’m hopeful we’re up and running by the end of the first week of April at this point,” coming close to chasing down the date of April 6, their earliest start time since Cuthbertson has been in charge which is now six years. “We’ve still got our tarps on the greens,” because of below zero temps at night, “so because of that we haven’t been in a big hurry to get them off.”
Just down the road, The Links at Spruce Grove is also taking a cautious approach to starting anew, even though for the most part their fairways are (or at least were) clear of snow. There, the executive professional, Pierre Beauchemin, said things were coming along well and the first green fee players may hit the grassy slopes in short order.
“Hopefully soon. Hopefully later next week we could possibly open,” he said of maybe, just maybe, having folks planting tees sometime around April 2 or 3. “My first year here, in 1998, we opened March 30th,” Beauchemin said of what he recalls as the earliest start time at this course. “We won’t be the earliest but pretty close for sure.”
In Edson, about two hours west of The Ranch G&CC, they’re looking at a lengthy wait to tee another season up, said head professional Rick Thompson. “It was looking good last week, but we just got a big dump of snow,” he explained, prior to the latest blast of winter weather hitting the area. “It looks like January out there right now! Normally we open up the first week in May, but we have opened earlier in the past. Everybody was getting excited on the phone,” he continued. “ ‘When’s the driving range opening? When’s the golf course opening?’ It was looking good last week but after this dump of snow, I don’t know.”
In Barrhead, which is becoming a popular hangout off the beaten path for many Edmonton-area golfers, new head professional Kevin Lynes said they’re also pondering how long it’s going to take for the grass to finally show up.
“We’re just waiting to see what Mother Nature does,” he said. “We’ve got 60 inches of snow on most of the golf course. You drive 10 minutes south of here and it’s bare,” he noted of this area getting walloped a few times by winter weather where others didn’t. “It’ll depend on if we get some rain and stuff. We’re telling people if we get some weather, we might be looking at April 15th,” which is slightly ahed of the usual first day which generally falls sometime in the third week of April.
Way up north, golfers are patiently waiting for winter to disappear and green grass to appear, said two men, Jason Vaughan, the head pro at the Miskanaw GC in Fort McMurray and Bob Martens, the Director of Golf at the Grande Prairie G&CC. To put this in golf terms, members there are looking at long, long par-5 hole where it takes a driver, a couple of fairway woods, a mid-iron or two and then a wedge to reach the green, or in this case, the hoped-for opening date.
“Well, we’re still a little ways away,” Vaughan understated. “We’ve actually still got quite a bit of snow on the golf course and the last five or six days, we’ve gotten a little skiff each night. To be fair, I wouldn’t say we’re ahead of the game,” like his counterparts down south. “I’d say we open the range in the middle of April and the golf course somewhere around the 25th of April. We’re on pace for that but the weather can change.”
To be fair, Fort McMurray is way up north so it can take quite a bit longer for the remnants of winter to disappear. However, there was one memorable start date, Vaughan noted. “We opened April 15th a couple of seasons ago and I think that was one of the earliest openings ever,” so it’s just a matter of being patient for now, way up north.
In Grande Prairie, things are at about the same stage as in McMurray, Martens explained about their opening day. “We got a pretty good dump of snow over the last couple of days, three or four inches, and it’s supposed to snow again this weekend so I don’t know when we’re going to be open.”
That being said, there is still optimism up north. “Hopefully, I think it will be a lot earlier than last year (which of course was delayed by pandemic restrictions). This year, we’re looking at the twentieth of April range. We opened May 9th last year. Normally, we’re kind of, over-under, May 30th, April one, in there. I’d say we have an equal number of days with a late April opening as we do an early May opening. It’s typically a week before, a week after. That I’d say, is the norm. We’ve had a pretty nice winter. I’m not saying optimistically the twentieth of April; I think that’s realistic.”
Back to the south and then east of Edmonton, the folks at the fantastic Coal Creek Golf Resort are being patient. After all, they had some of the best course conditions in this part of the province last year, so they don’t want to get things going too early and ruin what’s become a popular playpen for many.
“We’d rather wait and bit and protect the grass on the putting surfaces and fairways,” said head pro Jerry Lukasewich. “We don’t want to damage things for the rest of the season just to open for a couple of days. We’ll see what the weather does, remembering it’s still March in Alberta. You always risk taking the tarps off too early,” so the best guess scenario for him is the week after Easter at the earliest. The earliest this rural track has swung into action is April 18th. “So even if we open April 9th, it would still be the earliest for us. Typically we’re a little behind other courses but whenever, it’s going to be an early year for us.”
That last comment seems to be the consensus of most northern Alberta courses who are hoping for an early start to what promises to be another busy season. And who knows, with the hope this latest blast of winter snow, wind and cold was the last for a long while, most courses are ready to get things underway, as soon as possible, for the 2021 season.
RedTail Landing, Sandpiper, and Raven Crest, all in Edmonton are all opening on April 1 ... no foolin’!