Course operators look forward to February golf

KELOWNA — Forget the groundhog, hardcore golfers are the new harbinger of spring. At least at Kelowna Springs Golf Club and some other Central Okanagan golf courses where agreeable weather is allowing for the earliest opening some courses have ever seen.

“This is unheard of in 20 years,” Ian Robertson, general manager of Kelowna Springs, marvelled. “Our average opening is March 22. Our earliest opening was March 5. This is two weeks ahead of that.”

While there’s still a few traces of the latest big snow dump in his parking lot, Robertson said his greens and fairways are mostly dry and in the type of shape he would normally expect mid-March. 

“That’s if you’re lucky. It’s kind of scary,” he said. "We joke about the f-word in the industry. To us that's February golf."

He said the course would open without bar or restaurant service and would primarly appeal to his hardcore customers and those from other courses that have yet to open.

"Those people typically don’t care about that stuff,” Robertson added. “We’ll have pop from the cooler and chips, same as we would in the fall near closing.”

Right now he’s only committing to the weekend but if the course remains dry and the weather holds, which it is expected to, Robertson said he and other course operators could open up again the following weekend.

“We can flip it on and off,” he said. “We will literally decide Sunday about opening Monday. If it snows again, it’s no big deal, we shut it down again."

To contact the reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infotelnews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelanews.ca or call 250-718-2724.