SASKATOON – Golf enthusiasts took advantage of the greens this past season in and around Saskatoon. Here’s a general overview of how golf courses did as golfers put away their clubs for the winter.
The director of recreation and sport for the City of Saskatoon, Lynne Lacroix, said the three civic golf courses – Holiday Park, Silverwood and Wildwood – did very well in 2015.
“Overall, it was a good year. In the middle of the summer, some challenges with smoke which I think most golf courses faced this summer. So we did see a bit of a downturn in some of the later part of June into early July with that,” said Lacroix.
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The challenges were the smoke issues from wildfires in northern Saskatchewan which curbed some play and a couple rainy weekends, particularly the September long weekend.
As of Tuesday, total rounds at the three courses tallied in at 121,735. In 2014, there were 114,982 rounds sold. This works out to an increase of about 6 per cent.
Wildwood is the only municipal course still open. Its’ last day open will be Thursday.
“It is a game that you can play until you’re going to the underside of the soil,” said Lacroix.
“Golfing is a sport for life, everyone should try it.”
Moon Lake Golf and Country Club will remain open for the season until Sunday, Nov. 1.
“2015 went really well actually, it’s kind of looking like it might be one of our best years to date,” said Bobbi Brandon, head golf professional at Moon Lake.
Round-wise, Brandon expects they’ll be close to 40,000 in 2015, which is up.
“A lot of different components go into that and one I’d say is our course was in really good shape this year. Last year, we saw a little bit of issues with our greens and water issues,” said Brandon.
There was alkaline in Moon Lake’s water source which is not conducive for growing grass, according to Brandon.
“The quality of the water at our course, so we were able to deal with that and fix that last year and by the end of the year, things had turned around with our greens and we were hopeful for this season and everything went well,” said Brandon.
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Greenbryre Golf & Country Club opened six holes in June 2014 and then another six at the end of July 2014. This year, all 12 holes were open to customers for the start of the season.
General manager and head golf professional at Greenbryre, Brad Vinnick, says 2015 exceeded his expectations.
“To get restarted after closing for three years so a lot of the patrons that we had back in 2011 and prior, 85 per cent – 95 per cent of them rejoined in our leagues which was really good and we did probably over 100 company and corporate golf tournaments,” said Vinnick.
“The biggest challenge I guess is with 12 holes, which is a new concept, is the pace of play and there are still some traditionalists that want to play 18 so we book an extra cross-over time for them.”
Greenbryre closed on Oct. 18 and staff will be preparing the greens for an even better course to be enjoyed next season.
“People will see change coming out here over the next few years on the maturity of the golf course,” said Vinnick.
Dakota Dunes Golf Links closed on Oct. 18. They hosted another PGA Tour Canada event this past summer and expect to open their new clubhouse in May 2016.
Head professional at the Willows Golf & Country Club Brennen Gee says they closed this past weekend and expects their 36-hole course to have done similar to last year’s 46,000 rounds. Gee noted that there was still snow on the fairways in May the two previous years.
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