No ifs, ands or putts. Golfers are taking advantage of the opening weekend for many of the courses in Southern Alberta.
“The weather is definitely better than it has been the past couple of months,” said Caleb Sproule, a local golfer. “Feeling excited, a little jittery first day of the opening. But feeling pretty good.”
The first round at Paradise Canyon teed off at noon on Friday, March 15, with an early start to the season.
“Historically, if you looked at all the averages of when we’ve opened it’s kind of March 15 to end of March is normal. So, we’re definitely excited for this year,” said Jae Maegaard, the head golf professional at Paradise Canyon.
“This is the earliest it’s been in a while.”
Henderson Lake is set to open Saturday, with tee sheets filling up quickly as they make last-minute preparations to welcome players.
“Especially this time of year we’re going to see some people from northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C. You know, their courses aren’t open for probably another couple weeks to a month,” explained Cam Waldbauer, head golf professional at Henderson Lake.
“When we get going, we see some new faces from different areas, which is great to see.”
Just outside of Lethbridge, Land-O-Lakes in Coaldale is already in full swing according to manager Leonard Hunter.
“Well, we opened up on Tuesday and everyone was chomping at the bit to get going. Everybody’s happy to be out here and yeah, it’s going to be a good season,” said Hunter.
Meanwhile, golfers on the course share their excitement to get out on the green.
“We came down from Calgary, usually come down opening weekend every year,” said Brad Lambert. “We’ve all been playing winter league, so we’ve been itching. So, we’re here today and Paradise tomorrow.”
While the sun and warm temperatures are anticipated to stick around over the next few days, snow looks to return in the forecast next week, which could put some courses on hold.