A green winter for golf courses
The same fickle weather that melted the snow-skiing season bestowed a radiant glow on area golf courses, which were packed with summer-like crowds over the weekend.
While the greens weren’t green, the skies were blue and the temperatures hovered in the mid-50s.
“It has been great. I’ve played twice a month almost all winter long. This has just been gorgeous,” said Richard Baird of Newman Lake, as he waited to play a round at MeadowWood Golf Course on Saturday.
More than a month of sunny, dry weather has allowed many courses to open early and created an unseasonable cash windfall that could translate into extra money for course improvements, if the rest of the season pans out.
Golfers played 3,100 rounds of golf in February at Prairie Falls Golf Club in Post Falls, said Darrell Hull, a golf pro there. The course is averaging about 100 players a day.
“We’ve probably turned away about 50 to 60 groups today (Saturday) because we didn’t have any room,” Hull said.
For the past few weeks, MeadowWood, a county-owned Liberty Lake golf course, has received nonstop phone calls from golfers asking when they could play.
Since opening on Thursday, the course has had peak-season crowds. The crowds are creating a jam for weekend tee times as they try to squeeze in rounds during short spring days with about one-third of the courses still unopened, said head pro Bob Scott.
“We’re just packed. With the weather, I’m booked out where people with actual tee times can’t even play the full time,” Scott said. “It’s a nice problem to have because the demand is exceeding supply by twofold.”
The only thing preventing some shady courses from opening, Scott explained, is hard overnight frosts, which freeze the ground and make it hard to cut cups, which serve as holes.
“The frost isn’t leaving and that’s the biggest problem right now,” Scott said. “If you can’t cut the cups, you can’t play the golf course.”
Although most driving ranges are open, some courses aren’t completely playable yet.
Creek at Qualchan, a city course, opened this weekend for golfing on the front nine holes.
Downriver Golf Course is expected to open next week and Indian Canyon Golf Course will open later.
County-owned Hangman Valley Golf Course should open next week.
At Esmeralda Golf Course, which opened late-January, weekend tee times were booked by Saturday morning, with the exception of two Sunday openings.
“It’s not unusual for us to have some rounds in January and February, but we haven’t had a bad day and that’s unusual. In the short-term, it’s helping us a lot,” said golf pro Rex Schultz.
The early spring lured Ryan Reding and his two young sons, Connor, 7, and Andy, 5, to MeadowWood’s driving range on Saturday.
“It’s unbelievable. For the 12 years I’ve lived here, I don’t remember a spring like this,” said Reding, of Liberty Lake.
Like veteran golfers, young Connor is looking to improve his game.
“I like to practice shots and I’m getting a little better. Every time I hit it a little farther and farther,” Connor said.
Ron Ridl, general manager of Painted Hills, a year-round course in Spokane Valley, said crowds come out every spring, but usually snow and a messy thaw cause the course to shut down for a few days.
However, even less friendly temperatures find a diehard crowd teeing off, he said.
“We’ve had crowds on Christmas Day out here before.”